Why Do Software Engineers Work So Little?

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Have you ever noticed how little FAANG engineers work? Some of them have even admitted to working as little as 4 hours per week on a regular basis. But despite their lack luster input, they’re often paid $200,000 to $300,000 if not more. In fact, such employees are so common amongst tech that there’s actually a name for them: rest and vesters. But, why do managers and especially profit-hungry companies allow for such companies amongst their workforce? Well, for starters, both the engineer and the tech company have really friendly economics with high-profit margins and boatloads of revenue. So, they would rather focus on growing the company than trying to increase efficiency. Moreover, much of a software engineer’s job is based on results as opposed to work input, and many engineers are simply able to fulfill their duties with far fewer hours. But, most importantly, companies would rather just hire smart people and pay them not ensure that they don’t go to another company. This video explains the top reasons why FAANG engineers are able to get away with such few working hours.

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Timestamps:
0:00 - Rest & Vesters
2:17 - Friendly Economics
5:17 - No Need
8:01 - Part Of The Plan

Resources:

Disclaimer:
This video is not a solicitation or personal financial advice. All investing involves risk. Please do your own research.

[DavidHelloWorld]

Software engineering is a knowledge job, and a lot of the value in each engineer is not how many hours they spend coding, but the knowledge they have around products and processes. It takes a new engineer about 1 year to become proficient at knowing and developing for a specific project. If you lose an engineer who’s holding it all together, it could be a long time before someone fills that engineer’s role. Or worse, that project may suffer from that point on. But if you’re able to keep an engineer who knows how to keep things chugging along smoothly, everything just works. Who cares if that engineer isn’t coding straight from 9-5. The question is, do they have a quick solution for the serious problem that arises every few weeks. Because without that person and their knowledge, it might take other engineers weeks or months to solve the same problem.

[AoCabo]

As a project lead, if all your deliverables are on time, I don't care how you spend your time or how many hours you work. If there's no project available or if there's schedule gaps, that's not your fault. I expect the same when I work on other people's projects. No need to feel guilty if all is good and on time. This is the way work should be everywhere, not just tech, but we have some real micromanaging a-holes in the working world

[BenjaminEmm]

Another point is the plumber analogy. You don't pay a plumber for the amount of time he takes to fix an issue, you pay him for the years of knowledge an experience to get your issue solved *quickly*. FAANG SWE's are very much like this. You pay them to hang around and do nothing because they bring value, and don't want them working at a competitor. Then, when a project does come along, you have the best of the best ready and waiting to solve it faster than anyone else in the industry, and with fewer people. SWE are very much like the rockstars of the white collar world, they get a good ride because they bring immense value. The code they write in one week, might bring value for 5 years. So the 10K you paid them for that week of work ends up bringing 100K every year - you don't care if it only took them 24 hours to code up and then they played ping pong for the rest of the week - it works and brings value, and that's business.

[noviloba]

A software engineer's work is not just coding. We also do a lot of thinking and planning to be able to solve complex problems. So basically we may be working even when we look like we are asleep 😅. You can't say that an engineer only worked for 4 hours because that's how long there were typing on the keyboard...

[uwu_senpai]

When I was working in software I was definitely the 10X kind.
My colleagues would spend hours in calls doing co-devellopements on the easy jira tickets whereas I would take all the hard ones that were actually the quickest to do because they were mostly the kind where you had to do algorithm and think.
Because they were worth so much points I usually looked like the most busy person in my team and my manager was always like "Take example on him and try to make his workload lighter" while I was working full remote playing MMOs during my work hours.
My colleagues would often call me to help them with their tickets, I would unstuck them in like half an hour and tell them I was busy and had to hop in another meeting now that they were able to continue by themselves. And I would be back playing MMOs.
Anyone in my team would swear I was working my ass off if you asked them.
Eventually I grew tired of that lifestyle and did restarted my studies doing a master in physics and now a PhD. My salary is shit but at least I am not bored as fuck playing games all day.

[chaya]

You're not paying him for how long it takes him to get the job done but the years it took him to learn to get good enough to get the job done quickly.

[henryzxruly]

being a software engineer is basically playing a AFK farming game. You come back in every 8 hours to do some tasks then do nothing for the next 20

[Stealth]

It's also an incredibly volatile industry where most people are either burnt out, or discarded in only a few years. I much prefer making slightly less without having to sacrifice my best years buried in meaningless work only to end up incredibly behind and out of date in a handful of years. It's also only few hours of work if you don't consider learning entire new systems every few days/weeks and keeping up with every change in every service you use as work, which it is. There's a reason certain jobs pay high, and it's not because they're easy, or it's a fun job where you feel like you contribute to society.

[BenjaminCronce]

I don't work for "big tech", but I am a software engineer. And there's a lot more to a "10x engineer" than being "fast". It's about total value. Which includes making others more efficient through useful and proactive communications, improved tooling, and improved process. There's also identifying when there's a better way to do something, recognizing when something is no longer needed, and making lots of small decisions that add up to overall reduced effort. In my experience, the number one way a 10x engineer can be be more productive is by creating systems that have low support overhead and don't need major reworks every time some issue is found.

I've had so many situations where it took hours of meetings and investigation to only result in less than 10 lines of code being changed. But that change resulted in a reduction of dozens of man-hours of support every day. Not because of a "flaw", but because there was a better way. And that's the point. There is a 10x difference between mediocre and "good". A 10x employee almost always produces good. While a normal employee produces "technically works" mvp and only makes something good after there's enough complaints to prioritize over other work.

[engageintellect]

I thinks it’s both. Some weeks I work 60-80 hours. Some weeks it’s 6-8 hours.

It all depends what my deliverables are. Sometimes it’s just making sure an app stays up and running, other times it’s working with customers, and sometimes it’s a balls to the wall fire drill.

[rbcoffee]

Let's be honest, these people aren't freeloaders, they're working as hard as the executive management. Don't deny it.

[WisdomWave]

Fantastic video! As a software engineer who hates his meaningless job in a multinational, contemplating a shift to a startup or smaller company is a difficult choice. On one hand, the opportunity to make a significant impact and contribute meaningfully is alluring, but it may also mean working longer hours and receiving comparatively lower compensation. Thought-provoking content!"

[soulmata]

Principal SRE here. Mostly worked at startups. None of us could get away with that. Our teams are so small that could never happen. Your own teammates would ostracize you at a minimum. If I found out my tech lead was working 4 hours a week I would lose my shit on him.

[Salle]

As a software DevOps engineer of 20 years I've met maybe two or three developers in total that worked 50% or less, and it always felt like it was due to some working condition in the industry they were working in. Growth did not seem to be a factor which surprised me.

[kevlems]

I am a Microsoft software eng and I work my ass off every day😢. Hopefully, I will transition to Vester soon, haha.

[makarambles]

The idea of being a 10X worker interests me as a software engineer, because that's exactly what I do, just not to that level just yet. Take 40 hours to finish and deploy a task that it actually took me 10-15 hours to do, and apply those extra hours elsewhere. I learned the skills to do it in college, double majoring in CS and Japanese. Now, I clean, do laundry, take care of my sick cat, do grocery shopping, all within my normal work day.

I have interests and hobbies outside of work because while I get a check every other week it isn't fulfulling whatsoever to me. I don't have that silicon valley lifestyle, still live with my parents and help them with their bills so we don't lose our home after we lost our family restaurant due to covid. Drive my trusty 2004 Saturn and skip meals just to save a few bucks because eating dairy free is expensive. Don't mistake lack of hours working directly as a lazy/uncaring attitude, because I'm the first one to drop everything to fix a production issue on a Saturday morning, or to monitor month end processing well into the night.

(This may come off as aggressive because I'm not in the best mood today, but I want to let you know that I overall enjoy your videos and content! I just thought I'd give my feelings on the matter given my position.)

[ZephrymWOW]

As a software engineer at Microsoft it is the same way. About 15-30 minutes of work per day MAX. There are sprints that I finish in under 5 hours. Then get paid for the rest of the two weeks to play video games.

[Alexander_choi]

This is definitely something that varies from job to job. My friends who work as engineers at Amazon may work less than 20 hours a week, but my friends who work as engineers at SK Hynix or Qualcomm work 40 hours a week, sometimes more.

Like any job, this varies significantly from company-company

[ryanw]

Im a software developer and a lot of the time it may seem like I’m not working. Like if I’m out for a walk or just sitting outside with my dog. But I am consistently thinking about the issue I am working on and possible solutions.

[zee]

This is why a lot of them were able to work multiple jobs during the pandemic