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At this company, we are family

pboyd.io

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Re: At this company, we are family

#201

Post by notaustinpowers »

Brusco_RF wrote: post #195
notaustinpowers wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I'm just making a general point, I obviously know nothing about your specific situation

I know, no worries. Just pointing out how absurd their statement of "not meshing with the team" was their excuse for letting me go, lol. Just another tick in the box of why I steer away from any business that says "we're a family".

Re: At this company, we are family

#202

Post by phpisthebest »

cassepipe wrote: post #120
vore wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It makes no sense to put the blame on individuals like this. I am no fan of the lack of workers' rights in the US, but the holier-than-thou European smugness is really not appreciated, given how little recourse people have in the American system.

I don't think the "holier-than-thou European smugness" is the reason why people lack workers' rights in the US. Most americans have never talked to a European person. But that certainly is the narrative some billionaire backed media is pushing. You only have the recourses you fought for. Having a culture where an organized workforce is not seen as rampant bolshevism would be a good start.

The smugness is believing that if you oppose European style regulations in anyway it is because you are brain washed by "billionaire backed media " and clearly have not seen the light as to how wonderful everything about the European style utopia of perfection we are missing in the backwaters of misery and abuse that is the United States

Re: At this company, we are family

#203

Post by cryptonector »

TylerE wrote: post #181
cryptonector wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Eh, Texas has high property taxes (because they function as a backdoor income tax via the "Robin Hood" school district subsidy program), but they vary a fair bit, and there's no state income tax. Compare to NJ which has high income and high property taxes.

Re: At this company, we are family

#204

Post by msikora »

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.

Especially if you bought your house at least 3-4 years ago.

Re: At this company, we are family

#206

Post by kirse »

jedberg wrote: post #156

This is why I always liked Netflix's outlook (both stated and practiced): We are a sports team, not a family. Perform well and you will be paid well, perform poorly and you will get a nice check to go elsewhere. And sometimes you might perform really well but we just don't need someone with your skills anymore, so we'll still give you nice check to go elsewhere, and that isn't a reflection on your abilities.

I like the sports team concept in terms of being a sieve for performance. Similar to HS->College->NFL athletes, elite military SOF groups, etc. You get binned and sometimes that's hard to accept, but that's the point of the filter.

It's interesting that despite the high-performance culture though, Netflix is still slowly degrading. This past year I finally realized I could cancel Netflix and not feel like I lost anything, and I was an early subscriber to the DVD plan.

Any thoughts on Netflix's degradation over time? My take is that its transitioned from peak phase into cash-cow mode once everyone wanted a piece of the streaming pie.

Re: At this company, we are family

#207

Post by skrebbel »

that_guy_iain wrote: post #187
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…

Seriously? GP goes into a burnout at job #1 and your takeaway is “you should’ve worked harder”?

Re: At this company, we are family

#208

Post by ben_w »

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…

We definitely have something like the Bill of Rights: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Convention_on_Human_R...

I think the US has more freedom of speech (although it's hard to tell without training in constitutional law over 24 official languages (25 if you want to count Welsh, is this EU, Europe, or Council of Europe? Might need to add more…) and a split between common and (multiple subtypes of) civil law), but also I think it's a difference in detail not in kind.

Re: At this company, we are family

#209

Post by bradleyjg »

episiarch wrote: post #196
bradleyjg wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Adult family relationships have historically been culturally mandatory and unseverable but that’s increasingly not the case in the US. Cultural messages that use therapy-speak, if not necessarily promulgated by actual therapists, encourages more and more atomization. Anyone that is annoying, disagreeable, or who has the wrong ideology is labeled “toxic” and people are encouraged to cut them out of their lives. This i…

I have been intentionally toxic to my family for years, and only recently succeeded in having them cut me out of their lives. The "unseverable" bonds of family have caused a litany of mental and physical problems for me my entire life. It's only since my "toxic" behavior finally exhausted their fidelity that I've begun to feel like myself.

I've begun to feel like myself.

How can you tell?

Re: At this company, we are family

#210

Post by rewmie »

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…

> To this day I still wonder if I was really the one unprofessional and that I should just force myself to "work".

I've grown to interpret "unprofessional" in the scope of resignations as code-word for "it inconveniences your manager". Your higher-ups aren't fending accusations of being unprofessional for fostering hostile work environments that are hazardous to their employees' health. Why should you fend off similar accusations for avoiding the harm they are doing to their workforce?

Complaining how an employee dismisses himself is particularly hypocritical when it happens in jurisdictions where at-will employment is the norm.

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