Live data from Hacker News

Cutting your salary by 40%

codewithoutrules.com

1–10 of 451 posts

Re: Cutting your salary by 40%

#2
The original job postings[1][2] were even more egregious. They originally said, "many of us routinely work 70-90 hours/week".

After a lot of criticism on a Facebook post by Andrew Ng[3] (where you can still find residual evidence of the "work 70-90 hours/week" claim), they modified it to, "many of us routinely work and study 70+ hours a week".

So to be precise, they were initially offering you a 43% to 56% pay cut.

Getting paid for 40 hours when you have worked for 70 hours is a 100 * (1.0 - 40 / 70) ≈ 43% pay cut.

Getting paid for 40 hours when you have worked for 90 hours is a 100 * (1.0 - 40 / 90) ≈ 56% pay cut.

[1]: https://www.deeplearning.ai/machinelearningsoftwareengjobdes...

[2]: https://www.deeplearning.ai/fullstacksoftwareengineerjobdesc...

[3]: https://www.facebook.com/andrew.ng.96/posts/1472272026162033

Re: Cutting your salary by 40%

#3
post #2

The original job postings[1][2] were even more egregious. They originally said, "many of us routinely work 70-90 hours/week". After a lot of criticism on a Facebook post by Andrew Ng[3] (where you can still find residual evidence of the "work 70-90 hours/week" claim), they modified it to, "many of us routinely work and study 70+ hours a week". So to be precise, they were initially offering you a 43% to 56% pay cut. G…

Does trawling HN for Github repositories and blog posts count as study? Gotta get that market research done somehow!

Re: Cutting your salary by 40%

#4
Cool post!

What happens when every company is doing this ritual?

I'm starting to notice a very bad trend. Just like how LA has record numbers of homeless people, it also has a high vacancy rate.

Similarly, despite plenty of "open positions", candidates are being denied left right and center, even as they do their best to signal that they will do anything for the job.

Re: Cutting your salary by 40%

#5
Tangential: I loved the "When programming is your hobby" part of this blog post. Finally someone accepting, and not dissing, people who actually like to code. The advice is spot-on, too: coding > 40h / week is fine, but why give up your freedom of choosing what to work on, when to work on it, and when to take time off, without any compensation?

Re: Cutting your salary by 40%

#6
post #2

The original job postings[1][2] were even more egregious. They originally said, "many of us routinely work 70-90 hours/week". After a lot of criticism on a Facebook post by Andrew Ng[3] (where you can still find residual evidence of the "work 70-90 hours/week" claim), they modified it to, "many of us routinely work and study 70+ hours a week". So to be precise, they were initially offering you a 43% to 56% pay cut. G…

> Getting paid for 40 hours

Do salaried jobs always specify a number of hours in their contracts? Otherwise you aren't being paid for 40 hours - you're just being paid to get the job done aren't you?

Re: Cutting your salary by 40%

#8
post #2

The original job postings[1][2] were even more egregious. They originally said, "many of us routinely work 70-90 hours/week". After a lot of criticism on a Facebook post by Andrew Ng[3] (where you can still find residual evidence of the "work 70-90 hours/week" claim), they modified it to, "many of us routinely work and study 70+ hours a week". So to be precise, they were initially offering you a 43% to 56% pay cut. G…

> Getting paid for 40 hours Do salaried jobs always specify a number of hours in their contracts? Otherwise you aren't being paid for 40 hours - you're just being paid to get the job done aren't you?

They should, because if they would instead offer an amount per week or month without the hours, employees could just decide to only put in 4 hours a day. Contracts work both ways. Also the definition of "getting the job done" would also have to be defined in the contract somewhere.

The job advert also states "full-time", which IIRC implies a certain hours a week.

Re: Cutting your salary by 40%

#9

Cool post! What happens when every company is doing this ritual? I'm starting to notice a very bad trend. Just like how LA has record numbers of homeless people, it also has a high vacancy rate. Similarly, despite plenty of "open positions", candidates are being denied left right and center, even as they do their best to signal that they will do anything for the job.

> What happens when every company is doing this ritual?

Just look at Japan to see what a 12+ hour / day work culture looks like. Their population and their economy are both slowly going down the shitter thanks to it, depression is widespread, etc.

Re: Cutting your salary by 40%

#10
To add to this, I recently got let go from my job 2 weeks ago . With that said, my boss routinely tried to guilt trip me because I didn't want to work more than 40hrs a week. I have 2 very small children and my wife is pregnant, I can't spend all my time working, nor do I have any desire to. There were a few times I put in a couple of 60hr weeks, but that was only to appease him, not because I felt it was necessary. Like I said, my boss would bully me with phrases like "When CAN YOU work after hours?" "You're a 40hr work week kind of guy" "Time to put on your big-boy pants" and other totally demeaning comments. This was for an IT managed service provider.

The real clincher was that I was let go the day I got back from vacation. The first thing after he said "I gotta let you go" was "You didn't check in at all on your vacation".

That was incredibly disrespectful to me and shows a total lack of empathy for me and my family. I am happy to no longer work for him, although I am in a bit of a financial bind now.

Post reply on HN