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Comment by zwaps | Hacker News Reader

I will (and have) happily worked 80 hours per week, if you compensate me.

Instead, my real wage has decreased this year. Of course, this means I substitute free time for work. My work time budget has been reduced.

Since real wages have been falling consistently for most workers (US Swe excepted maybe) this should not be surprising.

Profits are up, real wages and wealth share of younger workers decrease. Who is to say which causal direction this has with work time? Back in the day, sinking in all that free time paid off. Now it pays off less.

For me, it has nothing to do with ambition. Sad to see that many decision makers are apparently wrong on this.

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Better not job hop to make up that lost income though. That makes you untrustworthy.

Most CV's I come across now average 18 month stints before a bump in level and change in company.

That is not them being untrustworthy, it's signalling that they will move if they are not recognised for their work and growth.

Generally it takes 3-6 months to get productive at a new role, another 6 months to generally show competency / growth, and the last 6 months is spent waiting for recognition that you are willing to move up.

Unfortunately the most common growth structures dictate that people need to "act" as if they're in a more senior role already, alongside doing their existing one, and maybe they might get the title and salary bump. Often they don't, or are promised at their next review. Most just move.

If there's a group of 3-6 month (or shorter) spots, then I'm certainly asking about the work that happened during those.

> Unfortunately the most common growth structures dictate that people need to "act" as if they're in a more senior role already, alongside doing their existing one, and maybe they might get the title and salary bump.

This policy was explicit at my first corporate job, and it was a major contributor to my decision to work for myself.

Imagine a system where an employee is identified as a candidate for a higher position and tentatively promoted to it to see if they can adjust to the role. Sadly it seems the only place this system exists is the role of startup founder.

Something that’s missed in this analysis is that there have to be two elements in place for a promotion. As you’ve identified the person looking to move up needs to be ready for it (I’m fully with you on it being BS to expect them to be doing the job already).

On the other side there needs to be a position for them to move into - there isn’t an infinite number of Senior/Lead Developer jobs available in any given company, and typically the ones available are already filled. You’ll have a better chance at a large company where there are other teams you can transfer to, but then you’re dealing with the increased bureaucracy around that.

Elon Musk's real wage decreased $200B this year. Regression to the mean hits all of us. You were being paid in funny money. The real economy post-Covid is much smaller than it was before Covid, unless masks and test kits and vaccines give you as much utility as food and cars and video games.

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