4 ms·

That was my thought. Especially with a family, vacation time is too important to spend working. While everything they pay for and do is nice, I wouldn't be will

That was my thought. Especially with a family, vacation time is too important to spend working. While everything they pay for and do is nice, I wouldn't be willing to give it up to try and get a job. (Just one job, that is. If I really wanted to leave, I might spend some vacation time interviewing at many places, but 1 place for 1 week seems a little reckless in that circumstance.)

bradleyjg 13y ago
This looks to me like a not so subtle form of age discrimination. The pictures on their job page do nothing to dispel that impression. E.g. http://www.weebly.com/uploads/1/_/1/167522_orig.jpg http://www.weebly.com/uploads/1/_/1/167522_orig.jpg
- johnrob 13y ago
  A much easier form of age discrimination would be to simply not hire older people. Why bother with the hassle of setting up a trial program?
  - iends 13y ago
    Because being too obvious is illegal?
  - dinkumthinkum 13y ago
    In the United States, this is totally illegal.
  - michaelochurch 13y ago
    Most age discrimination isn't overt or explicit. It's "cultural". They don't care if you're 45, but most of these VC-funded startups don't want to hire and promote people who (a) don't drink, (b) show up before 10:00 and leave before 7:00, (c) never discuss their sex lives and work and avoid others' disclosures thereof, and (d) aren't interested in moving into management, which being a 45-year-old programmer implies. But there are a few especially juvenile older people that I've seen fit in to the VC-funded culture. Also, older programmers (even those who've declined management by choice) threaten the lie on which the VC-funded world stands, which is that being a subordinate engineer (and getting jack-shit equity) at 22 is a sure path to being an exec at 27, a founder at 31, and an investor (either an angel, meaning "rich", or a VC, meaning "given a soft landing") at 35. The brutal career age-grading comes from a need to exclude those who refute the lie of promised progress.
  - toomuchtodo 13y ago
    Because that engineering budget you just had now became your legal counsel budget.
- spartango 13y ago
  While I wouldn't so hastily accuse Weebly of age discrimination, I think this raises an interesting discussion around hiring practice: The logistics of certain hiring practices may be themselves biased in terms of age (or other factors), which is questionably ethical. This trial week seems to discriminate against those who cannot trivially sacrifice vacation time (employees with families, for example). There are others, too; I've heard other founders scheduling interviews with candidates late into the evening or night, even on weekends. With kids to tend to, that would be an incredibly frustrating situation. Nothing is quite so black and white that these acts are themselves evil, but I do hope companies aren't becoming culturally biased. If you're flexible with your policies, then perhaps you'll do fine. With that said, there's something to be said to sticking to some conventions in the interest of not alienating candidates
  - drusenko 13y ago
    We try to be as flexible as possible. We have plenty of people with families that work 8-6pm. If you had kids and couldn't make the trial week because of that, we'd figure something else out. But we've had plenty of people go through a trial week with families and it hasn't been a huge burden. Especially when relocating their families, it's actually a positive -- you end up feeling much more comfortable this is a place you will be at for a while before making that commitment.
    - spartango 13y ago
      That's good to hear. This policy seems to come from a well-intentioned place; it would be a shame if it had some unintended consequences.
    - kabouseng 13y ago
      Not to nit-pick, but are your normal hours 08:00 - 18:00. I thought normal office hours is closer to 09:00 - 17:00?
      - drusenko 13y ago
        there are no normal hours. some people come from 7:00 to 17:00, others come from 12:00 to 20:00. it's entirely flexible and there are no cultural pressures to work certain hours either.

bradleyjg 13y ago

This looks to me like a not so subtle form of age discrimination. The pictures on their job page do nothing to dispel that impression. E.g. http://www.weebly.com/uploads/1/_/1/167522_orig.jpg http://www.weebly.com/uploads/1/_/1/167522_orig.jpg

johnrob 13y ago
A much easier form of age discrimination would be to simply not hire older people. Why bother with the hassle of setting up a trial program?
- iends 13y ago
  Because being too obvious is illegal?
- dinkumthinkum 13y ago
  In the United States, this is totally illegal.
- michaelochurch 13y ago
  Most age discrimination isn't overt or explicit. It's "cultural". They don't care if you're 45, but most of these VC-funded startups don't want to hire and promote people who (a) don't drink, (b) show up before 10:00 and leave before 7:00, (c) never discuss their sex lives and work and avoid others' disclosures thereof, and (d) aren't interested in moving into management, which being a 45-year-old programmer implies. But there are a few especially juvenile older people that I've seen fit in to the VC-funded culture. Also, older programmers (even those who've declined management by choice) threaten the lie on which the VC-funded world stands, which is that being a subordinate engineer (and getting jack-shit equity) at 22 is a sure path to being an exec at 27, a founder at 31, and an investor (either an angel, meaning "rich", or a VC, meaning "given a soft landing") at 35. The brutal career age-grading comes from a need to exclude those who refute the lie of promised progress.
- toomuchtodo 13y ago
  Because that engineering budget you just had now became your legal counsel budget.
spartango 13y ago
While I wouldn't so hastily accuse Weebly of age discrimination, I think this raises an interesting discussion around hiring practice: The logistics of certain hiring practices may be themselves biased in terms of age (or other factors), which is questionably ethical. This trial week seems to discriminate against those who cannot trivially sacrifice vacation time (employees with families, for example). There are others, too; I've heard other founders scheduling interviews with candidates late into the evening or night, even on weekends. With kids to tend to, that would be an incredibly frustrating situation. Nothing is quite so black and white that these acts are themselves evil, but I do hope companies aren't becoming culturally biased. If you're flexible with your policies, then perhaps you'll do fine. With that said, there's something to be said to sticking to some conventions in the interest of not alienating candidates
- drusenko 13y ago
  We try to be as flexible as possible. We have plenty of people with families that work 8-6pm. If you had kids and couldn't make the trial week because of that, we'd figure something else out. But we've had plenty of people go through a trial week with families and it hasn't been a huge burden. Especially when relocating their families, it's actually a positive -- you end up feeling much more comfortable this is a place you will be at for a while before making that commitment.
  - spartango 13y ago
    That's good to hear. This policy seems to come from a well-intentioned place; it would be a shame if it had some unintended consequences.
  - kabouseng 13y ago
    Not to nit-pick, but are your normal hours 08:00 - 18:00. I thought normal office hours is closer to 09:00 - 17:00?
    - drusenko 13y ago
      there are no normal hours. some people come from 7:00 to 17:00, others come from 12:00 to 20:00. it's entirely flexible and there are no cultural pressures to work certain hours either.