Do you feel psychological safety at your job?

Interestingly I’m a few years over 30 years info my tech career and it was avoid 10 years ago I could see the fnords at last. There is no safety, there never was. There’s no golden ring, there is no winning, there is no camaraderie, there is no value in promotion, the respect of your peers is meaningless, and it’s all just a sham to get you to expend more of your soul for less money. Once I had pierced the ceiling into ultra senior management of mega corps and was able to see how the system worked from top to bottom, it was obvious. The shared delusion is increasing apparent as you get more senior. You see yourself telling people to tell the lies knowing it’s a lie, and see the lie spread throughout the organization.

If you want material substance and human connection you have to take the lie of corporate life out of the equation, the lie of scarce seniority, the lie of compensation for merit, the lie of peer respect, the lie of all the various attachments and see reality for what it is. You may still keep doing the lies, I do, because they’re functionally useful and I’ve got financial commitments and need their money. But I know what it all is now, and my life is much richer for it.

If you seek that realizing you’ve been deceived by a massive shared illusion, you will find what you thought you had.

It’s a job dude. You sign the offer letter for 300k plus TC and you’re just a resource.

Do it well and you can leave any time you want for something else. You’re not forced to work for 300k lol. Just hop ship and make 400k.

You’re working for a capitalist machination. You want something deeper start your own company or do something else. These companies don’t care about you. The “cool tech” you build is just an icing on the cake to do what? Sell more ads? Exploit labor laws in poor countries? Exploit your own communities? Have teens harm themselves with awful programming and doom scrolling?

Wow really changing the world there.

Just my $0.02 as someone who lives in the real world.

Also pro tip you can make a lot of money not working in big tech. My job involves making sure people are safe and productive, not doing anything fucked up morally questionable that will make me lose my sleep at night. I make a bit less than what I’d make if I sold my soul to work at Meta or something.

Btw I’m sure people thought it was “cool” to work on the Death Star too.

Camaraderie is an illusion with management or your boss. We're not comrades, we're their subjects. We can have comradeship with our peers, of course, but that's unlikely to provide a safety net where none of us are unionized.

So no, I don't feel safe. I smile and say polite things when they mention how great the company is or how the sales are, or what a great year it will be!(how will any of this benefit me, besides more work) I consider this performative act part of what they pay me for, even if it is very painful. I'm not in a FAANG though, just slumming it.

I can guess which FAANG you're at. "psychological safety" has been floating around the office recently.

I mostly feel secure because (a) my ratings have been good, and more importantly (b) I don't think my team is going to get axed because we maintain a pretty core feature.

I think if you're in the bottom 6-8% or whatever they set the low ratings at, you're in danger. And if you're on a team that doesn't generate money/keep users on the app longer, you're in danger.

Neither of those apply to me, so I feel only very mild danger. Also, I just got my green card, so at least I won't get booted out of the country if they fire me now.

Downside is that there isn't much promo opportunity on my team either. If I want to be promoted based on technical ability instead of leadership/management (which I very much don't want, I'd have to switch to a more algorithm-heavy team but then (b) above might apply, and also I like my current team.

No camaraderie though. People don't properly communicate in general. A crapton of meetings, but no one goes out of their way to actually help eachother.

Two rules:

Rule #1: Have enough savings in your bank account to pay all your living expenses for at least one year. (Obviously easier said than done.)

Rule #2: Follow Rule #1. (If you do, you'll have time to figure everything else out. That might mean finding a new job.)

Man, my gut reaction to this stuff is growing less and less patient.

Hi, welcome to the left, or class solidarity if thats more palatable. Every time yall rolled your eyes at unions and labor protections?

Protip, a buncha people need to really internalize this -- your boss and management don't give a shit about you (certainly not in any tangible, meaningful way). You're not family and never were any more than my deadbeat dad was family because he made me do yardwork.

Yo, your boss totally is gonna "value you" more if you downvote me to satiate the cognitive dissonance! Lol I can't, I really can't.)

It's a bloody job. I have no right to a job. You have no right to a job. I just maintain and grow my skills and demonstrate my value as best I can until the day I'm no longer needed. Then on to the next thing. Psychological safety doesn't exist.

I’m not exactly sure what you mean by “psychologically safe”. Could you elaborate please?

I feel safe only because I'm not afraid of being fired. Not that it wouldn't happen, but that I'm confident I'd find an equally good job without any major pains or setbacks on the chance I am fired. A few months of searching is a slog for sure, but being afraid to do what I think is right at work wouldn't be worth avoiding it.

Anyone that's been in tech at the FAANG tier for two decades and doesn't have at least one to two years of runway not including retirement accounts is observably terrible at managing money.

nope. I spoke to HR regarding this after my manager threatened to fire the whole team and said we could not take vacation the entirety of next year. This was after repeated similar comments and hostility. I was promptly let go this week. So to be clear, don’t talk to HR either if you feel unsafe.

Job security does not exist, regardless of how well someone performs one’s job. Big Tech has had a good run. Those in the other sectors learned long ago that there isn’t any job security.

I think you might be too attached to your daily habits and routines.

I'm self-employed, but I've battled that feeling on longer jobs where I started to feel immense anxiety and almost a depression-like state when a job was coming to a close and I was just going to have to find something out.

Socializing with people helps, getting involved at my church and back when I was younger I would do things with my neighbors and that sort of thing.

Unless you're completely devoted to some mission at the corp you work for, always remember that you bring that money home to your family first, and everything else about work is secondary to that. It's likely you're not saving the world at work, and it's also likely (statistically, not based on you personally) that the company would survive if you were to disappear or quit.

It's tough though. It takes a distinct effort to acknowledge this and counteract it, but it is worth doing precisely because of what you're feeling now. It's scary to have your habits and routines and comforts threatened with change.

Not every change is good, not ever change is bad, not ever proposed change will always come to, and not every change is announced prior. What is certain, is that you must find a way forward in a world that changes every day, whether you like it or not.

Can you explain how specifically you feel unsafe psychologically? Sounds like a bloated term without context or specifics.

Lol, no. I have no plan other than tread water until my kids are older and I can retake my destiny into my own hands.

Use your benefits and get some therapy. It will help!

Have you been at the same company for your entire career? Sometimes moving companies helps develop resilience because you learn that your skills are still valued and transferrable.

It improves your self-esteem and your psychological safety to focus on things you control. And the only thing you control is you. This will help you accept uncertainty and go on living.

Outside of your self work the only thing you and your coworkers could unionize to help improve things for everyone.

Yes, I do, but I've worked at the same small (relative to a FAANG) company for over 12 years (20+ years working professionally). During that time I've proven myself have good ideas even when they are controversial, perform above average, and admit when I've been wrong or failed. I probably get paid less I could elsewhere, and there is probably some big fish in a small pond effect going on, but part of the the reason I stay is that one thing I don't have to worry about is psychological safety.

There are two bands: too junior to matter, and senior enough to be a replacement threat to an insecure boss.

When you're in either of those two bands, you're a layoff target.

I did not, so I took an offer at a different company.

https://www.amazon.com/Damaged-Life-Crisis-Psychology-Reviva...

The amount of derision and defensive comments is kind of interesting. There are two groups it's seems.

Yeah, it's hard and unless I am critical to operations or revenue I'm worried.

or 2 - what do you mean? Its work, nbd. Why should I.

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the latter seems like the kind of person who probably will be let go imo.

I am an American, so of course not.

25 years programming. Not sure I have ever felt psychologically unsafe. Just a job for me.

Yes but my manager makes it an absolute top priority. It takes a lot of work and other managers who were basically OK but balancing priorities ultimately let that safety get off the rails.

I feel psychological safety from my bank account, but I also get paid well. If you have enough money to bridge a year, worrying about job safety is irrational.

What does that even mean?

Do you mean "Do you feel like you're going to be fired?"

No, not at the moment...

Otherwise, please be more specific...

I reject the premise of the question.