You could also use this as a potential lever in discussing future compensation increases. If they claimed perk x was worth $y but now they are scaling it back to $z then $y-z should be put back into your base as you no longer receive the perk.
Google's "free food" is not free
11–20 of 181 posts
Re: Google's "free food" is not free
#12Has rachelbythebay ever written a post that is not about bashing Google as evil or all engineers as sexist?
Notice what she does not mention: Google massively increased salaries during the same time period, including the 10% across the board bump.
Re: Google's "free food" is not free
#13There's a possibility that a lot of un-eaten food was being wasted, so Google cut back to reduce food waste.
ie. being green.
Lot of conjecture in this article.
Re: Google's "free food" is not free
#14I worked at a place with free food and this exact thing happened. At first it was order any two meals off seamlessweb.com a day. Then it was order one meal, which meant people ordered enough food for two or three meals once a day. Then there were spending limits. Then there was a "town hall meeting" the CEO claimed he had been doing some investigations an came across a worker who was drinking ten cans of coke a day. Out of concern for our health, they would be eliminating all beverages except water coolers. Then meals were only free for certain people. Then free meals went away.
It is easy to eliminate these kinds of perks because many people will be in favor of cost cutting. Not so for salary, not many people will argue in favor of across the board salary cuts. I'll take salary every time.
Re: Google's "free food" is not free
#15The most important rule of salary negotiation:
Always let them make an offer first. If you're lucky it's higher than what you would have proposed, so you'll just accept it.
If it's lower you just continue to negotiate.
Re: Google's "free food" is not free
#16better perks can mean less money. this is not news.
Maybe you should read the article - the argument was that while yes, perks were offered as a reason to accept a smaller wage, they were then gradually eliminated without changing the wage.
What about that 10% raise the whole company got?
Re: Google's "free food" is not free
#17I'm writing a post on salary negotiation today, so I zeroed in on two supporting details here that you should remember for later: when pressed on price, savvy negotiators said: 1) Give us some time to think about it. 2) We are going to re-focus the discussion on a different compensation lever where we can present something you're already going to get as if it were a new incentive justifying your concession on a lever…
Way to put a positive spin on the article :)
Don't forget the lesson though -- if you use an extra-curricular in a negotiation it's no longer extra-curricular.
Re: Google's "free food" is not free
#18The most important rule of salary negotiation: Always let them make an offer first. If you're lucky it's higher than what you would have proposed, so you'll just accept it. If it's lower you just continue to negotiate.
I've heard that tactic before, and it's a good one.
However, how do you force them to give you a number first? The only tactic I can think of is to say 'give me market rates'. One time, they just kept pressing for more and more of a number until I blurted out something. In this case it was $80k, in a Rocky Mountain state, in 2004, fresh out of college. I don't think it worked in my favor.
Re: Google's "free food" is not free
#19Has rachelbythebay ever written a post that is not about bashing Google as evil or all engineers as sexist? Notice what she does not mention: Google massively increased salaries during the same time period, including the 10% across the board bump.
> Has rachelbythebay ever written a post that is not about bashing Google as evil or all engineers as sexist?
Suppose Hitler said exercising is good for health. Now Hitler was one sick son of a bitch, but that has nothing to do with whether exercising is good.
May be rachelbythebay holds a grudge against Google, but here she is specifically pointing out negotiators taking free food into account while negotiating, cafes closing down and shortage of food.
I don't know about you, but her article sounds pretty genuine to me.
That might be because I dislike the "green initiatives." Most of the "green initiatives" are done as a PR move or cost cutting measure, totally disregarding the employees.
At an earlier workplace, man, was I pissed when they replaced the urinal flushes with bio cubes. Thankfully, it didn't last long(1 week).
Another workplace switched off escalators after 5 in the evening, even though the escalators were the auto on/off model, and didn't consume much power when they weren't actively used. What pissed me off more was when there was some HR conference going on in the same building, the power saving mode wasn't engaged.
I remember the conversation with a senior folk:
Me: Hey, escalators are working today?
Oh, there is a HR conference going up on the 2nd floor, and people need to use it.
Me: Has it ever fucking occurred to you that there are engineers working on the 3rd floor, who regularly stay well after 5, and need to use the escalators?
Oh, you can use the stairs or the elevator in the other section? Come on, it's not a big deal - we are being green.
Re: Google's "free food" is not free
#20The most important rule of salary negotiation: Always let them make an offer first. If you're lucky it's higher than what you would have proposed, so you'll just accept it. If it's lower you just continue to negotiate.
Also, if you're somehow pressured into making the first offer, aim high and let them negotiate down from there.