Programmer's Sudden Death: Will Our Next Generation Face the Same Fate?
“Base salary of 3,000 yuan, 24-hour standby” – A 32-year-old programmer died suddenly on a weekend.
When I saw this news, my heart felt heavy. Such a young life lost just like that – it’s truly heartbreaking.
I saw that his wife would message him every day asking when he’d be coming home. The news reports say the earliest he’d return was close to 9:30 PM each night!
Helplessness – for most people, overtime work isn’t voluntary.
Irony – lies in the employment environment. If you don’t do it, you might not even get the base salary.
My thinking is: don’t let the next generation work this way. What is all the effort of generation after generation for? Isn’t it for our next generation to have a better life?
So, how can individuals try to avoid this as much as possible? Let me share my understanding:
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When looking for a company, within your capabilities, don’t choose companies with obvious overtime practices. Sometimes, even if the salary looks higher, when divided by total working hours, the hourly rate might actually be very low.
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The team you choose is also important, as is the leader. If the leader encourages overtime and lacks responsibility, it’s unlikely to end well. However, this is hard to choose proactively; you can only try to learn about it through multiple channels.
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You can gather information by checking company reviews, employee feedback, exchanges during interviews, etc. I can’t think of anything else, because individual power is too weak.
Starting from myself, I won’t choose companies with mismatched values, won’t engage in meaningless overtime, won’t let myself get burned out, and will try to influence those around me. Even though life is hard, don’t become an accelerator of the deteriorating work environment!
If the next generation still faces this, what is the point of our work? Just to have enough food, living like walking dead?