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Family of MSFT employee who died warn tech companies not to overwork workers

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134 points christhecaribou | 3 comments | 31 Aug 25 16:22 UTC | HN request time: 0.958s | source
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Maksadbek ◴[31 Aug 25 16:46 UTC] No.45084620[source]▶
The sad part is that no one forces you to work that hard. You're free to say NO! and work less, even this will results being laid off. Only during 1:1s your manager may highlight that deadline is soon and would be great if the project would be delivered on time, and little hint about a promo. But you set goals and force yourself to do more, single night this less sleep doesn't hurt anyone. Then there are more such nights of coding and you feel barely alive. 90% work is done, only very little left to finish. And then bam!

Upd:

I didn’t mean that this is ok, I’m for workers rights.

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blitzar ◴[31 Aug 25 16:49 UTC] No.45084656[source]▶
> The sad part is that no one forces you to work that hard.

You are free to be poor, broke and homeless.

We really need a management class that doesn't insist on continuing the cycle of abuse on their underlings.

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stackskipton ◴[31 Aug 25 17:33 UTC] No.45085060[source]▶
>We really need a management class that doesn't insist on continuing the cycle of abuse on their underlings.

This won't happen. Your manager puts pressure on you, they get pressure from their manager and so on until it reaches the CEO who might be getting pressure from investors/board.

Only fix is regulations from the government which seems to be a curse word by many posters on this site.

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1. haswell ◴[31 Aug 25 17:43 UTC] No.45085165[source]▶
History is filled with people saying “this won’t happen”, only for that thing to happen.

Culture evolves and changes. What is acceptable in a culture evolves and changes with it.

Be the change you want to see, apply steady pressure, speak up when the opportunity arises, debate people who see things differently, and with time, many things can happen.

Most progress is hard-won.

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2. stackskipton ◴[31 Aug 25 18:27 UTC] No.45085616[source]▶
This is like saying I can fix global warming by recycling better and going vegan. You are not wrong but it's also like trying to stop a flood with few sandbags.

I've had managers who tried. None of them lasted at these companies that did not care. They were politely told they were not meeting expectations and since they had mortgages and other stuff, they took a hint and moved on.

Again, this fight is political and not corporate. Make tech workers hourly and this will stop. There will also be plenty of tech workers who will fight against this tooth and nail.

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3. haswell ◴[31 Aug 25 19:04 UTC] No.45086025[source]▶
> This is like saying I can fix global warming by recycling better and going vegan.

I can't agree. I don't think anyone who is diligent about recycling or making environmentally conscious food choices believes it will fix global warming. But doing the things that we can is still important for changing culture over time.

If you're a young person growing up in a home that thinks about these things responsibly, the hope is that more people reaching adult-hood will think about the world through that lens. Is it enough? No. Is it still critical? I think so.

> I've had managers who tried. None of them lasted at these companies that did not care.

I've worked at places where management did not behave in the way you describe. The point being that such places exist, and such an outcome is not so impossible.

One way to guarantee things will not change is to do nothing.