It's not our job to fix our employers

Summary

The presenter argues that employees—especially software developers—are not responsible for fixing toxic employers or repairing the technology industry. Workers can advocate for better conditions, but protecting their health and ability to function should come first.

Key Arguments and Business Implications

• Technology’s public reputation has shifted. The presenter says many people have moved from viewing tech as a force for progress to seeing it as an industry that manipulates the public and makes things worse—“the new tobacco.” This shift can reduce sympathy for tech workers facing burnout or job insecurity.
• Workers’ experiences vary. Some entered the industry when it seemed to offer social value; others deliberately avoided work they considered harmful, such as advertising. The presenter cautions against assuming every tech worker is responsible for the industry’s worst practices.
• Unions can protect workers, but they cannot repair a broken company. Collective bargaining may improve safety, fairness, and leverage in disputes. But it cannot, by itself, change an abusive strategy, eliminate micromanagement, or reform a discriminatory manager.
• Industry-level problems have broader causes. The presenter attributes deteriorating software work conditions to forces beyond workplace disputes, including policy changes, broader economic pressures, financial bubbles, and deregulation.
• Employee well-being is a practical priority. If a workplace is harming someone’s health, the presenter recommends seeking an exit while they still have the capacity to do so. Employees cannot contribute to broader change if they have been pushed to the point of being unable to function.

Frameworks and Examples

• Distinguish worker protection from company reform. Treat unions as a way to make work safer and fairer, not as a mechanism that will necessarily detoxify an employer.
• Retail analogy. A union may help a worker facing abusive management and disposable-employee policies. It will not necessarily change a retailer’s treatment of customers or suppliers, even though those business practices can also affect employees.
• European unionization as a counterexample. The presenter notes that software workplaces in several European countries are unionized, yet workers there still face layoffs, pressure, fewer opportunities for junior developers, and changes to the nature of the job.
• Prioritize personal sustainability. When work is damaging health or well-being, consider leaving rather than taking responsibility for fixing the employer.

Metrics and Trends Cited

• Icelandic union participation: Well over 90% of the workforce, and close to 98% in some sectors, according to the presenter.
• Software-sector trends: Ongoing layoffs, fewer opportunities for junior developers, increased use of large language models to make up for dismissed colleagues, and falling university computer science enrollment. No specific counts or timeframes are provided.

Presenter/source: Baldur Bjarnason