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Author of the post here. Realistically, we can't pay people full engineering salaries to do random OSS. Our team can already contribute to OSS on their work ti

Author of the post here. Realistically, we can't pay people full engineering salaries to do random OSS. Our team can already contribute to OSS on their work time when it relates to their work, or our own projects, but for the personal interest/passion projects without direct benefit for us as a company, it doesn't scale. Doubly so when we have a pretty strict "no overtime" policy of working no more than 40 hours a week. We have failsafes in place in case anybody gets a bit too excited about free time OSS. We limit the Sauce hours you can do in a month for this reason, but nobody has hit that max yet, so it doesn't seem to be a systemic problem.

dudul 7y ago
Out of curiosity, what's the monthly limit?
- jevakallio 7y ago
  It's set at 30 hours a month. This is not for budget reasons, only to discourage excess working off-hours. This adds up to about a workday per week, which is what we feel is reasonable.
  - Insanity 7y ago
    You could argue that it's people their own choice how much they work - which is true. But sometimes this can become determinental to their health. I'm onboard with this idea to be honest, it sounds good!
chronogram 7y ago
> Doubly so when we have a pretty strict "no overtime" policy of working no more than 40 hours a week. Is HR ready for this increase in applications from this post and the comments?
- jevakallio 7y ago
  I guess they'll have to work overtime to process all the applications ;)
mcintyre1994 7y ago
> Doubly so when we have a pretty strict "no overtime" policy of working no more than 40 hours a week. The post mentions an exact clockout time as well - 5pm. Out of interest is it a strict 9-5 schedule, or is it flexible but 40 hours a week? Have you written anything about the no overtime policy or 9-5 schedule (if that's enforced) and how you find that?
- smusumeche 7y ago
  It is flexible. We need to be available for client meetings, but otherwise we are encouraged to work at times when we do our best work.
bhousel 7y ago
> Realistically, we can't pay people full engineering salaries to do random OSS. Why can't you? Professors get paid full professor salaries to do "random research". Doctors get paid full doctor salaries to treat "random illnesses". I expect if you looked a bit closer, you'll find that "Random OSS" is maintenance that makes the entire ecosystem possible. Would love to hear from some of your engineers what they are doing to earn that $20/hr.
- smusumeche 7y ago
  Here's an example of a project I worked on under this program - a website for a local community developer meetup.
- dblock 7y ago
  Right on.
- yawaramin 7y ago
  But professors are usually also required to teach classes or carry out other duties in return for getting research funding. They don't just get to randomly do whatever they want. And doctors treating 'random illnesses' doesn't really work as an analogy–that would be more like if they could randomly decide to turn away patients they didn't 'want' to treat.
- rusticpenn 7y ago
  You overestimsate the amount of random research a Professor is able to do these days.
karussell 7y ago
Greetings Jani! (maybe you remember visiting in London the guy from Germany) Really interesting to read this and from you via hackernews :D
dblock 7y ago
Yes, you can pay people full engineering salaries to do random OSS. They contribute to your team's brand, reduce recruiting costs and reduce team churn. If they do too much random OSS to a point where it prevents them from achieving your business goals, you can terminate them.

dudul 7y ago

Out of curiosity, what's the monthly limit?

jevakallio 7y ago
It's set at 30 hours a month. This is not for budget reasons, only to discourage excess working off-hours. This adds up to about a workday per week, which is what we feel is reasonable.
- Insanity 7y ago
  You could argue that it's people their own choice how much they work - which is true. But sometimes this can become determinental to their health. I'm onboard with this idea to be honest, it sounds good!

chronogram 7y ago

> Doubly so when we have a pretty strict "no overtime" policy of working no more than 40 hours a week. Is HR ready for this increase in applications from this post and the comments?

jevakallio 7y ago
I guess they'll have to work overtime to process all the applications ;)

mcintyre1994 7y ago

> Doubly so when we have a pretty strict "no overtime" policy of working no more than 40 hours a week. The post mentions an exact clockout time as well - 5pm. Out of interest is it a strict 9-5 schedule, or is it flexible but 40 hours a week? Have you written anything about the no overtime policy or 9-5 schedule (if that's enforced) and how you find that?

smusumeche 7y ago
It is flexible. We need to be available for client meetings, but otherwise we are encouraged to work at times when we do our best work.

bhousel 7y ago

> Realistically, we can't pay people full engineering salaries to do random OSS. Why can't you? Professors get paid full professor salaries to do "random research". Doctors get paid full doctor salaries to treat "random illnesses". I expect if you looked a bit closer, you'll find that "Random OSS" is maintenance that makes the entire ecosystem possible. Would love to hear from some of your engineers what they are doing to earn that $20/hr.

smusumeche 7y ago
Here's an example of a project I worked on under this program - a website for a local community developer meetup.
dblock 7y ago
Right on.
yawaramin 7y ago
But professors are usually also required to teach classes or carry out other duties in return for getting research funding. They don't just get to randomly do whatever they want. And doctors treating 'random illnesses' doesn't really work as an analogy–that would be more like if they could randomly decide to turn away patients they didn't 'want' to treat.
rusticpenn 7y ago
You overestimsate the amount of random research a Professor is able to do these days.

karussell 7y ago

Greetings Jani! (maybe you remember visiting in London the guy from Germany) Really interesting to read this and from you via hackernews :D

dblock 7y ago

Yes, you can pay people full engineering salaries to do random OSS. They contribute to your team's brand, reduce recruiting costs and reduce team churn. If they do too much random OSS to a point where it prevents them from achieving your business goals, you can terminate them.