Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Cutting your salary by 40%

codewithoutrules.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 451 posts

Re: Cutting your salary by 40%

#11

Post by aetherson »

chrisseaton wrote: post #6
foo101 wrote: 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?

I mean, sure. But if you have a typical programming job, it's not like there's a clean finish line. There's always more work to do, but at some point you need to pack up and go home for the night.

Re: Cutting your salary by 40%

#13

Post by shados »

chrisseaton wrote: post #6
foo101 wrote: 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?

Not really. Most of mines have had stuff like "the employee will work the amount of time needed to get stuff done", worded in legalese. Which is kind of the definition of being salaried, so it makes sense.

Re: Cutting your salary by 40%

#14

Post by bretpiatt »

quuquuquu wrote: post #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.

Some businesses are run in sprint mode (not agile style sprint) and others are run in marathon mode. For those trying to build a lasting business with a consistent group of employees you can only run in marathon mode.

If you're looking for businesses who operate in marathon mode you may have to look outside SF/SV or NYC (those are the top 2 markets for long hours built into the economic model and high employee turnover). Once the economic model for an area is based on 50-70 hour weeks then it gets baked into pay, baked into cost of living, etc. This is certainly a longer topic than I have time to comment on right now fully.

Re: Cutting your salary by 40%

#15

Post by raverbashing »

Oh I think they're on point (with what they want) with that ad

They want the technical wizard with no social life that will give some years for the company while being paid ~50% less. They call it "strong work ethic" I call accepting such position "being naive"

Thanks but no thanks

Re: Cutting your salary by 40%

#16

Post by dx034 »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #9
quuquuquu wrote: post #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.

> 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.

Not sure if economic problems really come from long work days. Otherwise it'd be easy to boost the economy by forcing people to work less.

I totally agree with the health problems it causes though.

Re: Cutting your salary by 40%

#17

Post by lukevers »

Ascetik wrote: post #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.…

That sounds really horrible. I'd rather be out of a job than work for some place like that.

What kind of a job are you looking for? I assume you're some kind of engineer, but on my phone so didn't look into anything.

Re: Cutting your salary by 40%

#18

Post by UK-AL »

Ascetik wrote: post #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.…

""Time to put on your big-boy pants" which is ironic since most experienced developers i know work less, and stick to contracted hours.

Re: Cutting your salary by 40%

#20

Post by quickben »

Ascetik wrote: post #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.…

Keep it professional. Next time he tries to manage you by stress, respond:"okay so let's discuss overtime pay multiplications".

He wants you to do more, he won't fire you, so he only has to see the costs properly and understand that you are more serious about the overtime than him.

I have one kid so far, and zero overtime, I can't even imagine how it will be with three.

Post reply on HN