Why the Highest Paid Developers “Fight” Their Coworkers

May 22, 2019

You're going to be asked to do it.

At some point, if it hasn't happened already, your coworkers or your boss will ask you to do something foolish. Something you know will make things worse for you, your coworkers, maybe even the business itself.

If you're like most developers, you do it anyway.

That's what most will do, right? It's better to keep your head down, avoid making waves and simply do what you're told. Job security isn't a thing anymore, but that's one of the best things you can do to keep your job, for a while at least.

This Common Mistake Creates a Career Handicap

This is the problem.

Most employees want to keep their jobs and their clients. They don't have the leverage or control they want over their own careers. They need their job. In fact, most people are terrified of losing their jobs.

This has a cascading effect.

Research shows the fear of losing your job creates job dissatisfaction and a lack of commitment at work. This, in turn, affects job performance, negatively increasing the likelihood that you will lose your job. It's a vicious cycle that seems to repeat itself over and over.

But there's something worse than the fear of a job loss.

It's the misplaced confidence or expectation of job security, the kind of confidence that crushes you when you're actually let go. Both of these issues are a problem, and both of these issues are continually ignored.

Why is it a problem?

Because 78 percent of employees live paycheque-to-paycheque. This includes workers making $100,000+ per year. This is the real reason why most employees have no leverage, no ability to say no. This is the reason most developers won't fight with their coworkers.