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Isn't that Capitalism 101 ? If employees are happy, company is happy, why does it matter ? Why should a company worry about pleasing everyone who is not necessa

Isn't that Capitalism 101 ? If employees are happy, company is happy, why does it matter ? Why should a company worry about pleasing everyone who is not necessarily part of them. If someone likes what Gitlab does, applies there and gets the salary they want, what's the issue ? If they don't like Gitlab's offer because someone else in a HCOL area may get more, you are essentially comparing with someone else. Not a good idea.

joshmanders 4y ago
It's because talking about your salary is so widely taboo that you may think your rate of $40k salary is good because it's comfortable in your area, but most chances are you don't realize that your co-worker who has the same skill level and workload is getting paid $80k and that's a good way to piss off your employees. Pay for skills not for cost of living. You hire someone for what they can bring to the table not how much you can profit off them.
- jrochkind1 4y ago
  I have no opinion to express on adjusting pay for area of residence, but note that Gitlab's salaries appear to be unusually exceptionally transparent, so your story of taboos about discussing salary and secrecy of colleague's salaries probably does not apply to them. https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/total-rewards/compensation/compensation-calculator/ https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/total-rewards/compensation...
- codegeek 4y ago
  "You hire someone for what they can bring to the table not how much you can profit off them." Not sure if I agree with this naive view. Yes, you hire people and give them what they want in exchange for work but at the end of the day, I am absolutely trying to save money as a company and increase profits as long as I am doing it reasonably.
  - webdood90 4y ago
    fascinating how people come to the defense of corporations like this. why? do you feel that someday you'll be in their shoes and have the power to dictate salaries? you are likely a worker like everyone else here. demand better.
    - nemetroid 4y ago
      You don’t have to like it, or harbor power fantasies, to be realistic about how supply and demand works out.
pizza234 4y ago
> Isn't that Capitalism 101 ? If employees are happy, company is happy, why does it matter ? I don't blame them for applying "Capitalism 101", but on the other hand, Gitlab is selling an ethos, not just a product¹. Surely, nobody likes to hear "when it's about management, we're rainbow and unicorns, but when it comes to the bottom line, we're capitalism 101". I also think that they target talented but (from a career perspective) inexperienced engineers (a bit like old Google's free lunch and table tennis tables), which I find - at least - distasteful. Gitlab cleverly capitalizes on their brand, and in addition to the location-based salary optimization, they also offer substandard salaries (or at least, they did for a significant time; I interviewed with them, and by that time, they were paying at least 20% less than comparable companies). ¹: amusingly, they're not immune to marketing nonsense; see, for example, https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-remote/all-remote-vs-hybrid-remote-comparison https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-remote/all-remo....

joshmanders 4y ago

It's because talking about your salary is so widely taboo that you may think your rate of $40k salary is good because it's comfortable in your area, but most chances are you don't realize that your co-worker who has the same skill level and workload is getting paid $80k and that's a good way to piss off your employees. Pay for skills not for cost of living. You hire someone for what they can bring to the table not how much you can profit off them.

jrochkind1 4y ago
I have no opinion to express on adjusting pay for area of residence, but note that Gitlab's salaries appear to be unusually exceptionally transparent, so your story of taboos about discussing salary and secrecy of colleague's salaries probably does not apply to them. https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/total-rewards/compensation/compensation-calculator/ https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/total-rewards/compensation...
codegeek 4y ago
"You hire someone for what they can bring to the table not how much you can profit off them." Not sure if I agree with this naive view. Yes, you hire people and give them what they want in exchange for work but at the end of the day, I am absolutely trying to save money as a company and increase profits as long as I am doing it reasonably.
- webdood90 4y ago
  fascinating how people come to the defense of corporations like this. why? do you feel that someday you'll be in their shoes and have the power to dictate salaries? you are likely a worker like everyone else here. demand better.
  - nemetroid 4y ago
    You don’t have to like it, or harbor power fantasies, to be realistic about how supply and demand works out.

pizza234 4y ago

> Isn't that Capitalism 101 ? If employees are happy, company is happy, why does it matter ? I don't blame them for applying "Capitalism 101", but on the other hand, Gitlab is selling an ethos, not just a product¹. Surely, nobody likes to hear "when it's about management, we're rainbow and unicorns, but when it comes to the bottom line, we're capitalism 101". I also think that they target talented but (from a career perspective) inexperienced engineers (a bit like old Google's free lunch and table tennis tables), which I find - at least - distasteful. Gitlab cleverly capitalizes on their brand, and in addition to the location-based salary optimization, they also offer substandard salaries (or at least, they did for a significant time; I interviewed with them, and by that time, they were paying at least 20% less than comparable companies). ¹: amusingly, they're not immune to marketing nonsense; see, for example, https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-remote/all-remote-vs-hybrid-remote-comparison https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-remote/all-remo....