Ask HN: Is your company (job) family friendly? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Is your company (job) family friendly?

#31

Post by twobyfour » Fri, Apr 07, 2017, 4:41 PM UTC

tyingq wrote: post #25

payne92 wrote: post #9

My anecdotal experience: companies are much more "family friendly" when the CEO and senior managers themselves have families. Stated differently, paraphrasing the CEO that just had their first kid: "holy crap, this is a lot of work!!!!" You have not truly experienced sleep deprivation until you have had sustained, parental sleep deprivation.

I'm not sure having a family by itself is a good indicator that the company will be family friendly. Marissa Mayer might be a good example. She has twins, so she should understand. But... "If you go in on a Saturday afternoon, I can tell you which startups will succeed...Being there on the weekend is a huge indicator of success, mostly because these companies don't just happen. They happen because of really hard work…

Well, Marissa Mayer can afford to pay someone to take care of her twins. The typical small company or early stage startup exec, not so much.

Re: Ask HN: Is your company (job) family friendly?

#32

Post by dceddia » Fri, Apr 07, 2017, 4:41 PM UTC

user5994461 wrote: post #14

softawre wrote: post #3

9-6 is 40 hours/week with unpaid lunch, and pretty standard in US tech jobs as far as I know. Asking the team to sometimes work 45 hours during busy times seems reasonable to me. I give my team time to learn new stuff on the job. Obviously I strive to hire smart people so that doesn't take forever. I am not sure exactly what you are asking for. Companies OK with working 35 hour weeks?

> Companies OK with working 35 hour weeks? It seems reasonable to me to target 35 considering it seems reasonable to you to expect overtime.

It's interesting that there aren't more companies doing 30-35hr weeks. With the amount of sentiment like this on HN alone, I'm surprised there aren't engineers going out and starting shorter-work-week companies.

I know of Treehouse which has a 4-day workweek[0], but I can't think of any others.

I can think of a few reasons why companies wouldn't do this ("leaving money on the table", force of habit, investors, scheduling with partner companies, ...) but it's still surprising there aren't more founders taking a Basecamp-like "think different" approach towards working hours.

[0] http://www.businessinsider.com/treehouse-ceos-32-hour-workwe...

Re: Ask HN: Is your company (job) family friendly?

#33

Post by usaphp » Fri, Apr 07, 2017, 4:42 PM UTC

sparrish wrote: post #11

I was working for a company that was moving from remote work to full-time in the office. My former co-worker and I decided to start our own company so we could stay remote and close to our families. I have 7 kids, he has 8 and we both homeschool. That was almost 6 years ago and I've never regretted it. If you value time with your family, nobody is a better boss than you. It's not unusual for me to shoot an IM over to…

How do your kids adapt to social interactions with kids of their age, spending 24/7 with your family might be tiring and in young age there is a big difference between 3 and 5 year olds, I think they need to interact with kids of their age and different cultures to be better adapt in future life, that's just my opinion, I might be wrong?

Re: Ask HN: Is your company (job) family friendly?

#34

Post by twobyfour » Fri, Apr 07, 2017, 4:43 PM UTC

Ascetik wrote: post #21

Danihan wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's why you have one stay at home parent.

I agree, which is why I upboated you. My wife is a stay at home mom. Makes life way better for all of us, much less stressful for the children and she enjoys it. I wish more women would consider it, especially if their husbands make a living wage. Life isn't all about money.

Fuck that. I make a living wage too, tyvm, and I like my career. Why shouldn't the dad be the stay at home parent?

Re: Ask HN: Is your company (job) family friendly?

#35

Post by rootusrootus » Fri, Apr 07, 2017, 4:46 PM UTC

seajones wrote: post #26

devmunchies wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems about right. My company is HQ'd in (typically family friendly) Utah (I'm in Seattle office) and the CEO is a family guy. The culture has pretty healthy expectations.

I always think this a naive view. There are plenty of ways to be incredibly sleep deprived without a child.

I imagine it's a little bit tongue-in-cheek, not a blanket statement that being a parent is the only way to become seriously sleep-deprived. More like it's one of the most common ways a regular person will experience significant sleep deprivation, so the experience resonates with a lot of folks.

Also, in my limited experience (two kids), the sleep deprivation part isn't really all that bad, unless you're mom. She usually gets the brunt of it. And in any case the newborn phase is done in less than a year for most kids and you settle into an easier rhythm of just mild sleep deprivation :)

Re: Ask HN: Is your company (job) family friendly?

#36

Post by tburmeister » Fri, Apr 07, 2017, 4:47 PM UTC

Ascetik wrote: post #21

Danihan wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's why you have one stay at home parent.

I agree, which is why I upboated you. My wife is a stay at home mom. Makes life way better for all of us, much less stressful for the children and she enjoys it. I wish more women would consider it, especially if their husbands make a living wage. Life isn't all about money.

Maybe more men should consider it, "especially if their [wives] make a living wage."

Re: Ask HN: Is your company (job) family friendly?

#37

Post by nofinator » Fri, Apr 07, 2017, 4:48 PM UTC

It would be helpful to add a maternity/paternity leave column to your great spreadsheet.

Staggeringly, the United States still lacks a national unpaid leave policy. Plus companies in other countries on your spreadsheet might offer additional leave than what is required.

Re: Ask HN: Is your company (job) family friendly?

#38

Post by tyingq » Fri, Apr 07, 2017, 4:49 PM UTC

twobyfour wrote: post #31

tyingq wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure having a family by itself is a good indicator that the company will be family friendly. Marissa Mayer might be a good example. She has twins, so she should understand. But... "If you go in on a Saturday afternoon, I can tell you which startups will succeed...Being there on the weekend is a huge indicator of success, mostly because these companies don't just happen. They happen because of really hard work…

Well, Marissa Mayer can afford to pay someone to take care of her twins. The typical small company or early stage startup exec, not so much.

Not unusual, though, for a lower end CEO to foist off all parenting on their spouse.

Re: Ask HN: Is your company (job) family friendly?

#39

Post by jordanmoconnor » Fri, Apr 07, 2017, 4:52 PM UTC

nommm-nommm wrote: post #22

I work as a mid-sized company. My job is family friendly. I have flex time (which is really, really great!!) and my bosses and coworkers understand if personal or family issues come up and don't get upset if you have to leave early to pick up your kids (or friend from the airport, whatever) as long as you get your hours in and work done. Individual accommodations, when reasonable, are met. In general its acknowledged…

I think by not at least having some github / remote competence, you are showing remote employers that your aren't in the right mindset.

I'm sure you'd be great at it. But if you want to work remotely, showing you can collaborate on an online interface would probably help!

Re: Ask HN: Is your company (job) family friendly?

#40

Post by dceddia » Fri, Apr 07, 2017, 4:53 PM UTC

Ascetik wrote: post #21

Danihan wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's why you have one stay at home parent.

I agree, which is why I upboated you. My wife is a stay at home mom. Makes life way better for all of us, much less stressful for the children and she enjoys it. I wish more women would consider it, especially if their husbands make a living wage. Life isn't all about money.

Agree with the others, it doesn't have to be the wife who stays home. Obviously every family is different, the spouses have different goals and skillsets, etc -- but the decision can certainly be made along goal + skillset lines rather than gender.