[HN Gopher] Overworked and Underpaid, VFX Workers Vote to Unioni...
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       Overworked and Underpaid, VFX Workers Vote to Unionize at Marvel
        
       Author : mschuster91
       Score  : 76 points
       Date   : 2023-08-07 21:45 UTC (1 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.vulture.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.vulture.com)
        
       | mmastrac wrote:
       | The anti-union messages in North American work culture were so
       | effective it takes an incredible amount of abuse before a
       | workforce actually seeks out a union.
        
       | aiisahik wrote:
       | Making games and movies are clearly as hard if not harder than
       | making SaaS. I never understood why devs who work for game and
       | movie studios don't quit and work for companies that pay 2-3x as
       | much - other than for the pure love of what they do.
       | 
       | And maybe if it ultimately comes down to a decision between (1)
       | being paid well but giving up on your dreams vs (2) doing what
       | you love but being exploited, what you need is not a union but a
       | reality check.
        
         | mschuster91 wrote:
         | > I never understood why devs who work for game and movie
         | studios don't quit and work for companies that pay 2-3x as much
         | - other than for the pure love of what they do.
         | 
         | A very real aspect is credits. If you're developing some SaaS
         | product or whatever, you stay a nameless cog in the wheel, and
         | in the worst case your entire work was for nothing because the
         | company goes down in flames anyway.
         | 
         | In contrast, games and music? That's for eternity, even if
         | you're an accountant your name will still be somewhere on the
         | credit rolls.
        
       | doctorpangloss wrote:
       | There are a lot of lazy takes about why people put up with the
       | abuse, "because people love movies" laziest of all. I can only
       | speak from the POV of a programmer, since I thankfully, fingers
       | crossed, never entered industry VFX as an animator.
       | 
       | If you're in STEM, do you know how many people can pay attention
       | to more than 1 minute of conversation about: a lab experiment, a
       | piece of programming architecture, etc. etc.? Zero. Nobody cares.
       | Laypeople find actual science tremendously boring, let alone the
       | non-science grind most programmers do, and laypeople serve you
       | coffee and also make investments and also admit your kids to
       | university and also fuck your wife. I seriously, really don't
       | blame people for trying to be superficially interesting at great
       | personal expense.
       | 
       | It's not a vague thing about finding meaning. It really,
       | seriously is about doing something laypeople have heard of.
       | Everyone finds different kinds of meaning, and name recognition
       | seems totally "valid."
       | 
       | If you're a technical director grinding Python scripts for a
       | Marvel production, at least people care! It is obviously boring
       | work. These smart people aren't stupid. But you can go do another
       | thing, you can get your resume in the door so to speak, you can
       | go be an entrepreneur or get an interview. It helps tremendously,
       | in the enjoyment of your day to day life, if you're not a
       | nepobaby to some Hollywood freak, to be associated with the
       | absolute hugest productions.
        
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       (page generated 2023-08-07 23:00 UTC)