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Thanks for the Bonus, I Quit

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Re: Thanks for the Bonus, I Quit

#591

Post by 74d-fe6-2c6 »

emodendroket wrote: post #531
74d-fe6-2c6 wrote: post #421

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> On the other hand, when you just go in to work, do a reasonable amount of effort, then you can work better with others with less stress, and in the end, who cares about "those few extra units"? That's exactly my MO. The extent to which many people start to overidentify with their job is almost comical. If they are lucky it may actually pay off at least. But more likely than not they are just deferring the inevitabl…

Yeah, of course it is. But you also spend a lot of time there, so I don't think it's unreasonable to try to find something you can be proud of delivering.

Sure. As long as you're able to deal with nobody else sharing that pride, expressing gratitude, offer a reward or even notice your feat. Then you're set. If not - you're up for a rude awakening many years later realizing that all those things you were proud of didn't make any actual difference - not even for yourself.

Re: Thanks for the Bonus, I Quit

#592

Post by adamsvystun »

dan-robertson wrote: post #69
taeric wrote: post #26

This is literally a plot point in Christmas Vacation. Is also why I think it is silly for startups to provide too many perks. It sets obvious precedent and will upset more folks when you stop. Find ways to invest in the company so that success is it's own perk. If the company truly has more, work that into raises where you clearly tie the income to the success of the company.

The typical startup problem like the above is a more extreme example of people mailing it in until bonuses are out: people mailing it in until the startup is acquired or goes public because the company is doing well and they lose their shares/options if they quit

By "they lose their shares/options if they quit" do you mean vesting? Because if you do, then you are not losing shares that you have already earned. And founders also have vesting.

Re: Thanks for the Bonus, I Quit

#593

Post by Closi »

gnfargbl wrote: post #378
Closi wrote: post #343

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or alternatively just accumulate holiday days the way it works in the rest of the western world! In the U.K. the rule is you accumulate holiday but all employees MUST take all their holiday before the end of the financial year. Employers must give at least 5.6 weeks of holiday to each employee, however can give more (either as a fixed amount or unlimited amount). There are some rules that let you roll holiday over to…

As a small caveat, the 5.6 weeks (28 days) is allowed to include the eight statutory bank holidays, and almost always does (i.e. the worker can't insist that they not be paid for the bank holiday, and take the holiday day some other time). So the minimum amount of non-discretionary holiday that a worker can accrue is usually four weeks. In practice the actual baseline offered in many jobs seems to be five weeks, plus…

As a further caveat, bank holidays are actually not different to the remaining holiday allowance in law.

Employers can dictate exactly when you take all of your holiday allowance by law, it’s just that this doesn’t happen in reality. Similarly they can force you to work bank holidays.

Re: Thanks for the Bonus, I Quit

#594

Post by foobiekr »

jedberg wrote: post #17

When I worked at eBay, we had a bonus program based on company revenue. It was around 6% of your salary max and managers got around 25% max based on the same formula. For the first few years, you could count on getting a max bonus every quarter. To the point where most everyone who worked there had always gotten one. And the one quarter, we didn't get the max bonus. In fact, I don't think we got it all. People scream…

One reason to do a company with variable comp is if you have a handshake agreement with the hiring manager that they will guarantee to the extent of their ability a high multiplier.

This approach is used a lot in companies where the average tech talent isn’t highly valued and so genuine talent is otherwise unattainable. It’s 100% misusing the system to overcome flaws elsewhere.

Re: Thanks for the Bonus, I Quit

#595

Post by foobiekr »

thedrbrian wrote: post #368
chii wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> success is it's own perk aka, equity compensation. Because i sure aint gonna consider it a perk if a CEO (or owners) to get richer, while i just get praise for making the success!

> Peter Gibbons: You see, Bob, it's not that I'm lazy, it's that I just don't even care. >Bob Porter: Don't- don't care? >Peter Gibbons: It's a problem of motivation, all right? Now if I work my ass off and Initech ships a few extra units, I don't see another dime, so where's the motivation? Before I started working at MASSIVE CORP I thought Office Space was a comedy.....

Preach on, brother.

I saw it in the theater when it came out and thought it was funny but obvious over-the-too satire. I was at a small company at the time.

About two months ago I decided to watch something and it popped up on the suggested items. I figured what the he’ll and watched it for the second time ever.

I work for a megacorp and have for most of the last decade.

If anything, office space is too subtle. Instead, I realize now that my reality would be so insane as to be considered unrealistic and too exaggerated. Even “Disrupted” doesn’t actually capture the insanity, dysfunction, etc.

I have joked/threatened for a few years that I would write a book about this place but as I compile an outline I keep asking myself if anyone who hadn’t already had the same experience would believe any of it. The mountain of mediocrity, sure, but the intrigues, scheming, backstabbing, insane and systemic incompetence in every domain? No way.

Re: Thanks for the Bonus, I Quit

#596

Post by maerF0x0 »

whatever_dude wrote: post #547
um_ya wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Employees forget that they sell their labor. Sell your labor to the highest bidder.

Counterpoint: they sell ~8 hours of their day. Selling that to the highest bidder ignores that there's different environments that might be better or worse for everyone's general sense of fulfilment. IMO, chasing highest pay only is a recipe for an unhappy life that only pays off on the short term. No one should sell themselves short, but choosing, say, a 100% worse environment or a dead-end technology stack for a 5%…

and choose the best, risk adjusted, choice over the long run. Subtract the costs (time, stress, health) and add the revenues (skills, $, network)

Re: Thanks for the Bonus, I Quit

#597

Post by foobiekr »

serial_dev wrote: post #390
thedrbrian wrote: post #368

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Peter Gibbons: You see, Bob, it's not that I'm lazy, it's that I just don't even care. >Bob Porter: Don't- don't care? >Peter Gibbons: It's a problem of motivation, all right? Now if I work my ass off and Initech ships a few extra units, I don't see another dime, so where's the motivation? Before I started working at MASSIVE CORP I thought Office Space was a comedy.....

When I come to the "I just don't even care" state, I start looking for another job. I was at a startup company that in my opinion got a great idea and with enough focus, we could have been successful. I always tried to think about the product, the impact, the roadmap, the quality... And after some time I realized that I just annoy the founders and I care and worry more about things then they do. So I decided to care…

Man I hear you.

That said, life is very short. Big companies are a great way to make pretty good comp in exchange for dealing with a ton of dysfunction. I know people who don’t get bothered by it at all - they separate themselves and their 8-10 hours a day and compartmentalize.

If you can’t do that, though ...

The only reason to work for mega corps once you’ve got enough in the way of assets that you are already dialed in for the normal retirement age is because you’re vesting out a package.

Re: Thanks for the Bonus, I Quit

#598

Post by maerF0x0 »

drfuchs wrote: post #581
maerF0x0 wrote: post #566

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They should be inexpensive; and your employer should be willing to give you a signing bonus to cover it (after all, the money just goes right back to them). The first part of this can be false. If you're 1/2 way to billions IPO then your options can easily be a year or more of salary to exercise. About the second part if the company gives you that as a signing bonus you're still on the hook to the IRS for the bonus…

If the company is half way to a big IPO, then any new hire is no longer "super early," and the advice doesn't pertain.

>Super-early employee here.

The advice giver is super-early, not the target of said advice.

But I agree that the advice is best suited for super-early people.

Re: Thanks for the Bonus, I Quit

#599

Post by [deleted] »

neilv wrote: post #36

The Alpha boxes were nice. A grad school officemate had previously worked at Thinking Machines, but, to do the number-crunching for his doctoral dissertation, he instead had a slightly-old Alpha workstation/server under his desk. He was big on efficiency (e.g., out of the lab by 5pm, but intensely focused while there), and I'm sure that him coding his models in C for a 64-bit dedicated Alpha box was more productive t…

[deleted]

Re: Thanks for the Bonus, I Quit

#600

Post by drfuchs »

maerF0x0 wrote: post #598
drfuchs wrote: post #581

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the company is half way to a big IPO, then any new hire is no longer "super early," and the advice doesn't pertain.

>Super-early employee here. The advice giver is super-early, not the target of said advice. But I agree that the advice is best suited for super-early people.

The target of the advice specifically asked about the super-early case: "How many super early employees are..."
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