The one-salary experiment, ten years in • Hacker News Board

Re: The one-salary experiment, ten years in

#71

Post by dang » Mon, Apr 01, 2019, 1:28 AM UTC

e1ven wrote: post #16

dang wrote: post #3

From 2014: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7713916

Do you think it'd be worth adding a feature to link those automatically?

Probably, but it's not obvious how to write software that gets that right, i.e. finds the interesting links that a human would find via searching, while omitting the uninteresting or unrelated ones.

This case is a good example. I found it by searching on the domain and the word 'salary'. But could software have picked it out of https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=iwantmyname.com?

Re: The one-salary experiment, ten years in

#72

Post by jessriedel » Mon, Apr 01, 2019, 1:28 AM UTC

soneca wrote: post #44

jessriedel wrote: post #23

The first bullet point of the top comment from 5 years ago begins "As the company grows,...". The company has N=20 employees now. How many did they have 5 years ago? N is extremely low for making any generalizations, and it certainly isn't growing like a startup (in the sense Paul Graham uses the term).

According to a comment on the original HN thread, their "about" page at the time listed 8 people. 20 is not small enough to make it irrelevant as an experiment in my opinion.

Thanks for the number!

Case studies are not irrelevant, but it's generally a bad idea to generalize from them without strong reasons. It's more like "Here's an effect I notices in my one-off example. Keep an eye for that to see if you notice it elsewhere."

Re: The one-salary experiment, ten years in

#73

Post by readingnews » Mon, Apr 01, 2019, 1:30 AM UTC

bmdavi3 wrote: post #68

steven2012 wrote: post #64

Right now I'm struggling with whether or not to leave. I'm currently at a well-known company, and I'm uncharacteristically happy because my WLB is the best it's been in my career. However, I'm getting a bit bored and I also know I could make at least $50,000 a year more if I leave. Hell, even the new engineers joining my company at the same level are making more than I am. But the culture and pay at my company is jus…

What if you went to your manager, or whoever you feel is the right person, asked if you could speak one on one, and said... "I really love working at this company. The work is interesting, I love the people, the culture, . But I also know I could be making X if I went elsewhere. I love the work I'm doing, and I want to keep doing it here, but I also don't want to be leaving money on the table. What can we do?" This p…

I wish I worked at your firm. I once worked at a place and saved them millions in one year. At the yearly review, they said "well, that was some good work". That was the entire review. When I said "how about giving me an extra 1k a year (a bit less than others who had been there for a while were getting) I was told we had no extra cash. Well... wow, I just saved you like 1.5 million dollars. I am not asking for that, even spread out over 20 years I am asking for 20k.

I have been reading HN for years. I have no idea how you people have such nice jobs...

Re: The one-salary experiment, ten years in

#74

Post by naasking » Mon, Apr 01, 2019, 1:36 AM UTC

readingnews wrote: post #73

bmdavi3 wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if you went to your manager, or whoever you feel is the right person, asked if you could speak one on one, and said... "I really love working at this company. The work is interesting, I love the people, the culture, . But I also know I could be making X if I went elsewhere. I love the work I'm doing, and I want to keep doing it here, but I also don't want to be leaving money on the table. What can we do?" This p…

I wish I worked at your firm. I once worked at a place and saved them millions in one year. At the yearly review, they said "well, that was some good work". That was the entire review. When I said "how about giving me an extra 1k a year (a bit less than others who had been there for a while were getting) I was told we had no extra cash. Well... wow, I just saved you like 1.5 million dollars. I am not asking for that,…

I think it's standard in this industry that you only advance by moving to another company. You can even move back after awhile and they'll suddenly be able to afford you at a much higher rate.

Re: The one-salary experiment, ten years in

#75

Post by lotsofpulp » Mon, Apr 01, 2019, 1:40 AM UTC

readingnews wrote: post #70

steven2012 wrote: post #64

Right now I'm struggling with whether or not to leave. I'm currently at a well-known company, and I'm uncharacteristically happy because my WLB is the best it's been in my career. However, I'm getting a bit bored and I also know I could make at least $50,000 a year more if I leave. Hell, even the new engineers joining my company at the same level are making more than I am. But the culture and pay at my company is jus…

Saying things like "I could make 50k more at blah" seems to be taken so lightly these days. I would party/panic/freak out like I won the lotto if you told me I could make 50k more somewhere else. 50k... do you have any idea what that does to your future earnings? Your 401k/retirement? Hell, even if you live the same as now, sticking 25K in the bank every year is worth a whole heaping spoonful of whatever hell they co…

You’re not living the same lifestyle. Take a few international trips every year or live in or near a tier 1 city, or pay for a nice private school for the kids. Dinner and drinks out at non-fancy places is easy $100/person in a big city, vacations are $2k+ per person, private schools are $20k+ easy.

Re: The one-salary experiment, ten years in

#76

Post by vonmoltke » Mon, Apr 01, 2019, 1:40 AM UTC

gopalv wrote: post #58

ng12 wrote: post #8

People have written books on this stuff. There's an entire field of research on this subject and I think tech people discount it for being "too MBA". One of the most important findings is that pay generally will never motivate employees, but it will reduce their incentive to leave. Generally most job factors affect one of two separate but related scales: motivation to stay and reluctance to leave. Entirely non-surpri…

> One of the most important findings is that pay generally will never motivate employees, but it will reduce their incentive to leave. Having talked to a crowd of senior people who were leaving their jobs recently, I think there's a lot to be said about money as a 3rd factor when switching jobs further down in your career. Raising someone pay to match only works when the other factors for their departure are going to…

I have switched companies four times in my career. Every time so far pay has been one of the top two drivers.

Re: The one-salary experiment, ten years in

#77

Post by hopler » Mon, Apr 01, 2019, 1:42 AM UTC

readingnews wrote: post #70

steven2012 wrote: post #64

Right now I'm struggling with whether or not to leave. I'm currently at a well-known company, and I'm uncharacteristically happy because my WLB is the best it's been in my career. However, I'm getting a bit bored and I also know I could make at least $50,000 a year more if I leave. Hell, even the new engineers joining my company at the same level are making more than I am. But the culture and pay at my company is jus…

Saying things like "I could make 50k more at blah" seems to be taken so lightly these days. I would party/panic/freak out like I won the lotto if you told me I could make 50k more somewhere else. 50k... do you have any idea what that does to your future earnings? Your 401k/retirement? Hell, even if you live the same as now, sticking 25K in the bank every year is worth a whole heaping spoonful of whatever hell they co…

The money isn't that great if you are miserable and your kids spend it after your funeral

Re: The one-salary experiment, ten years in

#78

Post by neogodless » Mon, Apr 01, 2019, 1:44 AM UTC

steven2012 wrote: post #64

Right now I'm struggling with whether or not to leave. I'm currently at a well-known company, and I'm uncharacteristically happy because my WLB is the best it's been in my career. However, I'm getting a bit bored and I also know I could make at least $50,000 a year more if I leave. Hell, even the new engineers joining my company at the same level are making more than I am. But the culture and pay at my company is jus…

I didn't see the WLB acronym in the article. Something like "whole-life benefits?"

ETA: Just remembered "work-life balance." Gotcha!

Re: The one-salary experiment, ten years in

#79

Post by bmdavi3 » Mon, Apr 01, 2019, 1:45 AM UTC

readingnews wrote: post #73

bmdavi3 wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if you went to your manager, or whoever you feel is the right person, asked if you could speak one on one, and said... "I really love working at this company. The work is interesting, I love the people, the culture, . But I also know I could be making X if I went elsewhere. I love the work I'm doing, and I want to keep doing it here, but I also don't want to be leaving money on the table. What can we do?" This p…

I wish I worked at your firm. I once worked at a place and saved them millions in one year. At the yearly review, they said "well, that was some good work". That was the entire review. When I said "how about giving me an extra 1k a year (a bit less than others who had been there for a while were getting) I was told we had no extra cash. Well... wow, I just saved you like 1.5 million dollars. I am not asking for that,…

Thanks, that's a perspective I never got. Shows how lucky I've been at the places I've worked. (Or perhaps, how underpaid I was at the time!)

I should also mention that before these conversations, I had also been interviewing with a few different companies and gotten offers, so I knew those numbers were real and I really, truly, was ready to leave if they said no. But I genuinely wanted to keep working there and be making the salary I knew I could get elsewhere, and it worked out.

Re: The one-salary experiment, ten years in

#80

Post by Waterluvian » Mon, Apr 01, 2019, 1:47 AM UTC

readingnews wrote: post #73

bmdavi3 wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if you went to your manager, or whoever you feel is the right person, asked if you could speak one on one, and said... "I really love working at this company. The work is interesting, I love the people, the culture, . But I also know I could be making X if I went elsewhere. I love the work I'm doing, and I want to keep doing it here, but I also don't want to be leaving money on the table. What can we do?" This p…

I wish I worked at your firm. I once worked at a place and saved them millions in one year. At the yearly review, they said "well, that was some good work". That was the entire review. When I said "how about giving me an extra 1k a year (a bit less than others who had been there for a while were getting) I was told we had no extra cash. Well... wow, I just saved you like 1.5 million dollars. I am not asking for that,…

I think what's most telling is what you did after that meeting. Did you quit and go work elsewhere?

Don't get me wrong, I don't think companies should be so short sighted as to nickel and dime employees. But your one true source of leverage is to actually get up and leave.