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German digital bank N26 is facing outcry from its staff over management

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Re: German digital bank N26 is facing outcry from its staff over management

#91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

American salary: .... Dutch salary: .... American job market: .... Dutch or (even EU) job market: .... They are not comparable. In the Netherlands and Germany it feels like the only employees who make good money are management. Engineers are never going to be rich from working as engineers. The only way to make it is to break into management, and the odds are against you.

Very accurate. And even if you're making good money, you're paying significantly higher taxes, will usually not own a house etc. Might still be worth it for the benefits, but it should be mentioned.

>you're paying significantly higher taxes

For much better public services, benefits, access to health, etc...

>will usually not own a house etc.

The Netherlands have a higher home ownership than the US (67.8% vs 65.3%).

Re: German digital bank N26 is facing outcry from its staff over management

#92
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hm. https://www.statista.com/statistics/424159/pay-gap-between-c...

How is that relevant? I don't care about the relative gap in whatever other country. I don't live in the US (although I wish I did). In Germany, I see average compensation for a SWE 65k€ whereas management at the same company can have upwards of 300k€. Especially bad if you work a tech job at a non-tech company. There is definitely a culture of rewarding management with money and employees with "stability" which mean…

>In Germany, I see average compensation for a SWE 65k€ whereas management at the same company can have upwards of 300k€.

I see that as a benefit. Less inequality, less golden parachutes, the average person making a better living with better public services and benefits...

I could not care less for special salaries that only apply to a small percentage, when https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/23/most-americans-dont-have-the...

Re: German digital bank N26 is facing outcry from its staff over management

#93

> N26 has filed another restraining order to prevent today's Electoral Board Selection for N26 GmbH, this time against the union ver.di. As such, IG Metall has stepped in to chair today's meeting. It will take place at the same venue, with the time delayed so people can make it. -- https://twitter.com/worker291/status/1294183659583369216 ver.di and IG Metall are Germanys two biggest unions.

My goodness, this is detrimental for their image ...

Does this ever end well for the company? These moves should make it extremely clear to the employees how much they need a works council.

Re: German digital bank N26 is facing outcry from its staff over management

#94
post #4

I'm there. Management sent an email to all employees a week after the process was initiated about how the works council was against all their values, and they have an amazing idea for modern employee representation - one they only hired an external lawyer to present after the employees asked for a works council. Only a couple days ago, after having the invite in their hands for 10 days did they start complaining abou…

Help me out, I'm a long user of n26, I've found bugs in the app - still in production - but can never escalate them to developers. Interactions with support is as easy as interacting with a different life form, independent of the problem the solution is always to unpair your device, reinstall the app.

Re: German digital bank N26 is facing outcry from its staff over management

#95

Anyone here from N26 who can comment on what it’s like working for them?

Yes, I am a Software Engineer working out of the Berlin office(now working from home). It's a shit show. The situation seems to be escalating. Wishing this was over one way or another. EDIT: sorry, I misread the question. As a software engineer I am comfortable--the work is interesting and engaging. I think it's mostly the customer support staff who are disgruntled

Help me out, I'm a long user of n26, I've found bugs in the app - still in production - but can never escalate them to developers. Interactions with support is as easy as interacting with a different life form, independent of the problem the solution is always to unpair your device, reinstall the app.

Re: German digital bank N26 is facing outcry from its staff over management

#96
Seems like a good thread to ask then: What other digital bank options are there that are primarily EU based? N26 was the only one I found.

I keep seeing things like Monzo, Monese, Revolut but they're all UK based. Don't think they'd be too impacted by Brexit but nevertheless I'm looking for an EU-first solution.

Re: German digital bank N26 is facing outcry from its staff over management

#97
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not accurate at all - in comparison to the US . Obviously management having a pay disparity is common (which is in itself interesting, and economically not that obvious - more likely a social effect of a hierarchy), but the disparities in the US are larger. (The US has fairly extreme inequality compared to other wealthy countries, generally regardless of what you're looking at, so it comes as no surprise that it…

> It's not accurate at all - in comparison to the US. What? US SWE don't make significantly more money than EU-based SWEs? That's news, I'd love to see sources.

The pay differential between CEO's and workers in the US is larger than that in the Netherlands, which is larger than that in Germany.

In general, high earners earn more in the US, which includes both CEO's and SWE (but the point about how easy it is to fire people and about inequality was more general, not specifically about SWE).

Re: German digital bank N26 is facing outcry from its staff over management

#98
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Once you give an employee a permanent contract, you cannot fire them except for a set of reasons defined by law. Americans be like: "Shock! Awe! How would anyone ever hire an employee under such a requirement?!" (Meanwhile Netherlands unemployed rate is ~ 4.3%, and the US one at ~10 - and the latter with lots of under-reporting, e.g. people giving up looking for a job, and so on).

> Meanwhile Netherlands unemployed rate is ~ 4.3%, and the US one at ~10 To be fair this is not a very good comparison due to the European focus on job retention schemes vs the American focus on expanded unemployment insurance and stimulus cheques during the pandemic.

It's a tremendous comparison considering the European scheme worked and the American scheme was woefully inadequate and is causing incredible turmoil for tens of millions of people.

Re: German digital bank N26 is facing outcry from its staff over management

#99

Seems like a good thread to ask then: What other digital bank options are there that are primarily EU based? N26 was the only one I found. I keep seeing things like Monzo, Monese, Revolut but they're all UK based. Don't think they'd be too impacted by Brexit but nevertheless I'm looking for an EU-first solution.

Tomorrow (https://www.tomorrow.one/en-de/about) is based in Germany. They are focusing on financing green projects and so on. Not sure how successful they are… I have an account there and use it for Google Pay in Germany and it works fine, but it lacks a lot of features the big ones like Revolut have. Its completely fine for my use-case for mobile payments though.
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