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Oxide’s compensation model: how is it going?

oxide.computer

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Re: Oxide’s compensation model: how is it going?

#91

Post by whazor »

I have personally followed the same strategy, but at the expense of my ‘career development’. Trying to perform well or getting a promotion can be a lot of unproductive effort.

I think the only downside of 100% uniformity is that you don’t hire and train junior engineers, which should also be like a duty. While you could pay juniors the exact same salary, this might give that person a lot of stress (“ concerned that they aren’t doing enough“). One solution could be to offer traineeships, where the you offer actual coaching for a fixed duration. While clear goals like: finishing first small task, first doc, led first initiative. Then automatically completing after one or two years.

Re: Oxide’s compensation model: how is it going?

#92

Post by parrit »

steveklabnik wrote: post #35
parrit wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah $175k plus 30% say stake in high growth company plus already owns home plus parents help woth kids and they own home nearby is different to $175k none of above.

That $175k was pre-pandemic, as the post says, it's $207,264 now. I'd also say that you're presuming a lot about the lifestyle of some strangers on the internet.

That's the point. "$175k is good enough for me" doesn't mean much, especially as they also have a large stake in the company (not an assumption) as well as possibly other advantages (or not, they dont divulge).

Don't get me wrong. Rethinking comp is great and they are paying well. But you can't make the argument that X is enough for founders (plus let's forget equity!!) and so X is generous for everyone.

Re: Oxide’s compensation model: how is it going?

#93

Post by sshine »

__jonas wrote: post #64
michaelt wrote: post #23

> One of the more incredible (and disturbingly frequent) objections I have heard is: "But is that what you’ll pay support folks?" I continue to find this question offensive, but I no longer find it surprising: the specific dismissal of support roles reveals a widespread and corrosive devaluation of those closest to customers. The easy way to "pay everyone the same amount" when you sorta don't want to is to outsource…

Not sure what you're saying, are you implying Oxide is doing this?

They inevitably are, because anyone who has a service subscription is doing this.

Because doing every single thing in-house is a different, more extreme value.

I'd love to be a $207k/mo. lunch lady.

Re: Oxide’s compensation model: how is it going?

#94

Post by carstenhag »

I understand that currently (and maybe because you are "only" 75 employees) it feels fair for everyone, or people are even feeling bad about it. Also it sets the bar high when hiring someone, I get that.

But what if in a year or two a person is not so great anymore? Just by my own past work experience at 2-3 companies, there were always some colleagues that were definitely not good at their job (and this was pretty much common knowledge, multiple people had the same opinion). Maybe they were good at the beginning, or not even then. I would have felt it to be super unfair for them to get the same money, or the same salary bump as me.

Re: Oxide’s compensation model: how is it going?

#95

Post by steveklabnik »

sshine wrote: post #93
__jonas wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure what you're saying, are you implying Oxide is doing this?

They inevitably are, because anyone who has a service subscription is doing this. Because doing every single thing in-house is a different, more extreme value. I'd love to be a $207k/mo. lunch lady.

We do not currently have any lunch ladies, outsourced or in-house.

Re: Oxide’s compensation model: how is it going?

#96

Post by sunshowers »

abxyz wrote: post #48

I like it a lot and their thoughtfulness about it but it's a little hollow when they're spending investor money. I'd like to see how this model evolves once they're off the vc teat: when there's a bottom line to answer to, does the dynamic shift? Everyone has an on-site chef when the money vc hose is on. Valve's flat structure was exciting because it wasn't 3 vc's in a coat larping as a business, it was an actual pro…

I work at Oxide, and support engineering is worth far more than that. It literally means the rest of us don't have to be on customer oncall all the time — I've spent long stretches of my career doing that and it's extraordinarily stressful. Do you know how valuable that can be?

Re: Oxide’s compensation model: how is it going?

#97

Post by steveklabnik »

parrit wrote: post #92
steveklabnik wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That $175k was pre-pandemic, as the post says, it's $207,264 now. I'd also say that you're presuming a lot about the lifestyle of some strangers on the internet.

That's the point. "$175k is good enough for me" doesn't mean much, especially as they also have a large stake in the company (not an assumption) as well as possibly other advantages (or not, they dont divulge). Don't get me wrong. Rethinking comp is great and they are paying well. But you can't make the argument that X is enough for founders (plus let's forget equity!!) and so X is generous for everyone.

We all receive equity.

Re: Oxide’s compensation model: how is it going?

#98

Post by zem »

steveklabnik wrote: post #69
zem wrote: post #60

I looked at the careers page and could not see any administrative roles - I wonder it they pay the same for these (very impressive if so) or outsource those roles to staffing agencies.

I don't believe we have any traditional dedicated administrative staff at the moment. We're certainly not outsourcing any kind of employees, to my knowledge. (EDIT: I'm told we do currently outsource accounting, I don't interact with that part of the business so I wouldn't know about it, heh. We do have one dedicated finance employee but that's a recent hire.)

interesting! how are the administrative tasks managed, or are there just not that many of them? I've worked for a pretty small startup that still had a dedicated admin person who had a ton of stuff to do, though maybe Indian companies need that more.

Re: Oxide’s compensation model: how is it going?

#99

Post by sunshowers »

sshine wrote: post #93
__jonas wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure what you're saying, are you implying Oxide is doing this?

They inevitably are, because anyone who has a service subscription is doing this. Because doing every single thing in-house is a different, more extreme value. I'd love to be a $207k/mo. lunch lady.

We all do our part, but our CEO is ultimately responsible for dish duty at the office.

Re: Oxide’s compensation model: how is it going?

#100

Post by steveklabnik »

zem wrote: post #98
steveklabnik wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't believe we have any traditional dedicated administrative staff at the moment. We're certainly not outsourcing any kind of employees, to my knowledge. (EDIT: I'm told we do currently outsource accounting, I don't interact with that part of the business so I wouldn't know about it, heh. We do have one dedicated finance employee but that's a recent hire.)

interesting! how are the administrative tasks managed, or are there just not that many of them? I've worked for a pretty small startup that still had a dedicated admin person who had a ton of stuff to do, though maybe Indian companies need that more.

What kinds of tasks are you asking about, specifically? Admin can be pretty far-ranging.
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