Based on this, though nothing can be assumed, I can't help but wonder if the author was doing outsourced/offshored development work for another country?
I can only imagine that doing outsourced/offshored work brings with it an extra level of dehumanized drudgery.
I am a software engineer who typically works with small teams and/or small businesses. While the code-writing itself can be mindless CRUD work, and is almost never interesting on a theoretical level, solving actual problems for my users makes it worthwhile to a large extent. I am solving real problems for people trying to get through their days -- people I get to work with face-to-face. That's rewarding.
If you're doing mindless CRUD work for somebody five thousand miles and several levels of management away, though, that kind of rewarding feeling must rarely be possible. I don't know if I could do it.
The flip side of that equation is that in developing countries that much of the "drudgery" is outsourced to, call-centre work is considered aspirational and there are people literally killing themselves with physical labour for less per week than an established elancer can earn in a couple of hours. This may not be quite the situation the original author faced, but it certainly helps put the lack of excitement in fixing IE7 bugs for anonymous foreigners into perspective.
I can only imagine that doing outsourced/offshored work brings with it an extra level of dehumanized drudgery.
I am a software engineer who typically works with small teams and/or small businesses. While the code-writing itself can be mindless CRUD work, and is almost never interesting on a theoretical level, solving actual problems for my users makes it worthwhile to a large extent. I am solving real problems for people trying to get through their days -- people I get to work with face-to-face. That's rewarding.
If you're doing mindless CRUD work for somebody five thousand miles and several levels of management away, though, that kind of rewarding feeling must rarely be possible. I don't know if I could do it.