Totally agree, and I wouldn't have it any other way. I suppose I'm a bit of a strange case on HN, in that I'm coming to programming from being a film composer, i.e. I've pretty much always been freelance, and so working as a "real" employee is infinitely weird to me even at the best of times. I worked at a large corporation one time, and while I loved the work and my co-workers, the subtle office politics, the whole idea of a "culture," the routine day in and day out...it just did not vibe with me. I'm not totally against going back to being a W2 employee, but it would take an awful lot to convince me.

Like others in this thread, the reality that work is primarily a simple transaction of time for money, coupled with my experience being a "real" employee, has ingrained in me the understanding that, if you want to protect yourself as a worker, being at "arms length" as you put it is the way. At least for me.

I am a company of one (literally and figuratively). Unfortunately that's the logical endpoint of companies not feeling any loyalty towards their employees. So be it, I embrace it, because what else is there to do?

Is one supposed to be anything but a mercenary? Should I believe in the product for the sake of making the CEO a billionaire?

People should care iff they are given meaningful equity, as in life changing, otherwise they should be professional, like accountants and lawyers, but jump ship whenever it’s convenient.

I don't know that "should" is the right word. It's possible and reasonably common in software to obtain career fulfillment beyond simply making a lot of money; I don't think you have some moral obligation to do that, but you should understand that other people do and that this is why they may have work style preferences which seem strange or confusing to you.

I'm more than mercenary for my family, friends, co-religionists, and above all – god. But yeah, I don't care a bit about my boss, and "co-workers".

Football players are mercenaries but they still work synchronously with teamlmates.

I've been working remotely for years, and for companies that literally didn't have offices to work from. Everyone was 100% remote, and I can assure you that didn't have any impact whatsoever on people's passion for their work or the company they worked for.

I've seen people in an office not give a damn (literally doing a phone interview for a position at a different company at his desk), and totally remote people probably care a little too much, and everything in-between.

Your comment is definitely centralized in a US mindset but I promise you can still have rights as an employee and not have some much company culture stuff at other companies outside of the US. Being 1099 contractor has too much exposure to risk as an employee IME.

> Because let’s be honest, the reason most of these folks are doing this is because they don’t give a crap about the specific company or anything like that. They just want to build cool shit that other people spec out.

I do not build cool stuff everyday that other people spec out and wouldn’t consider my job being a developer these days. I would say I very much care and like the company I work for. The people that spec out things can also work remotely.

> As long as the pay is competitive one day they might be building a healthcare mobile app, another day an online car dealership portal.

I work in Cybersecurity and very much have a preference on what I work on and who I work for. I also have a strong preference on working remotely and having employment rights or benefits.

I disagree. Y team sits in Montreal. Not my choice but I'm fine with it

I'm not less dedicated to my current company than before COVID.