5 ms·

Have you considered alternative comp mechanics? For example, I know it may sound unorthodox, but short work weeks is an awesome perk and worth a lot IMO. Other

Have you considered alternative comp mechanics? For example, I know it may sound unorthodox, but short work weeks is an awesome perk and worth a lot IMO. Other things like guaranteeing to ship engineers off to a conference per quarter of their choice and paying for a day and night of travel expenses + a day off so they can explore the destination is pretty cool too. How does your company handle IP assignment also for personal projects? If I can work on side projects freely without worrying about legal junk that weighs heavily into a decision. All of these things have value and if combined can make a killer compensation package.

toomuchtodo 10y ago
I would trade at least $15k/year for a four day work week.
- alexc05 10y ago
  That would be a no-brainer for sure! At $75k/year $15k for a day off a week would be roughly "break even" on the hourly rate trade off. Someone on $100k taking a pay cut to 4 days would see their time valued at an increase in hourly rate. Since you're getting 15% less money in exchange for 20% less time. Broad brush strokes on the math there but you get the picture.
- matt_wulfeck 10y ago
  I thought about this myself as well. To me a 20% reduction in work days is well worth a 20% reduction in pay. This is an easy perk that is offered at no large companies. Sadly it's not widespread. And I fear most companies wouldn't be well prepared to actually execute on it.
  - dmoy 10y ago
    I have coworkers (at Google) with that arrangement. I have family members at top5 bank with that arrangement. It won't be publicly broadcast, but if you ask around it is an option.
    - IanCal 10y ago
      In the UK, it's certainly worth trying. Apart from purely the fact that places may prefer to keep you for 4 days rather than lose you, employees have the right to request part time work (amongst other things). Businesses have to give a reason if they say no, and the reasons get harder to justify typically as a business grows. Not guaranteed, of course, that would be rough on all businesses but it's certainly something that should be taken seriously. More info: http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=1616 http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=1616
- xapata 10y ago
  > at least $15k/year Being self-employed, I have to make that choice -- "How much value is a day off?" -- every time a customer asks me to take on a project. Converting a 4-day week to annual vacation: 1 day in 5 is about 50 days off the standard 250-day work-year. I'd pay a whole lot more than $15k for 10 weeks off.
throwaway2016a 10y ago
We have flex hours. We've toyed with short work weeks but it hasn't taken off (yet). We do have the typical stocked fridge and beer and foosball. But so does everyone else. We've actually found that given the choice between a perk and more money, people almost always take the money up to about $100k. After that priorities change. > How does your company handle IP assignment also for personal projects? If I can work on side projects freely without worrying about legal junk that weighs heavily into a decision. Our CEO and myself are vigorously debating this one :)
- meddlepal 10y ago
  Flex hours aren't really the same as cutting the work week by 8 hours. It also requires you do not just expect people to make up the lost day by putting in 10-12 hour days on the regular. It's a deeply cultural thing and requires top-down executive and mgmt buy in.
  - throwaway2016a 10y ago
    Well if you put it that way, it wasn't really on the table for us then. We would have expected employees doing that to do 10 hour days the other days of the week. I love the idea of not requiring that but the math just doesn't work out for us. We have specific goals we need to hit to make payroll and losing 8 hours a week from everyone wouldn't work. We are actively working to improve our processes so we can make more money with less hours spent though. When we crack that nut we can consider something like that.
  - douche 10y ago
    You wouldn't even have to cut the work week by 8 hours. Just cut it by one work day, with the same 40 hour week. Shit, it's not that rough working ten hours officially when you're already working ten unofficially, and that extra day off for a three-day weekend is worth its weight in gold.
    - throwaway2016a 10y ago
      We try to not have people working "10 hours unofficially" :)

toomuchtodo 10y ago

I would trade at least $15k/year for a four day work week.

alexc05 10y ago
That would be a no-brainer for sure! At $75k/year $15k for a day off a week would be roughly "break even" on the hourly rate trade off. Someone on $100k taking a pay cut to 4 days would see their time valued at an increase in hourly rate. Since you're getting 15% less money in exchange for 20% less time. Broad brush strokes on the math there but you get the picture.
matt_wulfeck 10y ago
I thought about this myself as well. To me a 20% reduction in work days is well worth a 20% reduction in pay. This is an easy perk that is offered at no large companies. Sadly it's not widespread. And I fear most companies wouldn't be well prepared to actually execute on it.
- dmoy 10y ago
  I have coworkers (at Google) with that arrangement. I have family members at top5 bank with that arrangement. It won't be publicly broadcast, but if you ask around it is an option.
  - IanCal 10y ago
    In the UK, it's certainly worth trying. Apart from purely the fact that places may prefer to keep you for 4 days rather than lose you, employees have the right to request part time work (amongst other things). Businesses have to give a reason if they say no, and the reasons get harder to justify typically as a business grows. Not guaranteed, of course, that would be rough on all businesses but it's certainly something that should be taken seriously. More info: http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=1616 http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=1616
xapata 10y ago
> at least $15k/year Being self-employed, I have to make that choice -- "How much value is a day off?" -- every time a customer asks me to take on a project. Converting a 4-day week to annual vacation: 1 day in 5 is about 50 days off the standard 250-day work-year. I'd pay a whole lot more than $15k for 10 weeks off.

throwaway2016a 10y ago

We have flex hours. We've toyed with short work weeks but it hasn't taken off (yet). We do have the typical stocked fridge and beer and foosball. But so does everyone else. We've actually found that given the choice between a perk and more money, people almost always take the money up to about $100k. After that priorities change. > How does your company handle IP assignment also for personal projects? If I can work on side projects freely without worrying about legal junk that weighs heavily into a decision. Our CEO and myself are vigorously debating this one :)

meddlepal 10y ago
Flex hours aren't really the same as cutting the work week by 8 hours. It also requires you do not just expect people to make up the lost day by putting in 10-12 hour days on the regular. It's a deeply cultural thing and requires top-down executive and mgmt buy in.
- throwaway2016a 10y ago
  Well if you put it that way, it wasn't really on the table for us then. We would have expected employees doing that to do 10 hour days the other days of the week. I love the idea of not requiring that but the math just doesn't work out for us. We have specific goals we need to hit to make payroll and losing 8 hours a week from everyone wouldn't work. We are actively working to improve our processes so we can make more money with less hours spent though. When we crack that nut we can consider something like that.
- douche 10y ago
  You wouldn't even have to cut the work week by 8 hours. Just cut it by one work day, with the same 40 hour week. Shit, it's not that rough working ten hours officially when you're already working ten unofficially, and that extra day off for a three-day weekend is worth its weight in gold.
  - throwaway2016a 10y ago
    We try to not have people working "10 hours unofficially" :)