Definitely non-faang companies, that lean more towards being rational and steady. Faangs are a nightmare to work at in this decade.
do you have examples of companies that are rational and steady?
Ask HN: What companies have a good work life balance?
11–20 of 33 posts
Re: Ask HN: What companies have a good work life balance?
#12I'd say Atlassian is good at least in AU not sure about US. You have to work the 40 but thats it. I do more than 40 because I enjoy but no pressure. Also Team Anywhere and as long as you are there for some meetings it can be flexible around kids etc.
Re: Ask HN: What companies have a good work life balance?
#13I think it depends. Because I used to think larger companies would have better work life balance but I have experienced and seen awesome and shitty at larger companies and so at startups. Also, unless it's a decidedly shitty work life balance company like Amazon's (or few others which might be in general good), there usually no such things as "company's work life balance" but as I said above - team's. I wish it was n…
I'm curious, if you're interviewing at a company, what's the best way to figure out of the lead/team has this balance? What kind of questions could you ask without sounding like you're trying to be lazy?
What works better than it should: just take a good look at the people you are talking to.
Basically, do they look like they are chronically sleep deprived zombies? Are their eyes bloodshot? Hair kinda greasy? Movements shaky? Do they stare off into space? Reaction times slowed down? Essentially, do they look like a harried medical resident?
If it's just one person, maybe they are having a bad day, getting sick, or that's just their style. If it's everyone - you know the answer.
Why does this work better than it should? Because once you start down the path of sacrificing long term health for short term gains, there's nothing stopping you (or the management doing the pushing) from escalating further. The difference between normal and zombieland is quite stark.
Note that this is not a good heuristic when talking to managers of said team. They tend to always look fit and polished and well rested. Only the rank and file tend to look this sad.
Re: Ask HN: What companies have a good work life balance?
#14Can’t help you with the Bay Area specifically, but I would look for smaller remote companies working in non-trendy fields. Stuff like B2B for plumbers, or WordPress plugins.
Re: Ask HN: What companies have a good work life balance?
#15For comparison:
- 5 weeks paid vacation, you can decide per day basis whenever you want (really)
- plus all annual holidays
- 320 paid days (70% salary) of parental leave per kid, divided between as you wish
- 40h work week
- regulatory maximum of 60h voluntary overtime per year
- free nice healthcare
Plus: - free sick child care service (at your home)
- massage benefit, travel benefit, culture benefit, electric bike benefit, car benefit, lunch benefit etc.
Everything except ”plus” is for all Finnish companies with atleast 20 people. Smaller compnies don’t have to provide the healthcare part (then it’s just free public one).
Plus benefits are common for most tech companies and best ones include the child care as well.
Re: Ask HN: What companies have a good work life balance?
#16For comparison: - 5 weeks paid vacation, you can decide per day basis whenever you want (really) - plus all annual holidays - 320 paid days (70% salary) of parental leave per kid, divided between as you wish - 40h work week - regulatory maximum of 60h voluntary overtime per year - free nice healthcare Plus: - free sick child care service (at your home) - massage benefit, travel benefit, culture benefit, electric bike…
Can't find youtube link, and it was either tiktok or twitter.
So this video is pretty accurate then?
Re: Ask HN: What companies have a good work life balance?
#17For comparison: - 5 weeks paid vacation, you can decide per day basis whenever you want (really) - plus all annual holidays - 320 paid days (70% salary) of parental leave per kid, divided between as you wish - 40h work week - regulatory maximum of 60h voluntary overtime per year - free nice healthcare Plus: - free sick child care service (at your home) - massage benefit, travel benefit, culture benefit, electric bike…
What a terrible place to work!
>> - regulatory maximum of 60h voluntary overtime per year
WOT??? 60h of overtime??? What a dump!!! Our company maxes out at 55 hours...
Re: Ask HN: What companies have a good work life balance?
#18It depends more on the team than the company Working at Amazon on boring internal HR tech is very different than working on S3
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Re: Ask HN: What companies have a good work life balance?
#19For comparison: - 5 weeks paid vacation, you can decide per day basis whenever you want (really) - plus all annual holidays - 320 paid days (70% salary) of parental leave per kid, divided between as you wish - 40h work week - regulatory maximum of 60h voluntary overtime per year - free nice healthcare Plus: - free sick child care service (at your home) - massage benefit, travel benefit, culture benefit, electric bike…
Can't find youtube link, and it was either tiktok or twitter. So this video is pretty accurate then? https://x.com/dhtoomey/status/1479214458987855880
It’s 15:43 now, so I’m already in bed
Re: Ask HN: What companies have a good work life balance?
#20Can’t help you with the Bay Area specifically, but I would look for smaller remote companies working in non-trendy fields. Stuff like B2B for plumbers, or WordPress plugins.
You can absolutely work in trendy fields and have a good work life balance. Trends don't require ridiculous loads. Working smart not longer. I work on quantum computing and you can easily do a 9-5 and still evolve the current. The issue is outlook, many believe hard work means hours, not skill or talent utilised in a good way.