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I remember reading the original post when he was asking for advice, nice to see him coming back with a good follow up. The company he works for is definitely d
by nicholassmith 14y ago
I remember reading the original post when he was asking for advice, nice to see him coming back with a good follow up.
The company he works for is definitely doing it right, they've spotted an opportunity to put someone in a correct role with no hiring process, and with them up to speed on the corporate background. They've optimised a department out and managed to retain the staff in other areas, and saved once again money on hiring, and saved money on firing the dead weight (I'm not sure what Dutch employment law is like but it's notoriously difficult to fire someone in the UK). Pragmatic and sensible, companies take note.
EDIT: from my limited experience, every Dutch person (all 6) I've met has been pretty pragmatic and sensible, maybe a cultural thing. I could be wrong though!
- hencq 14y agoFiring people in the Netherlands is sufficiently hard that it causes me to think that this story has been fabricated or at least been exaggerated a little. I can see how his original 'cheating of the system' could be seen by his employer as misconduct and thus be grounds for firing, so I'm willing to believe this part. However, the firing of the other people in his department and his old boss smells a bit fishy. Unless they were temporary workers, the employer would have to start a redundancy procedure. The story makes it seem like they were fired on the spot as well.
- nicholassmith 14y agoI'd guess they were temp. workers from how it sounds with bonus based on performance and a few other bits from the first post, but even if they're temps you'd still have to begin a firing process unless you can say 'hey, no work left'. But then shifting temps elsewhere is unlikely so who knows, I'd lean towards potential exaggeration.
- outworlder 14y agoI am willing to believe that the story was embellished a bit. For instance, in Brazil I could say that I was "fired on the spot", even though in most cases the company is required to give notice, meaning I'd still be working in the company for a month. Doesn't change the fact that I am effectively fired in this case.
- martincmartin 14y agoThe Dutch certainly have a reputation for being pragmatic and sensible.
- nakkiel 14y agoMy experience too. But well, it was in the NGO field so my sampling may be slightly biased. Still.
- Estragon 14y agoSounds like they got a software engineer for super cheap, too. I bet his boss's boss was laughing so hard because the kid doesn't realize how much money he could have been making.
- bencoder 14y agoSoftware engineer/programmer wages in most of Europe are much lower than what you'd probably expect, if you're in the US. Now I don't know how much bonus he was earning, but he says he was earning 85-95% of the entire bonus share, and that the other members of the team were earning about 100-200... Given that, I'd guess it was at least 1500 on top of his basic wage (let's assume that's another 1500), totalling a low estimate of 3000eur/month, which is higher than the average in many European countries: http://www.worldsalaries.org/computerprogrammer.shtml http://www.worldsalaries.org/computerprogrammer.shtml
- sigkill 14y agoI know the rates in the US are higher, but I'm curious to know why? The standard of living in an average European country is way higher, and the tax is higher as well. So is it basically the demand supply scenario or what?
- nicholassmith 14y agoI've never seen anything about it but I always assumed it was the Valley effect.
- sigkill 14y agoDo you mean the Silicon Valley? But that doesn't explain the other places on the East and West coast.
- nicholassmith 14y agoI do indeed, but it's sort of an increase by default. SV pays that level so to attract you have to price accordingly, or that's my shaky not based on anything but gut feeling theory.