Cactuarman
I think the full context of this would include the cost of living in Redwood City, California - the median home being $1.6M seems fairly relevant when we're talking a bout how stressful it can be to work somewhere that may or may not be paying you fairly.
Average rent
Cost of living
Also I don't understand what 50% of these comments are getting at. A couple questions I'm hoping people can clarify:
- How much money does one need to make relative to their cost of living to be able to complain about their job and have it be taking seriously?
- Is an article about a major video game title not worthy of discussion on a video game forum because people involved in making the game are/were frustrated by their working conditions?
There seems to be a misunderstanding of what it means to live and work in a free market economy.
You want better pay? Sure, all you have to do is persuade someone to pay you more. Easy. Alternatively, you can take the risk and reap the potential reward of starting your own business with your own money, where you will get to decide what kind of a salary will start flying your way. Meanwhile, while you're an employee, you do not get to write the check. You do not run other people's lives, including determining how other people handle their money. If you think you do, I'd like to know why on Earth don't they have the exact same reverse right to handle yours.
The point is that in a free market economy it's all voluntary. You voluntarily apply for a job, you voluntarily stay, quit, the employer voluntary hires and voluntary lets go of. If you think your job is so intolerable that staying at home binge-watching True Detective Season 3 is preferable, then do it. If you think your job is the purest form of manure on Earth but still better than anguishing over a jobless life where ends still need to meet, then stick with it. It is up to you. You choose and you handle the consequences. Making tough choices, sometimes involving the lesser of twelve evils is an inherent part of adult life.
What you don't have the right to, of course, is to dispose of other people's money in your favour and at your own discretion, no matter how justified you may think you are. Ask for a raise. Show how valuable you are to the business. Unionise. Go on strike. Or simply leave. Move to a more affordable inner city. Start your own business.
To answer your questions:
How much money does one need to make relative to their cost of living to be able to complain about their job and have it be taking seriously?
No relation.
You have the right to complain about whatever is bothering you in your job. Wise management will pay attention. Regardless, management will decide whether the demand is attenable or not. But you are not entitled to other people's money. If, for whatever reason, management won't even meet you halfway, if they're not prepared to pay you more than what they're currently paying you, I'm terribly sorry, but you have to decide where your priorities lie. Stay, ask for a raise later on, change career, move on to another company.
It's all up to you.
No, y ou don't have the right to automatically be taken seriously. What if your request is not serious at all? What if it is to be taken seriously but there's simply no financial leeway?
Is an article about a major video game title not worthy of discussion on a video game forum because people involved in making the game are/were frustrated by their working conditions?
Again, no relation.
I think it's entirely worthy of discussion.
This is especially true of what to me, reading the quoted passages and notwithstanding facts he may have uncovered and the discovery of which he is rightfully being praised for, seems to be his angle: greedy company squeezing out the last drop of juice out of overworked developers.
Stay, quit, negotiate, go on strike, leak to the press, start your own business, move to another city. Change career. or endure it all.
It's up to you.
But do choose and do own your choice.
Handle the consequences.