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Ask HN: First hire offered to work part-time – what should I do?

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Re: Ask HN: First hire offered to work part-time – what should I do?

#101

Post by ThrowawayR2 »

eropple wrote: post #97
skrebbel wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> will be overworked to the bone if they don't actively fight it Says who? Srsly stop working for shitty startups. And stop assuming all founders are exploitative psychopaths. We're not. Many of us just want to build an awesome company that's an awesome place to work at. You don't need to overwork the team for that. But you also won't get there with a bunch of disinterested contractors who just do their assigned task…

> Says who? Srsly stop working for shitty startups. I don't work for "shitty startups"--it's rare that I work for "startups" at all. But, then again, my skillset is in demand in a way that accentuates the seller's market, and so I also don't have to. I'm very fortunate. > And stop assuming all founders are exploitative psychopaths. We're not. ... You don't need to overwork the team for that. You don't have to. But, a…

> "Causes and passions are charity work or open-source work."

That's one point of view. Personally, I'd say I'm passionate about technology itself and I only choose employers who work with technologies I find interesting (generally nothing that involves web stuff) whenever I can. I'm sure I'd probably have been paid better if I weren't as particular but I'd also almost certainly have quit the profession long before now as well.

We'd probably agree, though, that being passionate about one's employer itself being unwise.

Re: Ask HN: First hire offered to work part-time – what should I do?

#102

Post by eropple »

ThrowawayR2 wrote: post #101
eropple wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Says who? Srsly stop working for shitty startups. I don't work for "shitty startups"--it's rare that I work for "startups" at all. But, then again, my skillset is in demand in a way that accentuates the seller's market, and so I also don't have to. I'm very fortunate. > And stop assuming all founders are exploitative psychopaths. We're not. ... You don't need to overwork the team for that. You don't have to. But, a…

> " Causes and passions are charity work or open-source work. " That's one point of view. Personally, I'd say I'm passionate about technology itself and I only choose employers who work with technologies I find interesting (generally nothing that involves web stuff) whenever I can. I'm sure I'd probably have been paid better if I weren't as particular but I'd also almost certainly have quit the profession long before…

I agree with this take. You can prioritize things other than money, and that's some derived value for you. But fully agreed that your employer is not a good outlet for that passion. "Believing the dream" gets you screwed when you aren't paying attention.

(And even those pure-hearted, kind founders can lose control of their company after a bad raise.)

Re: Ask HN: First hire offered to work part-time – what should I do?

#103

Post by PeterisP »

The big question here probably is regarding compensation. Are you offering sufficient compensation to "buy out" these personal projects? If you're offering half the compensation that he expects, then you can afford half of his time; This post does not have enough details to tell if that's the case here, but it's a possibility.

Re: Ask HN: First hire offered to work part-time – what should I do?

#104

Post by codingdave »

I'd be more dedicated to a project that allowed me part-time work than I am to my job. I would consider that flexibility to be as valuable to me as my financial compensation, and would fight to keep it. It would let my work/life balance shift more towards life, so that while my time is limited, my passion to keep that role would inspire me to be as productive and effective with that time as possible.

So I'd talk directly to this person about your concerns. Maybe they are like me, maybe not - but talk to them and find out, then make a decision.

Re: Ask HN: First hire offered to work part-time – what should I do?

#105

Post by perl4ever »

hocuspocus wrote: post #76
test6554 wrote: post #15

I would imagine that many top DEVs would love to work for a company that allows part-time work and be happy to take less money to do so.

It's very common in some countries, here in Switzerland I could literally reduce my work hours to 90 or 80% with a couple clicks on the company HR portal, and even further down with approval from my manager. But even in the US, I know people at big companies that take one or two months of unpaid leave. Would it be a problem to take every Friday off as unpaid leave?

Talking about big companies is getting off on a tangent from startups, but the thing about asking for accommodations in general is that you never know what is really permitted. If you ask for too much, and nobody tells you because it's awkward or illegal to refuse, then down the line you may have consequences that you may or may not notice, with your job/career. Even if the consequences are in some sense reasonable and justified, it could be you're not thinking of them when you take the actions that cause them.

I think it's inevitable that the more formal your options and protections are, the more people work around that, so in a country like yours I would expect it to be an unspoken minefield.

Re: Ask HN: First hire offered to work part-time – what should I do?

#106

Post by bluestreak »

Thank you all. We hired the guy. He came to our office, had a one2one with each of us and we clarified the reasons for 3 days and side projects. Everyone was happy and we shook hands the same day.

He is would still work three days, run side projects for fun and if he likes what we do he’d join full time - let’s see!

I don’t expect passion as a given from employees, even though we share good chunk of equity and our project is hugely challenging technically and open ended. Perhaps I should have used “enthusiasm”?

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