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“Seventy-seven percent of millennials say that the workspace is more important than salary,” I'm sorry what now? I mean chill out on the dress code and maybe h

• th0ma5 8y ago
  I feel like this is employees saying "make work not so psychologically abusive" and businesses going "ping pong tables, got it..."
  • _bxg1 8y ago
    Ping pong tables are cheaper
    • redmaverick 8y ago
      and don't forget the free soda as a "perk".
  • wmeredith 8y ago
    The relationship equivalent here is the abuser showing up with gifts after punching you.
• enra 8y ago
  I wouldn't say exactly that, but I think there is a reason that many tech companies do invest in to office environments. I don't think employees really care about having all kinds of entertainment or "fun" at the office anymore, or ever did, which seems like the the banks in the article don't get (they are about 15 years behind as usual). I do personally do care lot about the environments where I spend most of my time (my home, office, places I hang out). People are visual and many prefer nice and comforting environments over bad ones. Imagine being a candidate and interviewing few companies. One company is low ceilings office space style place from the 80s, and other one is nicely designed one and see yourself coming there each work day. Each of them offer you about the same role and compensation, then which one do you choose? Obviously its probably never the main reason but can be a reason to tip someone over.
  • _bxg1 8y ago
    I was in this exact situation and chose the one that looked like office space. We don't really have a dress code and there's a reasonable selection of snacks. But the other place was all open and glass and they had lunch catered every day. Not that I don't like those things, but I'd say all the amenities in the world aren't worth more than a $5k salary difference to me at the most (excluding the monetary value of the actual lunches in this specific case). My priorities are to 1) like my work 2) like my coworkers 3) make a good salary, and 4) work in a nice place, in that order. Of course we can't know what exactly the survey in question asked, which is key. If someone offered me a prettier office for a $100 a year pay cut, then, sure.
    • tokyodude 8y ago
      I find catered lunch a mixed blessing. Plus = free lunch. Minus = spend less time at lunch getting closer to co-workers (drive/line/wait/food/drive-back). Spend more time at office instead out around town. To put it another way catered lunch = just another meeting except with food going out to lunch = break/mini social event with friends
      • _bxg1 8y ago
        Yeah. I mean I only go out with friends for lunch on fridays anyway, but the purpose of the free food is definitely to keep you working longer.
        • rbjorklin 8y ago
          Is it though? The way I see it it saves me a lot of time which means I can end my day earlier.
          • TeMPOraL 8y ago
            Plus, a socializing lunch break in the middle of a day cuts your space for deep work in half, which means you'll often not get any done in either half. That's why I always brought my own lunch and/or ordered stuff to the office to eat at my desk, and went with people to lunch only every now and then.
• paxys 8y ago
  What does that statement even mean? No one is saying they will work for free. Given two equivalent job offers, however, I would definitely pick the company that has a more casual atmosphere, better management dynamic, no dress code, flexible hours, more vacation time, free meals & snacks etc. over toiling in a toxic workspace a couple thousand more dollars a year.
  • _bxg1 8y ago
    I interpreted "workspace" as not including things like management dynamic, vacation time, or lack of toxicity
• pard68 8y ago
  Right? I am 27 and I would take a bigger salary over a bean bag chair at my desk and free snacks. I got bills to pay and mouths to feed. And honestly I work better in a cubicle with headphones than I do in an open office.
  • _bxg1 8y ago
    I'll take the basic creature comforts, but just think about how much money all those massage stations and fashion shows cost, and how big of a chunk that must take out of everyone's paycheck.
    • AlexTWithBeard 8y ago
      Not that much, actually. Painting the walls costs the same regardless of the color. And buying one massage chair per department is certainly cheaper than purchasing it on your own.
  • dagw 8y ago
    Surly upgrading from open office to cubicle falls under "better workspace"
    • michaelt 8y ago
      You can't illustrate an article on a "better workspaces" with just cubicle walls! You've got to be able to take a single photo showing desks with laptops, brightly coloured couches, big windows with no blinds, a kitchen, and exposed duct work or wooden beams, all in the same photo.
    • magduf 8y ago
      Actually, no. Developers these days want open offices, and actually hate cubicles or walled offices. I know people on these forums are usually the opposite (as am I), but most of the younger devs I know actually love open offices and wouldn't have it any other way.
  • SketchySeaBeast 8y ago
• Agathos 8y ago
  I mean sure, I would take a small pay cut for a private office, but I'm not sure that's what they thought they were asking.
  • jjav 8y ago
    Indeed. I would easily take at least a $25K pay cut in exchange for a private office where I can actually get work done. Maybe more.
    • yazaddaruvala 8y ago
      This seems odd, you want to get paid less while producing more?
      • newnewpdro 8y ago
        In my experience being more effective at my job cultivates leverage to acquire substantially more salary, bonuses, and stock options.
      • maxxxxx 8y ago
        It’s less stressful to be in an environment where you can actually work vs one where you constantly have to fight distractions. Yes you produce more but it’s also better for mental health so it may be worth being paid less.
• treve 8y ago
  Technically a millennial here: would take a salary cut any day to not work in the average bank or auditing firm. I worked at a PwC office for a while but couldn't stand it. In this case I ranked the work place as more important than salary. Of course there's a point where this doesn't hold up. I would not work for free, but the last time I did a round of interviewing and got multiple offers, the top contenders were 100% based on non-salary motivations, such as the team, the atmosphere, work-life balance, free healthy lunch and even natural light.
  • _bxg1 8y ago
    I understood "workspace" to only mean the physical space, and maybe the superficial amenities like food, games, events. So from your list only atmosphere, free lunch, and natural light.
  • mcv 8y ago
    I'm gen-X, and work freelance for banks mostly. After every project I decide to do something other than a bank this time, and every time I end up at another bank. They pay well and they're not all that bad, really. Not as great as the most fun places I've worked, but not as bad as the worst places I worked. Before I freelanced, I often had multiple job offers to choose from, and regularly went for the lowest pay because it seemed like the most interesting opportunity. None of those were ever banks though. And my current project at a bank is more interesting than all of those others. The only real downside is that I don't walk around in flip-flops and shorts in summer. Other than that they're fine.
  • strikelaserclaw 8y ago
    I interviewed with pwc a while ago, other than the $$$ they were offering, the projects they were working on (this team was working on something i thought was very pedestrian), the location they were in (downtown), 1 1/2 hour commute for 40 miles, and the overly formal nature of the whole enterprise was off putting. I agree, there is no point being miserable at some workplace for a little extra cash.
• titanomachy 8y ago
  The quote is from an executive in Denmark, where wages are on a much narrower distribution compared to America and many services are socialized. If it's the difference between $90k at a hip tech company or $93k at a stuffy bank, people may choose the tech company. If it's $250k at Amazon or $120k at a startup, they'll probably choose Amazon. But those kind of spreads are less common in Europe.
  • jaabe 8y ago
    I think it’s more interesting than that, because unless you do robotics (which requires skills in electrical engineering) then banks are our leading tech companies in Denmark. The most impactful piece of Danish software in recent years, that I can think of, is an app called MobilePay. It lets you pay for things, send or request money from friends, stuff like that. It’s made by a bank. I mean, we do have a few unicorn startups, but most software-companies build rather boring stuff with JAVA or C# and sell it to boring companies or the public sector. Then there’s the benefits, but it’s really hard to compete on that in Denmark, because a lot of them are set by law and you can’t beat the public sector anyway. I work at a muniplacity, at significantly lower pay than I could get in the private sector. But I get 15 weeks paid maternal leave (as a man), 6 weeks paid vacation, paid sick days, flexible hours, paid leave on the first and second day of a child’s sickness, two-four days of paid leave per child under 11, 15% pension, all sorts of insurances and 25.000dkr a year for additional education. And when I said significantly more in the private sector, it’s exactly like you say, not an extra $100k a year unless I leave Denmark. But as far as the premise of the article goes, I’d say that banks are tech companies in 2019.
    • skybrian 8y ago
      Google has a small office in Aarhus. I wonder if that's true of any other tech companies?
    • zubairq 8y ago
      Yeah, Denmark hasn't done much recently, but if you look at the history of inventions in IT made by Danes, you have a lot of important stuff including: - Google Maps - Ruby On Rails - Skype - PHP - C++ - Google V8 (The JS engine behind Chrome) - C# - Unity
• taneq 8y ago
  You hear that, Millenials? Stop asking for more money, it's "workplace culture" that's important.
  • dagw 8y ago
    Is that bad? I've never quit (or chosen) a job because of money. Every time its because a want a better workplace with a better work environment and more interesting work, the fact that I also got more money is just a very nice bonus. (Although admittedly I'm a few years to old to be millennial).
    • deleted 8y ago
      [deleted]
    • wccrawford 8y ago
      I did once. But it was because I knew I was worth a lot more and got a 40% pay increase by changing companies, proving that I really was worth a lot more. But my theory is that the new IT boss didn't like that I would say when an idea wasn't a good one, and so he stopped my raises to get rid of me without making it look like he was the reason. As I left, they opened up job openings for 7 people at what I earned at my new job. That makes me sound incompetent, but I was the guy that everyone called when there was a problem. Even when I wasn't "on call", I still got called. So I'm reasonably confident that it wasn't a skill or knowledge issue. Plus, I'm still at that new job and making a fair bit more than than when I started.
• ryanSrich 8y ago
  As someone that has worked from home for the last 6 years, it’s all relative. If I can work from home I’ll take a ~20% pay cut. The thought of having to drive into an office everyday is hard for me to even imagine.
• marssaxman 8y ago
  There are a lot of things that are more important than salary.
• xacaxulu 8y ago
  Ummmmm, I'll continue taking the high salary every day. When I go home, where I REALLY live, it will be there that I enjoy myself in comfort and relative luxury.
• watwut 8y ago
  > said chief operating officer Troels Bjerg at ISS, a top facility services firm whose customers include most of Europe’s 25 biggest banks. Chief executives see attracting and retaining talent as their No. 1 challenge, according to data from ISS World, a Danish provider of facilities management, security, catering and other support services to companies globally. The dude is selling his services.
• Xelbair 8y ago
  “Seventy-seven percent of millennials say that the workspace is more important than salary,” Probably said by some exec. As creating that workspace is way way cheaper than actually paying a decent wage
• LukaD 8y ago
  > Work doesn't need to be Disneyland. Why not? I spend a lot of time at my workspace, so it's only natural for me to choose a nice one.
• amrx431 8y ago
  > Seventy-seven percent of millennials say that the workspace is more important than salary This is border line fake news of bad journalism at its finest.
• wccrawford 8y ago
  I'm just on the borderline of "milennial" and I agree, "workplace" is more important than pay. However, that doesn't mean there aren't minimum requirements for all aspects of a job, including both "workspace" and "pay". It's just that when it comes down to it, I have a harder time finding a great workplace than I do finding great pay.