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The boss who put everyone on 70K

bbc.com

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Re: The boss who put everyone on 70K

#251

Post by uk_programmer »

kqr wrote: post #227
uk_programmer wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is exactly what I am talking about. You are overestimating how important it is. The code is there and (presumably) in source control. It really isn't that difficult for someone to get the source, compile it and fire up the debugger and carry on where the previous person left off.

And I'm saying that if you have only, or mainly, worked at projects where all information (including about failed historical approaches and why they failed) is encoded in the source code, you have been very lucky to the point where I have a hard time imagining that to be true. There is so much implicit knowledge that goes into the finals source artifact that is not spelled out.

Sure Domain Knowledge is important. But again this can all be discovered as you go along.

I had an interview at a this week for my next contract where they made redundant most of their employees as the business decided to just go with turnkey applications.

They will get someone like me in for 3 to 6 months to do application maintenance on anything they can't replace. This will be stuff like implementing stuff from penetration-testing, upgrading the applications and documenting missing bits and pieces and letting the business know what needs doing and where.

I don't need a pension being paid, no HR overhead (they can just ask me to leave whenever pretty much). I will be able to gleen enough from the business and their IT to piece the bits together. This is literally my bread and butter.

Re: The boss who put everyone on 70K

#252

Post by jkestner »

o-__-o wrote: post #104
sokoloff wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're 5 and asking "how many months have 28 days?" and insisting the answer is "all of them", you are technically correct. In that extremely limited sense, this headline could also be correct.

today i learned that a lot of people on HN don't have kids. you learn to be very direct in communication to avoid misunderstanding like this (which is very common!)

Today I learned that a lot of people on HN are in fact my 5yo. Upon gaining a command of language, she used it to simulate a reasonable person with whom I get suckered into arguing about things she doesn’t understand.

Re: The boss who put everyone on 70K

#253

Post by anentropic »

> Two senior Gravity employees also resigned in protest. They weren't happy that the salaries of junior staff had jumped overnight, and argued that it would make them lazy, and the company uncompetitive.

The mentality of these people...!

Not people you want in your company

Re: The boss who put everyone on 70K

#254

Post by staticautomatic »

anentropic wrote: post #253

> Two senior Gravity employees also resigned in protest. They weren't happy that the salaries of junior staff had jumped overnight, and argued that it would make them lazy, and the company uncompetitive. The mentality of these people...! Not people you want in your company

Yeah good riddance to those two.

Re: The boss who put everyone on 70K

#255

Post by tr352 »

awild wrote: post #226
marcus_holmes wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

so... where are the places that are experiencing the other trend? Where are the artists going to ? Where are the places that used to be rich, but are becoming "poor but sexy"?

Leipzig

I heard the same almost 10 years ago. Is it still true?

Re: The boss who put everyone on 70K

#256

Post by uk_programmer »

ptr wrote: post #90
uk_programmer wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am a contractor and I would expect to be paid the market rate for my skillset. The market rate for a .NET developer in the UK is about £350-400 a day (outside of London) in the UK. An Angular JS developer gets between £450 and £500. Thus at the moment (despite not being fond of it) I am (re-)learning Angular JS in my spare time so I can go for these higher paid roles. The same is generally true for the salaried mar…

Market rate for .NET contractors here in Stockholm is ~£570 a day (~£71/h). I wonder why market rates are higher here, despite standing still for many years.

Interesting that is above London pay rates even though having a look at the price of living it is only 20% more expensive. Probably just less .NET devs over there. Might have to apply for roles in Stockholm :)

Re: The boss who put everyone on 70K

#257

Post by staticautomatic »

buzzkillington wrote: post #211
nathanvanfleet wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about Christians? They seem to like persecution porn.

Along with muslims, billionaires, homosexuals, communists, jews, vegans, nazis and libertarians. Pretty much the only people who are persecuted in the west are whistle blowers, zoophiles and pedophiles.

And atheists.

Re: The boss who put everyone on 70K

#258

Post by fsloth »

uk_programmer wrote: post #191
kqr wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That probably costs more, though. Software engineering is mainly knowledge work. This means the majority of work consists not of building stuff, but acquiring and organising knowledge. I've read somewhere that about 50% of the job is gathering information. When a person leaves after having spent two years at a company, it might look like you get to keep everything they've been working on, but this is far from true. I…

This is exactly what I am talking about. You are overestimating how important it is. The code is there and (presumably) in source control. It really isn't that difficult for someone to get the source, compile it and fire up the debugger and carry on where the previous person left off.

I'm sure there are lots of production codebases like that. But there are lots of codebases that actually require the institutional knowledge to use and modify - for example a decades old CAD application. So your example is not a universal rule.

Re: The boss who put everyone on 70K

#259

Post by Hoasi »

vidarh wrote: post #244
Hoasi wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't think poverty is an impediment to creativity. Poverty may even trigger creativity at times. But stress is the major impediment, and therefore living in long-term poverty does not favor sustained creativity.

Some creativity is "cheap entertainment" in the sense that much of it requires little material wealth to engage in, and that might sometimes spur creativity simply out of lack of alternatives. When I lived on next to nothing when I was younger, it was easy to focus on writing because I didn't have money to e.g. go out on the town. Reading back what I wrote, though, a lot of it seemed to be extremely introspective of…

Hunger, by Knut Hamsun, is an excellent read, it describes with dry humor what starvation does to the author's psyche and creativity. He goes from creative bursts of enthusiasm to the darkest moments of depression, from eviction to high hopes of getting published. Never at peace, but always hoping and trying. Recommended reading.

Re: The boss who put everyone on 70K

#260

Post by zacharycohn »

bloblaw wrote: post #243
cyberferret wrote: post #3

Just to clarify - the article mentions that he put everyone in the company on a minimum salary of $70K. I would think that high level technical staff on $100K+ would have been more than a little upset to have their salary slashed. Junior staff members are the winners here!

I worked at Gravity and made much more than $70k. Nobody had their salaries cut. Only the CEO cut his salary from > $1MM to $70k.

I mean, sure. He cut his salary - but he still owns the company, and I'm sure his equity stake in the company is worth a loooooot more as a result of all this. Let's not paint this as some huge, noble sacrifice.
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