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Basecamp Employee Handbook

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Re: Basecamp Employee Handbook

#101

Post by maxxxxx »

stevenwu wrote: post #17

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Allowance Fresh, organic, local fruits and vegetables are great to have on-hand, so we'd also like to offer a CSA membership to you. Finding a local provider will be up to you, but you can expense the cost of a seasonal or annual CSA share as an employee benefit, up to $1,000/year. Count that as a perk I've never heard of before. Cool peek into how a company that works remotely c…

I don't really like this kind of perk. Just give me the cash and I can decide what to do.

Re: Basecamp Employee Handbook

#102

Post by sotojuan »

dejv wrote: post #80
tptacek wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

6 paid weeks parental leave for secondary caregivers puts them in the top tier of "major" companies, as does 16 weeks paid for primary caregivers; that's more than Google offered a few years ago. It's a bit disingenuous to zero in on the unpaid leave policy; what they're saying is, if you need more than 6 weeks, they'll try to work something out with you, and it'll probably be fine. They're being explicit about somet…

As a father of 11 month old, I can't imagine how people can live with just 6 or even 16 weeks of maternity leave. Even after almost one year it feels like care is (at least) full time job, which would be quite hard to outsource. In my EU country you will get up to three years of paid maternity leave per child, so I guess I am just spoiled.

Whenever I am ready to have children, I'm going remote. It's far from a perfect solution, but at least I'm close to my children.

Re: Basecamp Employee Handbook

#103

Post by mattste »

AVTizzle wrote: post #64

There's a few comments here pointing out their rules for wiping company data from devices when traveling through customs. As a frequent international traveler, I feel naive here... can anyone point out any resources as to why this is best practice? What's on the line here, and what's going on that we need to be aware of?

The EFF has an excellent guide on this that goes through all of the details[0].

[0]: https://www.eff.org/wp/digital-privacy-us-border-2017

Re: Basecamp Employee Handbook

#104

Post by korzun »

raz32dust wrote: post #83
dejv wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a father of 11 month old, I can't imagine how people can live with just 6 or even 16 weeks of maternity leave. Even after almost one year it feels like care is (at least) full time job, which would be quite hard to outsource. In my EU country you will get up to three years of paid maternity leave per child, so I guess I am just spoiled.

3 years sounds extreme. How is a person supposed to run a business with that kind of law? More than 6 months paid leave is too long from a business perspective. The government can tax and guarantee income, but I am not for paid parental leave > 6 months paid by businesses.

> 3 years sounds extreme. How is a person supposed to run a business with that kind of law?

Easy, just take a look at companies in EU outside of Germany. The three years of paid maternity leave is slowly turning into lifetime unemployment for a lot of people. Then we act surprised when the companies are scared of hiring full time and decide to leave and take most of the jobs away with them.

Re: Basecamp Employee Handbook

#105

Post by fooster »

herge wrote: post #75
fooster wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So how to non-US companies manage to do that? 51 weeks is mandatory in Canada for example.

It's paid out of unemployment insurance funds from the government.

I know how the leave is payed for (although most companies top up the meagre payout from the government). My question was to the point:

> 50 person companies can't as a rule guarantee year-long parental leave

That is clearly not legal or even true in most civilized countries.

Re: Basecamp Employee Handbook

#106

Post by run4yourlives2 »

raz32dust wrote: post #83
dejv wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a father of 11 month old, I can't imagine how people can live with just 6 or even 16 weeks of maternity leave. Even after almost one year it feels like care is (at least) full time job, which would be quite hard to outsource. In my EU country you will get up to three years of paid maternity leave per child, so I guess I am just spoiled.

3 years sounds extreme. How is a person supposed to run a business with that kind of law? More than 6 months paid leave is too long from a business perspective. The government can tax and guarantee income, but I am not for paid parental leave > 6 months paid by businesses.

You don't force businesses to pay directly, you set up a government benefit (payroll tax) that is then used to fund things like mat/pat leaves.

Here in Canada, we get a year that can be divided in different ways. Almost everyone takes it when they have kids, so it's the norm. We pay for it (60% salary to a hard max IIRC) through "Employment Insurance" which is basically a jointly funded payroll tax. Employers can choose to top up if they want. Some do.

Honestly, I can't imagine any other way of getting through that first yet without this set up.

Re: Basecamp Employee Handbook

#107

Post by run4yourlives2 »

kayhi wrote: post #46
tptacek wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

50 person companies can't as a rule guarantee year-long parental leave; that's just not realistic. They can do their best to make it work, but no company of this size in this kind of market can make promises like that.

"Employees at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the largest private foundation in the world, will be able to enjoy up to one year of paid time with their newborns during the child's first year after birth or adoption starting next year." - Business Insider

So basically a "super generous" company in the US is basically the average of the rest of the western world.

That's pretty amazing in and of itself.

Re: Basecamp Employee Handbook

#108

Post by walshemj »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #70
mr_ndrsn wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is. We're hiring for Ops, too! https://m.signalvnoise.com/become-the-newest-member-of-our-o... Looking to spread our timezones a bit more, hoping to see lots of EU/Pac applicants!

Looking at the job req, it mentions the expectation is for 5 minute response times when you're on call (from alert to being online) and that you're on call one week a month. Is the compensation provided in line with essentially working 24 hours a day for a week once per month? https://basecamp.workable.com/j/A5A189B311 "We have a shared on call responsibility which is about 1 week (5 week days, and 2 weekend days) a…

I think 5 mins is unrealistic 20-30 mins from the call to being logged on and working is more realistic and you are of course paid plus TOIL for this on call?

If anyone had an old school pager go of when you are deep asleep you will know that it can take 20 mins and a coffee just to be in the right state to work :-)

Re: Basecamp Employee Handbook

#109

Post by stinkytaco »

santaclaus wrote: post #73
stevenwu wrote: post #17

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Allowance Fresh, organic, local fruits and vegetables are great to have on-hand, so we'd also like to offer a CSA membership to you. Finding a local provider will be up to you, but you can expense the cost of a seasonal or annual CSA share as an employee benefit, up to $1,000/year. Count that as a perk I've never heard of before. Cool peek into how a company that works remotely c…

> Count that as a perk I've never heard of before. A company I used to work for used to send people to the local farmers markets and stock up the kitchen at work. Employees were allowed to take home whatever they wanted and to cook whatever they wanted at lunch -- it was awesome! You quickly learn to make friends with the skilled amateur chefs in your department.

As a skilled amateur chef myself, this would be awesome. I feel pretty strongly about the power of a shared meal and I make an effort to regularly make meals for groups. I think being able to share a meal as coworkers would be a fantastic workplace team builder that wouldn't take that much investment on the part of a company.

Re: Basecamp Employee Handbook

#110

Post by cloakandswagger »

dejv wrote: post #80
tptacek wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

6 paid weeks parental leave for secondary caregivers puts them in the top tier of "major" companies, as does 16 weeks paid for primary caregivers; that's more than Google offered a few years ago. It's a bit disingenuous to zero in on the unpaid leave policy; what they're saying is, if you need more than 6 weeks, they'll try to work something out with you, and it'll probably be fine. They're being explicit about somet…

As a father of 11 month old, I can't imagine how people can live with just 6 or even 16 weeks of maternity leave. Even after almost one year it feels like care is (at least) full time job, which would be quite hard to outsource. In my EU country you will get up to three years of paid maternity leave per child, so I guess I am just spoiled.

I think even 3 years is a little problematic. What are you supposed to do, take care of your child until they're 3 years old and then just go back to work?

Every company should be legally obligated to provide 18 years of paid leave for each child a worker has. Anything less is signaling that they value money over the personal and family life of their employees, and it's ridiculous that I still haven't found a country or business that offers this.

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