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Thanks for the Bonus, I Quit

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Re: Thanks for the Bonus, I Quit

#101

Post by um_ya »

m463 wrote: post #90
adamcharnock wrote: post #57

This reminds me of my first job as a developer, age 21. I haven’t shared it before, so here goes... There was a ‘crunch’ coming up at work (i.e. IMHO, bad planning) and so the boss offered everyone a bonus if they performed well. However, the older employees warned me that the criteria for such bonuses were often ill-defined. I therefore pushed for clear achievable objectives. These pre-agreed objectives were promise…

> After that I went freelance. And 15 years later I can say it was the best decision ever. Every time I've left a job, I've been uncertain and conflicted. Every. Time. Then, a week or two into the new job... Every. Time. ...I thought, "Wow! I should have done this sooner!"

Employees forget that they sell their labor. Sell your labor to the highest bidder.

Re: Thanks for the Bonus, I Quit

#102

Post by khuey »

mulmen wrote: post #65
dilyevsky wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If i recall the same happened when google replaced their holiday gift phone with donation to some charities they picked.

Wait what? Who gets the tax break there?

It should be a wash either way unless someone falls into some weird edge case where deductions are limited. The corporation is deducting the payment either way, either as comp paid out to employees or as a charitable donation directly.

Re: Thanks for the Bonus, I Quit

#103

Post by mcny »

mulmen wrote: post #65
dilyevsky wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If i recall the same happened when google replaced their holiday gift phone with donation to some charities they picked.

Wait what? Who gets the tax break there?

If it is a thousand dollar donation, what am I going to do with the tax break? I still have to take a standard deduction. What am I missing?

Re: Thanks for the Bonus, I Quit

#104

Post by jefftk »

hrocha1 wrote: post #68
shubik22 wrote: post #59

This reminds me of the holiday gifts at Google. By the time I joined, Google had already switched from physical gifts (e.g. a new Pixel) to allowing each employee to choose a charity to which Google.org would donate $1,000. Even years later, there was still bitterness among the employee base about the holiday gift. It was a bit mystifying to me (as I never had the expectation of a $400 electronic for a holiday gift f…

Step 1. create a charity that would "adopt" Google employees and give them Pixel phones Step 2. choose that charity and pick yourself for an adoption

That's not going to qualify for 501(c)(3) status: https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/charitable-organiz...

Re: Thanks for the Bonus, I Quit

#105

Post by heuroci »

Thank you for writing this. you brought back some good young adulthood memories of VMS, OSF/1 and Tru64. All seemed like alien technologies at the time :). Thank you for your service and hard work

Re: Thanks for the Bonus, I Quit

#107

Post by heymijo »

jedberg wrote: post #17

When I worked at eBay, we had a bonus program based on company revenue. It was around 6% of your salary max and managers got around 25% max based on the same formula. For the first few years, you could count on getting a max bonus every quarter. To the point where most everyone who worked there had always gotten one. And the one quarter, we didn't get the max bonus. In fact, I don't think we got it all. People scream…

Compensation is like hygiene. When it's taken care of, no one notices. When it's not, things begin to stink.

Drucker was talking about this 50 years ago. I think he got the idea from Herzberg [0].

There is so much knowledge that is not yet Common Knowledge. Instead we see the same mistakes on repeat.

[0] https://www.managementstudyhq.com/herzbergs-two-factor-theor...

Re: Thanks for the Bonus, I Quit

#108

Post by fuzzythinker »

sillysaurusx wrote: post #96
fuzzythinker wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ouch, 25% vs. 6%. That's how they value managers vs. (engineers? or everyone else?). Sad.

I'm surprised there isn't more discussion on this. That's more than 4x more for managers than engineers.

Yes, 4x is a big gap, not just % wise, but dollar wise too. I'm sure they don't talk about it during the interview. But if somehow that information slipped in during interview, I would honestly just thank them for the time and walk out because I would never work for a company that believes in the large gap of the output of the 2 groups.

Re: Thanks for the Bonus, I Quit

#109

Post by heuroci »

sneak wrote: post #2

This is really making me want to buy an Alpha on ebay. Is there an OS that has ever had a better name than "Digital Unix"?

I bought some 10+ years ago, and they are in storage, and I am also feeling that urge to go dust them off and power them up. If memory serves, I think I ran netbsd on them.

Re: Thanks for the Bonus, I Quit

#110

Post by dhosek »

m463 wrote: post #88
taeric wrote: post #26

This is literally a plot point in Christmas Vacation. Is also why I think it is silly for startups to provide too many perks. It sets obvious precedent and will upset more folks when you stop. Find ways to invest in the company so that success is it's own perk. If the company truly has more, work that into raises where you clearly tie the income to the success of the company.

> Is also why I think it is silly for startups to provide too many perks Should the opposite be true as well? Startup employees going home at 5 and fighting unreasonable schedules?

Absolutely.
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