seems "lucrative + meritocratic" if you aren't in a marginalized group. Age/gender/pay discrimination is a serious problem in tech that unionization can help solve (it's not a magic bullet, but it's a step in the right direction)
You don’t even have to be in a marginalized group (although that does entreat all kinds of bias).
In my experience tech companies largely make decisions based on clique behavior, not “merit”. Management identifies individuals they like personally, those people are given juicy projects and veto power in meetings.
The game is not “who is driving business metrics?” it’s “how can I package my ideas in a way that makes management feel comfortable?”
Maybe you can argue that’s a form of meritocracy (“excel at making management feel comfortable!”), but I don’t think that’s what most people think of when they think of merit.
I have sort of come around to it. Part of my job is to be kind and helpful to the people around me, including the bosses. So that’s how I judge myself. Hitting business goals is good in the long term, but on every timescale I am expected to engage on, nurturing relationships seems to matter more.
