I have never worked in start ups, but I've many friends in various mid-size companies. You know that `Best Mid Size Companies To Work For` survey they put out? Use that, while individual teams/business unit might be different, that list is fairly accurate from feed backs of my circle. Pick a few companies that are in your industry and see if you can apply for jobs there.
Ask HN: What companies have a good work life balance?
21–30 of 33 posts
Re: Ask HN: What companies have a good work life balance?
#22Controversial stance, but... almost any big company, as long as you don't care too much about promotions or the social hierarchy of your coworkers.
Get a $150k job as a senior software engineer, show up to meetings, do good-enough work and be polite and friendly to your coworkers and you'll basically be fine.
At performance review time you'll get the low-performer raise of 3% instead of the high-performer raise of 4%, but your hourly wage comes out ahead. Maybe you'll be a little more likely to get laid off in lean times, but those are sufficiently arbitrary that you could work nights and weekends and still get laid off.
Plenty of people have lived happy, well-rounded lives putting their energy into their families, hobbies and self-fulfillment while coasting through their career as a lower-than-average-performer in a series of 1-4 year stints at different companies.
Re: Ask HN: What companies have a good work life balance?
#23In my experience, work life balance is somewhat up to you. Any company is going to test your boundaries, and you need to be constantly defending them
Re: Ask HN: What companies have a good work life balance?
#24Controversial stance, but... almost any big company, as long as you don't care too much about promotions or the social hierarchy of your coworkers. Get a $150k job as a senior software engineer, show up to meetings, do good-enough work and be polite and friendly to your coworkers and you'll basically be fine. At performance review time you'll get the low-performer raise of 3% instead of the high-performer raise of 4%…
> show up to meetings, do good-enough work and be polite and friendly to your coworkers...as a lower-than-average-performer
I'd argue that this shouldn't be considered 'lower than average' performance. It should be considered average. And based on some companies I've been at, that should probably be considered above-average.
I know that's often not the case by managers and executives (hell I just saw an article about a CEO that is running an AI startup and tells people in interviews that they're expected to work 84 hour weeks[1]), but employees should really push back and insist that this should not be considered 'below average' performance.
[1]: https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/greptile-daksh-gupta-8...
Re: Ask HN: What companies have a good work life balance?
#25+1 for Atlassian. One of my close mates is a US FTE for 10 years and he's always trying to recruit me, specifically on the merits of work-life balance. Surely varies from team to team but their Team Anywhere (fully remote, all positions) is very appealing.
Re: Ask HN: What companies have a good work life balance?
#26Work-life balance describes personal and situational priorities, a property of your needs and circumstances. It does not describe a property of a company. Figure out what you need, specifically, to get to the work-life balance you want. With a child that may mean work from home, flexible schedule, good insurance, day care subsidies. From my own experience as a parent working in the software field, I found that compan…
This is really a good point. Gonna ask about it in my next interview next Tuesday.
Re: Ask HN: What companies have a good work life balance?
#27Cisco hands down, but there is a catch.
You will have a good life balance. The pay is usually above average (speaking about the UK, not sure about the US). The benefits are also top notch. The colleagues you work with are really top notch too.
So what's the catch? well, if you want to get promoted, you probably will not. The reason is simple: Cisco has a really bad habitude of promoting people from within who have spent decades there. There are exceptions here and there, but if someone spent twenty something years at Cisco and they apply for a job, they have a better chance to get it than anyone else. Also, almost 90% I met there where already >10 years at the company. People leave Cisco and come back to it again.
PS: There have been layoffs recently, so thing may have changed.
Re: Ask HN: What companies have a good work life balance?
#28Re: Ask HN: What companies have a good work life balance?
#29I escaped a FAANG to a small company of about 22 people and that was awesome. I’ve been working for a state org that’s considerably larger for over a year with great results. Forget about working someplace that brings you glory or prestige. It makes life a lot better when your life matters more than your career.
Love this. Can you clarify what a state org is? Do you mean like a tech department within your state government?
Yes, exactly. Government orgs also need IT, developers, etc. I get to end my day at the same time every day and while major changes make for a week or so of a ton more work responding, there aren’t sprints to deliver important PR-sensitive releases. My off time is my own.
Re: Ask HN: What companies have a good work life balance?
#30Controversial stance, but... almost any big company, as long as you don't care too much about promotions or the social hierarchy of your coworkers. Get a $150k job as a senior software engineer, show up to meetings, do good-enough work and be polite and friendly to your coworkers and you'll basically be fine. At performance review time you'll get the low-performer raise of 3% instead of the high-performer raise of 4%…
> show up to meetings, do good-enough work and be polite and friendly to your coworkers...as a lower-than-average-performer I'd argue that this shouldn't be considered 'lower than average' performance. It should be considered average. And based on some companies I've been at, that should probably be considered above-average. I know that's often not the case by managers and executives (hell I just saw an article about…
You are right, but Microsoft (a small local site of a few years ago) disagreed- "meet expectations", which in my eyes is close enough to average if the expectations were set correctly, was consistently treated as bad or lower than average.