So when, under the rubric of "general office IT," I'm asked to purge malware or replenish toner, I can reply with a lmgtfy link and a jocular reminder that I'm way too busy to give a shit about their irrelevant self-inflicted problems, right?

Every company is pretty much a family. For all workable definitions of a family.

>>And they are a content and events company not a software startup.

Which means nearly any person who is good at software who isn't in immediate need of money should abandon them.

>>They need coders but for them it's a cost center, not a profit source like at software companies.

If your work doesn't add even that much value to the company, I'm not sure(unless you are really desperate for a job) why should even want to work for such a place.

>>You can make a decent living at PA, definitely, but don't expect the sort of wages you'd make from a software company.

Again, why would any one want to work there after knowing this.

>>Even when PA is in a period of expansion and growth that growth is nothing compared to what is typical at a tech startup.

So even in the best situation for the company, you still get screwed.

>>As a rule nobody works there because of the money,

Sorry but I totally refuse to believe in this. In fact this is a serious red flag. In most common cases, this is the most common story circulated so that employees can be paid less to make the founder little more richer.

Once you sell the story that money is evil, and workaholism till death as a holy virtue. You can now continue to demand as much work you want low prices and people have to just comply. On top of that you are selling the "We are family" story, which is in reality why you must sacrifice your life to make the head of the family richer.