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Tech workers react to UPS drivers landing a $170,000 a year package with a mixture of anger and admiration
(www.businessinsider.com)
this post was submitted on 10 Aug 2023
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To people who think they "don't deserve it" - if their job is so easy, why don't you get off your ass in your nice air conditioned office and do it yourself?
Actually, I did do it. I was in IT for 20 years, 10 of it doing tech support. Now I deliver mail. Best decision of my life. And it is surprisingly easy for someone with a tech background. Sure, there's a lot of physical labour involved. And winters suck with the massive increase in Christmas parcels and mail on top of the shitty weather. But summers are light and I'm outdoors most of the day.
EDIT: for clarity
The sad part is that I had to leave a 20 year IT career to find this job which will eventually lead to a 6 figure salary. By the time I left IT, my wage had stagnanted for a decade and I couldn't see any path to 6 figures. It's not that delivery drivers don't deserve that kind of salary...we do for the work during the crunch times. It's that IT workers deserve a union that will back them up and get them that salary.
If I'm up at 2am fixing a crashed server before the 6am reports are generated, and I still put in a full day the next day to do the post-mortem analysis, I deserve more than some encouraging words and a half day at some point in the future that I'll never have the chance to take.
I think all workers deserve a union that gets them all they can get. The problem is that unions are the workers. Organising labour has been a struggle for decades. I just hope hearing about things like this invites others to take note and organise their workplace too.
There's a book coming out very soon on this subject that sounds pretty interesting: https://abookapart.com/products/you-deserve-a-tech-union
Oof. This is exactly what I am going through right now.
So it sure sounds like you're saying they don't deserve it lol
It's really not, as evident by the statement immediately after that you left out.
The sad part was that I wasted at least 10 years of my life trying to achieve something that I eventually had to accept was never going to happen. I think I deserved a 6 figure salary for the work I was doing in IT. Other people had achieved it doing the same work. But after the last layoff and not being able to find something that wasn't pure tech support for less money that I had been making before, I had to make a difficult decision. And that decision is going to finally lead to the salary I want.
But what you're saying is "they don't deserve it, I do!"
You're literally saying it's "sad" that delivery jobs will lead to a 6 figure salary i.e. they don't deserve it.
As if this is a zero sum game.
Again, it's really not.
Everyone deserves the same chance for reward for doing the same work. Everyone.
Then why is it sad that delivery drivers will get a 6 figure salary?
Again...
I had to leave a 20 year IT career in order to get what I was looking for. Delivery drivers deserve every last cent they fought for. It's just a shame that IT works don't have someone fighting for them collectively.
Again
Why. Is. It. Sad. That. Delivery. Drivers. Get. A. Six. Figure. Salary.
Nothing else you're saying takes away from the fact that you literally said this.
I've edited my comment for clarity.
Seriously, stop focusing on your misinterpretation of a single statement...
That's all I wanted! When you make a communication error, correct it. Don't just argue about it lol
I repeatedly clarified my position. I wasn't arguing about it, I was correcting your misinterpretation.
No, you accused me of misinterpreting what you said by leaving things out, but that's not what happened. The quote I was drilling down on clearly said one thing, even though you meant another, but instead of just saying "oops, what I meant was" you came at me!
I was just telling you what you sounded like. "Evident". It wasn't evident, it was poorly phased.
Right. You couldn't get past your misinterpretation of a single statement, and ignored everything afterwards that clarified that statement. If you feel that I "came at you", that again is a misinterpretation. You're being confrontational. And I'm ending this now.
I didn't misinterpret shit. I interpreted it the only way it could be read. You miscommunicated.
I don’t know if they still do it, or if it’s as lucrative as it used to be, but back in the 80’s when we were around 18-20 years old my brother and I both got 6-week jobs at UPS over the holiday rush as drivers assistants. Between the decent hourly rate and the huge amount of overtime we made a ton of money. But it was a hell of a grind. We’d start at 7 am with a truck packed literally to the gills with packages. We’d get it all delivered then meet up with another truck, load up our delivery truck again, then repeat the process. We didn’t finish most of those days until around 8pm or so…