On February 18th, Kickstarter became the first well known tech company to unionize (article here). As somebody whose professional career has always been in technology, I rejoiced, as I’m sure many others did.
I find it interesting that trigger that pushed Kickstarter’s employees to unionize was the decision to cancel a campaign, rather than working conditions. Typically, trade unions engage in collective bargaining related to wages, benefits, and working conditions, rather than a management decision on satire. And that’s where I would see a benefit to unions for tech employees.
As a tech worker, with one exception, I have always been a salaried (or “exempt” – from overtime) worker. While union workers in the private sector are typically paid more, that’s not what I would look for from a union – tech workers are typically well-paid. But we are paid the same whether we work a 40-hour week, a 60-hour week, or an 80-hour week.
What if you work a 30-hour week, you ask? Well, in that case, you’re expected to use vacation time. But those extra 20 or 40 hours a week… are effectively unpaid. And they’re common… ask your friends in IT how many hours they work each week. Pause while they check their phone for the latest work e-mail, because we are always connected now. (But they’re not in the office, it doesn’t really count, right?)
If you’re lucky, you might be given a “free” vacation day to make up for the overtime, like when I worked an entire weekend for a system launch and got… one day. Or that 80-hour work week… no, wait, I received no days off or financial recompense for those extra 40 hours. And that was the beginning of 18 consecutive days in the office during a “hell project.”
As a disclaimer, the company I work for now is awesome in allowing employees to balance work and life, so I’m definitely not complaining about my current position. But management at many companies forgets that we are, in fact, employee humans, who need the time off, particularly in positions where we’re expected to be mentally engaged most of the time. I can assure you, my programming wasn’t up to par by the time I hit my twelfth hour at work, and I usually spent some time the next morning reviewing my code wondering what in the world I had been thinking.
I think Kickstarter unionizing is a good first step. Who’s next?