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“Rest and vest”: engineers who get paid and barely work

businessinsider.com

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Re: “Rest and vest”: engineers who get paid and barely work

#211

Post by nugget »

pixelmonkey wrote: post #173
muninn_ wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With respect to your final point about teachers, firefighters, and doctors (please keep in mind I'm not against what I'm about to say) it comes down to the public nature of these jobs. When it's tax money, it's everyone's business. When it's a corporations money, it's only their business. Now obviously it's more nuanced than that, companies receive tax breaks and what have you, but I think that is largely to blame. S…

I think you have a point about the public nature of these jobs. That said, I picked these 3 somewhat at random. And though teacher and firefighter salaries are very much set by state budgets in the US, doctor salaries are not. (They are, instead, mainly set by a complex interplay of state funds, insurance company profit margins, and hospital/practice competition for doctors.) Take, for two other examples, commercial…

The State and Federal Governments already provide health insurance for a majority of citizens, and we seem to be rapidly headed towards some version of "single payer" universal health insurance. I think we'll start to see much more political pressure applied to physician compensation in the future.

Re: “Rest and vest”: engineers who get paid and barely work

#212

Post by teknologist »

IBM wrote: post #59

This is probably why Apple, a hardware company, has operating margins that are higher than Google and Microsoft (even though their gross margins are almost half of Google's and Microsoft's). The only person I can think of that might have this arrangement at Apple is Scott Forstall. I think that's why he's been radio silent until very recently (or he could just be very loyal to Apple). Maybe Katie Cotton when they cha…

I reckon Dr. Dre might be on a bit of a rest and vest deal at Apple too.

Re: “Rest and vest”: engineers who get paid and barely work

#213

Post by encoderer »

muzz wrote: post #84
encoderer wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All you have to do is execute them and hold. You owe taxes. Look up dual basis.

Like I said, risky/dumb things

To realize the benefit of ISOs you need long term gains treatment. That requires you "prepay" tax when you execute. It's the difference between 20% and 33%+ effective tax rate.

Re: “Rest and vest”: engineers who get paid and barely work

#214

Post by madengr »

madhadron wrote: post #129
jonas21 wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're not really contradictory. A 9 to 5 day can easily turn into 4 hours of real work. Show up, eat breakfast, spend some time reading HN, an hour of work, lunch, an hour or two working, grab coffee, play some foosball, another hour of work, go to the gym, time to go home!

Conversely, most engineers only have three to five hours of really hard, sustainable technical work in them per day, and that's assuming a regular schedule, adequate sleep, good nutrition, no major emotional upsets going on... Now, that is work . No checking Facebook. No checking email. Process optimized so there are no long periods of waiting around. I have had periods when my day was six hours: five hours of hard w…

Agree. If I'm at work it seems I can't get shit done due to innteruptions. If I'm working from home I burn out after 4-5 hours due to zero interruptions. I don't know where the happy medium is.

Re: “Rest and vest”: engineers who get paid and barely work

#215

Post by zilchers »

asah wrote: post #36

Can confirm. But it's not a nefarious thing and the people aren't slackers: 90% of the people who end up in this position are ass-kickers who strive to have impact and get bored: most feel bad about slacking but their bodies and minds simply need a rest. They created BILLIONS in value and even providing tech support, they "pay for themselves" many times over -- that's why companies like Google keep them around. Subtl…

I'd also add, coming from a startup to a big company can be incredibly frustrating, and a lot of high performers can be quite demoralized by the bureaucracy and pace (even while they're being paid well to be there).

Re: “Rest and vest”: engineers who get paid and barely work

#216

Post by madengr »

krallja wrote: post #209
madengr wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was play about that; a guy dating 3 stewardesses, then commercial jet flight is introduced, and he has to juggle them all until his scheme crashes down. Pretty damn funny play.

"Boeing, Boeing"

Ha ha, thanks!

Re: “Rest and vest”: engineers who get paid and barely work

#217

Post by IBM »

teknologist wrote: post #212
IBM wrote: post #59

This is probably why Apple, a hardware company, has operating margins that are higher than Google and Microsoft (even though their gross margins are almost half of Google's and Microsoft's). The only person I can think of that might have this arrangement at Apple is Scott Forstall. I think that's why he's been radio silent until very recently (or he could just be very loyal to Apple). Maybe Katie Cotton when they cha…

I reckon Dr. Dre might be on a bit of a rest and vest deal at Apple too.

Dr. Dre has actually been working for Apple. He's had a show on Beats 1 since Apple Music launched. There were also reports of him starring in a show about his life and career that would be for Apple Music.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/curator/the-pharmacy-with-dr.-dr...

Re: “Rest and vest”: engineers who get paid and barely work

#218

Post by brendangregg »

I know the rest and vest type. It can be demoralizing for others to know that some in the company aren't pulling their weight, because they got lucky in the past with stock offers.

It's one of the many reasons I like Netflix. We allow engineers to be paid almost entirely in cash. No one is resting and vesting that I know of -- not only because we wouldn't tolerate unmotivated people -- but because there's no vesting schedule that I know of. AFAIK, you can leave any time with everything. If you want to leave, then leave. We'd rather hold onto people that actually want to stay and get stuff done, and be self motivated.

Re: “Rest and vest”: engineers who get paid and barely work

#219

Post by thaumasiotes »

ianbicking wrote: post #165
thaumasiotes wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are levels 1 and 2?

Usually companies try to make it so that levels mean roughly the same thing across all professions, so 1 and 2 or 3 mean "almost no experience". So while there might be people at level 1 and 2 in the HR department, or receptionist, or other professions where there is extremely close supervision, they don't hire anyone at that level for engineering. Often management also has a similar level system, but starts at a yet…

That doesn't explain why the bottom rung of software engineers has the profession-specific label "SWE II", though. Entry level at eBay is also "Software Engineer 2".

Re: “Rest and vest”: engineers who get paid and barely work

#220

Post by alasdair_ »

pdimitar wrote: post #118
joejerryronnie wrote: post #117

Or, as a recently bought out/retired colleague remarked, "My job now consists of being home all day and trying not to piss off my wife" - a much harder endeavor than any engineering project I can think of.

Sounds like love and respect are long gone from that "relationship".

Perhaps the wife like the time she had alone in the house. Even if you love someone deeply, it's still good to have time to onesself.
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