SWEs have a lot of bargaining power because at the moment, it is an occupation in hot demand. That's not qualitatively different from any number of highly-sought after professions throughout history. That's not really a fundamental disruption and itself will eventually be disrupted by market forces. What we see is the summer before the fall.

> Perhaps we already have disrupted the traditional employer<->employee power dynamic

Care to describe what disruption happened and how? Software developers contracts seem pretty similar to any other office worker.

The only big change in employment in the last 15 years happened outside of software development: the gig/sharing economy.

And it's a huge step backwards.

> Most office workers do not get options

1) Plenty of people in finance, lawyers, and so on have high salary and excellent conditions. Many had highly paid jobs in the same fields 50 years ago. This is nothing close with "disrupting the traditional employer<->employee power dynamic".

2) An this point it's really difficult to assume that you are arguing in good faith.

Most office workers do not get options or RSUs in their company. Most office workers cannot set a flag on their LinkedIn profile that says "looking for work", get hounded by recruiters, and land another job, with higher pay, a stock grant, and signing bonus, and start the new job next month.

> Most office workers cannot set a flag on their LinkedIn profile that says "looking for work", get hounded by recruiters, and land another job, with higher pay, a stock grant, and signing bonus, and start the new job next month.

It's nice to have your role in high demand, but all good things must come to an end.