An Open Letter to Sheryl Sandberg from a Twenty-Something Woman in Tech

Re:An Open Letter to Sheryl Sandberg from a Twenty-Something... by wavesounds on Thursday December 19, 2013 @01:30PM (#6936622)

This is the best post I've read on HN in 2013.

Our industry has a real problem with work life balance, this is why there aren't more women in tech. Because they are smarter then us and they realize its a bum deal.

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Re:An Open Letter to Sheryl Sandberg from a Twenty-Something... by arasmussen on Thursday December 19, 2013 @01:42PM (#6936728)

You're joking right? Is this sarcasm? Work life balance? A bum deal? We get paid a six figure salary on top of getting fed breakfast, lunch, and dinner on a daily basis to work lazily for realistically 6-7 hours a day and then head home with more hours of free time per day than our friends in other industries (finance, medicine, law, you name it) have who are making half a tech salary or working twice the hours.

I don't know about you but I am thankful every day of my life that I was interested in tech because otherwise I wouldn't have been able to enjoy the insanely comfortable life we have.

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Re:An Open Letter to Sheryl Sandberg from a Twenty-Something... by wavesounds on Thursday December 19, 2013 @01:44PM (#6936737)

Don't know where your working. To get ahead a most companies I know of, working 60 hour weeks is a given. Thats why they provide free food and stuff, so you can spend as much time as possible working.

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Re:An Open Letter to Sheryl Sandberg from a Twenty-Something... by aianus on Thursday December 19, 2013 @02:21PM (#6937099)

Why do you need to get ahead when the entry-level salary is already more than one can realistically spend improving their happiness?

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Re:An Open Letter to Sheryl Sandberg from a Twenty-Something... by pm90 on Thursday December 19, 2013 @02:29PM (#6937165)

Why does Apple need to charge price stuff so high when the profits it makes is already more than what it can realistically spend on improving its investors happiness?

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Re:An Open Letter to Sheryl Sandberg from a Twenty-Something... by aianus on Thursday December 19, 2013 @02:48PM (#6937305)

I would assume the management team at Apple finds their work highly fulfilling or they would have quit a long time ago (certainly they can afford to).

I'm merely pointing out that if you don't find 60h weeks at your job fulfilling, it doesn't make much sense to chase more work and more responsibilities when the marginal utility of a dollar is pretty shitty past ~$100k anyways.

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Re:An Open Letter to Sheryl Sandberg from a Twenty-Something... by carriemelissa on Thursday December 19, 2013 @01:48PM (#6936782)

You sound like a dude to me. Women can't half-ass their way through tech jobs like that. I don't know a single woman who does.

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[deleted]

Re:An Open Letter to Sheryl Sandberg from a Twenty-Something... by enraged_camel on Thursday December 19, 2013 @02:08PM (#6936976)

There's nothing sexist about what she said. The work life and general lifestyle you're describing is much more true for men than for women.

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Re:An Open Letter to Sheryl Sandberg from a Twenty-Something... by pm90 on Thursday December 19, 2013 @02:32PM (#6937202)

I would like you to imagine the gender roles reversed in the statement you just made and see how it sounds.

While your statement may be true, it is also true that its sexist.

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Re:An Open Letter to Sheryl Sandberg from a Twenty-Something... by carriemelissa on Thursday December 19, 2013 @06:03PM (#6938615)

Definitely didn't intend for it to come off that way, sorry about that. What I meant was that he doesn't seem to see how hard women have to work to be taken seriously. I've never heard a woman say working in tech is relaxed and easy.

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Re:An Open Letter to Sheryl Sandberg from a Twenty-Something... by vezzy-fnord on Thursday December 19, 2013 @01:50PM (#6936803)

Yes, because every tech company is either Google or Facebook. Absolutely.

"Tech" is an insanely broad classification in the first place. You're in a very distinct minority of it.

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Re:An Open Letter to Sheryl Sandberg from a Twenty-Something... by theorique on Thursday December 19, 2013 @07:25PM (#6939023)

Most tech companies do this nowadays. They have all raised the bar because of the well-publicized workplace benefits of the Googles and Facebooks.

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Re:An Open Letter to Sheryl Sandberg from a Twenty-Something... by MrZongle2 on Thursday December 19, 2013 @04:16PM (#6937947)

We get paid a six figure salary on top of getting fed breakfast, lunch, and dinner on a daily basis to work lazily...

Six figure salary? "Lazily"?

I'm sorry, on which planet are these options available?

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Re:An Open Letter to Sheryl Sandberg from a Twenty-Something... by asdasf on Thursday December 19, 2013 @02:02PM (#6936932)

You're joking right? Is this sarcasm? I dunno who you think this "we" is, but 99% of software people are not part of it. Hell, you even contradict your own fantasy tale, how are you getting fed 3 meals a day if you are only working 8 hour days?

My friends in other industries work 40 hour weeks and make just as much as I do. Hell, I know a plumber and an electrician who both make more than I do, and they both work less than 40 hours a week. I am being pressured into working evenings, weekends and all through christmas to meet an arbitrary deadline while they keep adding more features to be finished by that deadline. Step outside of your little bubble and look around at the rest of the world, it isn't your fantasy.

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