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Hasur posted:Wage fixing lawsuit? It doesn't surprise me though that tech isn't unionized as a pretty substantial number of people hold political views that oppose unions. Unions are great, I've been a member of them, I currently manager union employees, but I would be pretty confident in saying that tech workers unionizing would basically be toxic for the Silicon Valley start up culture mentality. It would just flat out kill innovation, be it google or other companies or both. Thankfully they make enough that even with unfair hiring practices they won't be on the street begging for change.
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Mar 16, 2015 11:34
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I've never had a job where I didn't get free coffee  current one has free soda, which is awesome.They also have an average retention rate measured in decades.
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Mar 16, 2015 12:05
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My company won't do a gym (they don't want to insure themselves for it), but they do have free coffee available. It's a campus with 2,000 people, and the capacity for up to 4,000 once finished. Stocking is handled by the daytime cleaning crew, who basically walk around with a big cart once a day and fill it up. Ordering is probably some once a month automatic thing from corporate. It works, I guess.
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Mar 16, 2015 12:20
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Last company I was with was regional Gov and wasn't ever allowed to give us paper plates or plasticware let alone coffee. However they were able to offer a gym because it lowered insurance prices. My current company offers a eh ok gym for free and free coffee but the overall work environment is much more hosed up and toxic. I'd go back to my Gov job in a heartbeat. The pay is equal and the overall benefits in the previous job were better. Bad with money - attending a family reunion of sorts in Maui in July. It's gonna be hot as balls and over a holiday weekend.
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Mar 16, 2015 12:26
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My wife's company has a gym on campus, but they charge a monthly fee for it.
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Mar 16, 2015 13:44
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Just because someone is making $150k doesn't mean they're making a fair wage. That's what that big wage fixing case against the big tech companies out west is all about. Yes, the engineers were making $180k, but they were worth significantly more and a probably illegal collusion agreement was artificially keeping wages down. The opposite is happening now with the Apple Car hiring - they're allegedly poaching everyone's battery engineering talent by offering fair market value instead of just saying "well you already make good money!" We are the one of the largest employers in MA so coffee is left up to each individual department. I've seen no coffee, a Keurig and everyone brings in their own cups, a coffee pool, or just dept provided coffee. At my last role we had almost infinite money so they had ~30 different varities as well as an espresso machine.  We have multiple athletic centers and we get a discount on membership, but it isn't free. And then some back from our healthcare at the end of the year. We get no food, anything at the various dining places is full price for us.
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Mar 16, 2015 13:47
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Blackjack2000 posted:Wow. The reason they provide coffee rather than pay that amount out in wages is that the cost of the coffee isn't taxed like your wages are (including double FICA), the plumbing and electrical utilities that support them are already in place in the building, and because by buying some basic equipment, they can supply those things much, much cheaper than what it would cost you if you went out to Starbucks everyday. No one is talking about coffee. I'm talking about the ridiculous expenditures tech companies make as a benefit like laundry, basketball courts, sundae bars. If you'd rather your billion dollar megatech build tennis courts and jogging tracks in stead of raising your wage, you bad with money, son. Which is what the majors did instead of competing with wages, they set up private commuter buses and hauled in heavy hitting lecturers for lunch-n-learns. Cool stuff but they're wowing you away from a keen eye on your wages vs how much you are producing for the company.
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Mar 16, 2015 13:58
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AgrippaNothing posted:No one is talking about coffee. I'm talking about the ridiculous expenditures tech companies make as a benefit like laundry, basketball courts, sundae bars. If you'd rather your billion dollar megatech build tennis courts and jogging tracks in stead of raising your wage, you bad with money, son. Which is what the majors did instead of competing with wages, they set up private commuter buses and hauled in heavy hitting lecturers for lunch-n-learns. Cool stuff but they're wowing you away from a keen eye on your wages vs how much you are producing for the company. Yea cuz every extra dollar the company makes is either wages or tennis court lol Hint: youre bad with money
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Mar 16, 2015 14:09
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Zo posted:Yea cuz every extra dollar the company makes is either wages or tennis court lol No one even implied that.
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Mar 16, 2015 14:25
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AgrippaNothing posted:No one is talking about coffee. I'm talking about the ridiculous expenditures tech companies make as a benefit like laundry, basketball courts, sundae bars. If you'd rather your billion dollar megatech build tennis courts and jogging tracks in stead of raising your wage, you bad with money, son. Which is what the majors did instead of competing with wages, they set up private commuter buses and hauled in heavy hitting lecturers for lunch-n-learns. Cool stuff but they're wowing you away from a keen eye on your wages vs how much you are producing for the company. Personally I would rather make 120,000 and be happy at work than make 130,000 and be miserable. Current job has no perks like that to speak of, and my last one did. You definitely can tell a difference in attitudes of the employees.
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Mar 16, 2015 14:30
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A gym and laundry doesn't make me happy at work though. A fulfilling job with opportunity to work on fun/exciting/difficult projects, grow my skills, etc. is what makes me happy at work. I'd rather make $120k and have the benefits than $130k and no benefits if the work is equivalently unfulfilling, but a gym, some lovely taco bar, and a pool table aren't going to make me happy when I otherwise wasn't. It is nice to remove the outside stress of getting certain chores done, and that can increase your QOL all other things the same, but if the difference between happy/unhappy at work is a gym then you either have different priorities or are generally happy at work to start with.
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Mar 16, 2015 14:47
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xie posted:A gym and laundry doesn't make me happy at work though. A fulfilling job with opportunity to work on fun/exciting/difficult projects, grow my skills, etc. is what makes me happy at work. Or you hate the field you are in but it pays the bills because student loans are a oval office and every little perk that makes getting through the day a tiny bit easier makes you want to kill yourself a tiny bit less. (I work IT and I loathe 70% of my time at work. The only reason I keep working it is that i'm very good at it and get paid well - I get absolutely glowing reviews with my bosses and everyone I work with) silicone thrills fucked around with this message at 15:39 on Mar 16, 2015 |
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Mar 16, 2015 15:33
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That too. I should have said "you're either generally happy or unchangably unhappy" to start with. I also hate my job and my group but the pay is pretty good, I get overtime pay which makes it quite-pretty good, and I'm never on call. People rave about our benefits but they're honestly pretty standard, the healthcare is OK but getting worse every year. We don't have any of the fun benefits though, and I have absolutely no autonomy over my own time anyway so it'd be pointless. I can never go to meetings/brown bag lunches/events anyway because my schedule doesn't allow. I've only been in my office 3-4 days in 2015. edit: We do have a 5% 403B contribution (not matching) which is nice, but if a company offers matching it works out the same if you contribute on top. If you don't contribute anything or only have an IRA I guess it's nice, it's like 5% free salary. But since I already contribute on my own it's really just a fancy word for matching.
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Mar 16, 2015 16:12
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The security guards, the child porn/snuff monitors, and the janitors at google need to unionize. In California can salaried employees even unionize?
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Mar 16, 2015 16:12
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I stayed late on Friday because we were having beers on the company dime. It was really nice!
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Mar 16, 2015 16:32
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Perks at work and nonfinancial incentives are good with management. The marginal effectiveness of wage increases on employee satisfaction drops off pretty quickly as wages increase. Let's pretend that $300/yr per employee is set aside by the company that they will either pay out to the employee as wages or will spend to provide the campus with free coffee/fruit/soda. If you're earning $25k/yr, you probably want the $300 ($250 net of taxes, because you're broke). If you're earning $150k/yr, you probably want the coffee/fruit/soda instead of the $300 ($180 net of taxes, rich guy) If an employer offers a $2k raise or an extra week of paid vacation, I'd be willing to bet a week's vacation on what the $25k/yr employee will choose and what the $150k/yr employee will choose. My company (the image of a Silicon Valley tech giant) just announced they're offering 8 weeks of paid bonding leave for both men and women when they either have a baby or adopt a kid. The response and excitement around it was enormous. I had acquaintances outside of work who knew where I worked coming up to me and asking about it. FrozenVent posted:I've never had a job where I didn't get free coffee Same on all counts.
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Mar 16, 2015 16:56
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BossRighteous posted:I can't imagine running a business without coffee??? It's so cheap and positive for morale I just can't fathom not having a $7 bin of grounds and a $25 brewer. Heh, when I worked at AT&T they stopped the free coffee and replaced it with pay-by-the-cup vending machines, which they then pulled out because people kept stealing the paper cups. And you couldn't brew your own in the break room. This was on a floor with 24/7 staffing and programmers. I'm still a bit amazed that a company that size tried to turn employee coffee into a profit center. asur posted:Wage fixing lawsuit? It doesn't surprise me though that tech isn't unionized as a pretty substantial number of people hold political views that oppose unions. It's really difficult to unionized tech workers because there aren't many barriers to entry. You can get a job in IT even if you suck and once in, your employer has to treat you the same as even their best techs. Those really good employees end up doing a disapportinate amount of work and eventually jump ship, leaving an office full of idiots. Outside hiring is impeded because union rules value seniority and allow employees from other departments first priority at open positions, even if they suck. I guess tech workers could form a quasi union with some of the protections, but a traditional union environment doesn't really work in that kind of job. Krispy Wafer fucked around with this message at 17:44 on Mar 16, 2015 |
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Mar 16, 2015 17:31
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At a certain salary, I think I would prefer work do my laundry and other perks over a pay raise to cover the costs of said services.
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Mar 16, 2015 17:44
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Foma posted:At a certain salary, I think I would prefer work do my laundry and other perks over a pay raise to cover the costs of said services. At some point though, aren't you earning Maid Money? edit but to be clear, maids are definitely bad with money
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Mar 16, 2015 18:07
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Aliquid posted:At some point though, aren't you earning Maid Money? Sometimes you don't want some random person going through your house.
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Mar 16, 2015 18:15
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We sell vending micromarkets so my company just gives everyone $25 bucks a month on our accounts to use at them. The coffee is like 30 cents a cup so it's functionally free unless you blow your money on too many snacks.
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Mar 16, 2015 18:23
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canyoneer posted:My company (the image of a Silicon Valley tech giant) just announced they're offering 8 weeks of paid bonding leave for both men and women when they either have a baby or adopt a kid. The response and excitement around it was enormous. I had acquaintances outside of work who knew where I worked coming up to me and asking about it. Pretty sure we work at the same place. It's pretty cool. What got me laughing were the people who were all like "but what if I don't choose to have kids? I don't get to take advantage of this, therefore I am getting screwed!"
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Mar 16, 2015 18:36
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excuse me while I nip off to my on-site kitchen and have a hot, chef-prepared meal. might hit the free gym after I work my usual 7.5 hours
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Mar 16, 2015 18:37
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Krispy Kareem posted:Heh, when I worked at AT&T they stopped the free coffee and replaced it with pay-by-the-cup vending machines, which they then pulled out because people kept stealing the paper cups. And you couldn't brew your own in the break room. This was on a floor with 24/7 staffing and programmers. I'm still a bit amazed that a company that size tried to turn employee coffee into a profit center. AT&T knows they're not in a growth business, so their profits are driven by cost efficiency.
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Mar 16, 2015 18:46
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Grouco posted:excuse me while I nip off to my on-site kitchen and have a hot, chef-prepared meal. might hit the free gym after I work my usual 7.5 hours edit: having on-site free food and gyms is actually super awesome because they're more convenient than if I got them from some other company. I walk like 50 feet from my desk to get to a cafe. Cicero fucked around with this message at 19:03 on Mar 16, 2015 |
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Mar 16, 2015 18:53
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Cicero posted:Same. jealous We have a bowflex in our server room (well it's one computer actually), but no one has bothered to put it together. Maybe I'll make it a project this week since my boss is out of the office. Really though I'd take a treadmill desk that can switch over to a traditional desk over a gym at work I think. I want one really badly, but they're just too much money. Even with a manual treadmill.
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Mar 16, 2015 19:11
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I've never worked anywhere that had free coffee (aside from a cafe). Usually we just have a shared kettle and everyone brings their own tea/coffee. Maybe that's just a  thing though?I work in the public sector anyway so the chances of us getting nice cooked meals and free beers are pretty remote. I do get lots of holiday though and I think I prefer that.
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Mar 16, 2015 19:42
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It's funny you mention the bowflex, because there's one sitting 5 feet from me with a broken cable. There's a replacement cable spool sitting next to it, I'm guessing someone just gave up on finishing the project. There's also an inversion table and a power tower (pullups, dips, leg raises, etc) in the warehouse that could probably be put to use. I already have a gym membership so I just lift in the mornings before going to work.
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Mar 16, 2015 19:44
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mobby_6kl posted:Software shop here. There's a gym with barbells and plates. Even an ez-curl one though none of the plates fit it. I need to get my rear end into gear and use the gym. I went 3-4x a week before I got this job, I think I've been about half a dozen times in the 18mo since I started working here. Bad with life.
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Mar 16, 2015 21:13
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Volcano posted:I've never worked anywhere that had free coffee (aside from a cafe). Usually we just have a shared kettle and everyone brings their own tea/coffee. Maybe that's just a Weird, I'm in the UK and I've never worked a place that doesn't have free tea and coffee. Although that doesn't stop recruitment agents advertising the **FREE COFFEE** to me like it is some megaperk (i dont even drink coffee)
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Mar 16, 2015 22:15
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Maybe it's an editorial position thing but companies I've worked for as a writer have near unlimited coffee. Similar on the IT side. The caffeine to stay awake might play a role though.
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Mar 16, 2015 22:41
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I had a bad with money dream last night. It included taking out unnecessary 5 year loans which took up all of my spare net income leaving me with no ability to pay my mortgage early.
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Mar 16, 2015 22:49
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What did you do with the dream money you borrowed?
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Mar 16, 2015 23:21
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Zool posted:What did you do with the dream money you borrowed? From what I recall one of the loans was for a vehicle I didn't need (truck equity), and the other I can't recall (probably unnecessary consumer debt). I didn't even get to enjoy the dream money it was all gone. Devian666 fucked around with this message at 23:32 on Mar 16, 2015 |
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Mar 16, 2015 23:28
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Business, Finance, and Careers > Bad With Money: I dreamed of truck equity
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Mar 16, 2015 23:39
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Redditquote:I am an international student who moved to US in 2010. I got a pre-approved Matrix Card from Continental Finance with $300 limit. Since I was student with no real income banks were not offering me credit card. (I did have a secured CC from a local FCU with $1500 limit). So I went ahead and got a Matrix Card. I thought I will help build my credit score. There is credit card fee of $10 per month and yearly fee of $95 per year. (I found this out after once year – yes I did not read offer documents carefully). 3 years forward I still have this card. I am still paying $10 per month and $95 per year. My credit score is fairly decent now (720 FICO) with CC from 5 major banks in US (AMEX, BofA, Chase, Discover and Citi) I am afraid if I cancel this card it will affect length of my credit years (since it was my first credit card) and also lower my credit score. I am open to suggestions on how to moving forward. Should I cancel this lovely card? Have anyone in this forum suffering from the “MATRIX”. Here is a link to card webpage http://www.continentalfinance.net Edit – They are not willing to increase my credit limit from $300 Holy poo poo those fees.
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Mar 17, 2015 00:07
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Qwertycoatl posted:
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Mar 17, 2015 02:06
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Qwertycoatl posted:
Did the advice at least help free him of his point count?
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Mar 17, 2015 02:08
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Qwertycoatl posted:
Ahahahah what, how is this even real?
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Mar 17, 2015 04:06
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I recently moved to Australia for the long haul, and I'm kind of in a similar situation. I haven't applied for any credit cards but since I'm currently unemployed (grad student) and on what is classified as a temporary visa it seems like I'm basically out of luck. I don't blame 'em considering how bad I look on paper (no money and a flight risk), but I have a high credit score back in the US and it's kinda lame to be starting at square one again. I'm hoping I can partially backdoor my credit score over by getting a card in the US with a company that has operations over here, then telling them I've moved to Australia and seeing if I can get a local CC issued. (I've read about this as a viable workaround in Japan through AMEX, where foreigners face similar obstacles to getting credit cards.) No idea if it'll work or not, gonna try and take a stab at it over Easter break.
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Mar 17, 2015 05:38
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