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At this company, we are family

pboyd.io

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Re: At this company, we are family

#181

Post by TylerE »

cryptonector wrote: post #167
jraby3 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m not convinced Americans pay less in taxes. When you include state taxes, social security from the employee and employer, then it starts to look like much less of a difference. When you include health insurance and college education, Americans get much less value. I do agree with the first half of your comment. American labor laws make it easier to fire which allows employers to take more risk in hiring.

> When you include state taxes, social security from the employee and employer, then it starts to look like much less of a difference. When you count just the taxes we definitely pay less, especially in places like Texas and Florida. Well, I suppose there's the budget deficit and national debt to consider, though yours aren't exactly great either. Well, except that there's a middle income trap with social security ta…

Texas has the highest property taxes in the country, so it is false to think that moving to Texas (or Florida, with their insurance nightmares) is some sort of free-money trick.

Re: At this company, we are family

#182

Post by Dalewyn »

EduardoBautista wrote: post #149
burnished wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is 20% up to 37k, 40% after that through 125k, and 45% after that. The US federal income tax is graduated much more finely but hits 12% between 10k and 42k and 22% from there to 89k, and 24% until 140k. This neglects any state income or sales tax as well.

US sales taxes are about half of most European countries, which have VAT.

Just stopping by to mention, for the non-Americans, that taxes as in the plural is important here: Sales taxes here in the US vary at the municipal, county, and state levels and any or all can apply towards your purchases at the same time.

Re: At this company, we are family

#183

Post by AlexandrB »

xyzelement wrote: post #108
sillysaurusx wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So creepy. It’s an employment contract, nothing more.

Sorry but you are really missing the point in my experience. I'll give you a non-tech example. We had a great nanny for our son. She went above and beyond, treating him like a grandson. We went above and beyond for her (max flexibility, paying her days when she couldn't work, lots of bonuses and gifts, etc.) Both of us exceeded the "employment contract" - gave more than we had to and we both came out ahead. That only…

The thing that makes "family" different from another organization is what happens at the extremes, not day to day. When you're down on your luck, failed completely, and lost everything your family will still be there to help you and take care of you. Your company will not. Trying to create confusion around this concept is deceptive. A family is not just a bunch of people who are nice to each other when times are good.

Re: At this company, we are family

#184

Post by TylerE »

RestlessMind wrote: post #178
jraby3 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m not convinced Americans pay less in taxes. When you include state taxes, social security from the employee and employer, then it starts to look like much less of a difference. When you include health insurance and college education, Americans get much less value. I do agree with the first half of your comment. American labor laws make it easier to fire which allows employers to take more risk in hiring.

> college education College education can be had for super cheap in the US via community colleges. Going to an expensive college is a lifestyle choice and I know many people who spend first 2 years in local community colleges and then move to the state college system.

Not as cheap as it used to be. Here in NC, just those last 2 years at a state school, instate costs (NOT including lodging or other living expenses) are almost $40,000. Not nothing.

Re: At this company, we are family

#185

Post by Dalewyn »

nightski wrote: post #165
angarg12 wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I moved from the UK to the US recently and I'm not sure it's worth my while. Sure, I make more than 2x the salary, but the cost of living of a bit tech hub chips away most of it. Specially housing, which has increased dramatically since Covid. Even with my big fat tech salary, getting in the properly ladder seems to be years away. Pay less taxes? sure, but then you have to pay for everything and then some, and everyt…

The key is to not live in a tech hub or hcol area. You can make a great salary in the 200-300k range in lower cost of living areas and basically live like royalty.

Between the tech industry particularly leaning well towards remote work and the US being predominantly rural countryside geographically, more people should consider not living in the big cities where housing and costs of living are exponentially higher.

Re: At this company, we are family

#186

Post by hintymad »

I thought after Netflix's culture deck and Reed Hoffman's book Alliance, it would be pretty clear that a company is not a family. It could an alliance, it could be a professional sports team, or it could be some business entity, but definitely not a family. I particularly like the concept of alliance, as it reflects the reality. Well, I guess the memo is not as well known as I thought.

Re: At this company, we are family

#187

Post by that_guy_iain »

Arisaka1 wrote: post #51

My first job was with a "we are a family" company, they used stupid names for the employees internally but also in the job post, together with an emoji spam that couldn't say "how you do fellow kids?" any harder, ask to "see yourself like an entrepreneur" and "be the leader of your own ideas" obviously taking far less than the actual company owners. After a while I had to resign due to mental health problem manifesti…

Here is my takeaway from this.

This was your first and only job. (Therapy is still on going and a month ago you asked what is happening and got some feedback about someone else quitting.) Which is why you don't understand the 2 weeks notice isn't just for you to be productive but to help hand things over.

Realistically, your former colleagues probably had to figure out what you had done and not done. This will leave a nasty after taste.

My understanding is that 2 weeks notice is more of a being nice and not actually required. Most companies won't give you any more notice than they're legally required to. Therefore, I have no problem with people giving them the legally minimum notice.

But overall, you'll find there are many times where you just need to force yourself to work. This is probably a skill you should learn if you need a job to survive.

Re: At this company, we are family

#188

Post by 6D794163636F756 »

profile53 wrote: post #76
jylam wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "I do agree with the first half of your comment. American labor laws make it easier to fire which allows employers to take more risk in hiring. " less risk, you used the wrong word. If they can fire easily, they take less risk by hiring. That's more risk for the employee though, you miss the fact that most of the people is not HN, and they don't get paid 6 or 7 figures and don't find a job in days if they really ne…

I think they take less risk in each hiring decision and because of that, can take on more risky / less proven candidates, ergo more risk acceptance in the hiring practices.

To rephrase, you're saying that US companies are able to more quickly divest from failed ideas so they are more willing to take on a venture that's not likely to succeed (risky) because failure will not hurt them as much (less risky).

This is a scoping issue, the action contains the risk because the system has mitigated it.

Re: At this company, we are family

#189

Post by notaustinpowers »

Brusco_RF wrote: post #175
notaustinpowers wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Typically not, but they absolutely feed into the higher-ups perception of you. I worked at a company an hour away from my home. So anytime we had our monthly post-work happy hour, I'd politely decline and go home. Especially as I know they'll be out until 10pm. During one of my reviews it was mentioned that it's disappointing I don't attend the happy hours as that's when the team is able to connect and strengthen our…

Look I'm not saying you need to stay out drinking until 10pm but team-building is important to any job, especially if you're a leader, and much of that team cohesiveness happens outside of work hours. It's not too surprising if skipping all team-building events results in... not being a part of the team

1: I attended every department team building meeting we hosted every weekday morning.

2: I hosted every company-wide team building meeting every Tuesday morning.

3: I attended every quarterly week-long retreat for department team building.

I have no reason, desire, or requirement to explain to management why a recovering alcoholic might not be the best person to attend what boils down to a 5-hour-long bar crawl.

Re: At this company, we are family

#190

Post by aastronaut »

FirmwareBurner wrote: post #125
bryanlarsen wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> American labor laws make it easier to fire which allows employers to take more risk in hiring. You can have your cake and eat it too. It's called the Danish model, although Denmark itself has an imperfect implementation of the model. In the Danish model, it's easy to fire people, but the social safety net ensures that the employee doesn't get screwed if it happens. They don't lose their health insurance, EI is gene…

It's exactly the same in Austria, you can always get fired without any reasons and without any severance, you just have to rely on unemployment. It still sucks though compared to other countries where you can't easily get fired, as the unemployment money might not always cover your expenses like mortgage, if you had a high paying job and got into a lot of debt for a house. And this system of being easy to fire people…

Correction: you cannot get fired ("Entlassung") without any reason in Austria, you need rather strong reasons to fire somebody[0], but your employment contract can be terminated with a notice period anytime* ("Kündigung")[1]. The notice period is 6 weeks at minimum by law (6-12 weeks is common in startups by employment contract) and includes "Postensuchtage"[2], which allow you to use 20% of your time during the notice period however you want.

*: every 1st or 15th of the month is common

[0]: https://www.usp.gv.at/en/mitarbeiter/beendigung-arbeitsverha...

[1]: https://www.usp.gv.at/en/mitarbeiter/beendigung-arbeitsverha...

[2]: https://www.wko.at/service/arbeitsrecht-sozialrecht/Anspruch...

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