Things I want to say to my boss

Work, burnout, and disengagement

• Many see modern white‑collar work as inhumane, with burnout framed as an organizational math problem (too much work, too few people) rather than an individual weakness.
• Others push back, arguing work is inherently about survival and cooperation, and office work isn’t intrinsically “hard” compared to historical labor struggles.
• Several describe responding by “withdrawing” or “quiet quitting”: doing competent work but no longer giving discretionary effort or emotional investment.
• Some note cultural contrasts: in parts of Europe burnout is treated as a system failure or health issue, while in the US it’s often moralized as commitment or lack thereof.

Profit, managers, and incentives

• A large subthread blames “profit at any cost,” short‑termism, and the principal–agent problem: executives and boards optimize quarterly metrics and exits, not long‑term value or people.
• The rise of the professional managerial/MBA culture is cited as having devalued domain expertise and people, treating workers as interchangeable “resources.”
• Others argue the root problem is average or weak managers under pressure, not profit‑seeking per se; good profit optimization should align with stable, healthy teams.

Performative care vs real leadership

• The most resonant theme is “performative care”: therapy‑style check‑ins, engagement surveys, and “shielding” rhetoric without actual support, staffing, or honest communication.
• Commenters emphasize that people quickly detect this gap between words and actions, and it erodes trust and loyalty.
• Some share experiences with abusive or volatile bosses and long‑lasting mental‑health damage; others recount “soft‑skills obsessed” managers whose teams accomplished little and ran out of money.

Engineers’ shifting attitudes and generational tension

• Older engineers recall entering the field for love of the craft and resent newer “careerist” or “resume‑driven” behavior (e.g., over‑engineering to pad resumes).
• Others counter that with precarious jobs, high costs of living, and frequent layoffs, focusing on pay and mobility is rational self‑defense. Trying to care deeply often leads to burnout or being labeled a problem.

Management, hierarchy, and structural responses

• Some argue most engineering management and executive layers are wasteful; teams need clear goals and autonomy more than “leadership theater.”
• Others stress that good management and genuine care are hard to scale; character (doing the right thing despite personal risk) is rare.
• Unionization is repeatedly proposed as the only proven, scalable check on abusive or indifferent leadership, though many in the industry still resist it.

Meta: authorship and style

• Several speculate the essay is AI‑written due to repetitive “not X but Y” constructions; others dismiss this as unhelpful and often ill‑informed, noting the style predates AI and matches common human rhetoric.