My boss lets me live in one of his apartments rent-free with all utilities covered, and he also gave me a spending card.
That I still have one. I’m a software developer, and my entire industry has lost its mind.
I’m freaking out trying to think of what I could pivot to as the industry implodes
So far, nothing that pays as well
I’m just holding out hope that my company still has enough sanity left to keep from firing the team responsible for its (incredibly busy, active, and above all publicly-facing) developer portal in favor of having a vibe-coder
destroymaintain it. At least long enough for the AI bubble to finally burst.
Working from home.
I must admit, I would not decide to have kids without working from home. What is even the point in bringing them to this world if their parents are gonna just park them at care centers for most of the time?
Yeah, I had my first before COVID, and then COVID happened, and I’ve turned away a lot simply because it cuts into time with my kids. I walk them to school every day, so I can’t leave my house til 845-9am earliest, but that doesn’t stop me from covering remote work that starts normally at 10. And I stop by 330 or so every day and go get my kids. If I was somewhere else, I’d be stopping at 230, and I do so with absolutely zero remorse, don’t care if we’re done or not. Kids are my number one priority, they won’t be this age forever, and I intend to maximize my time with them.
It’s not all that remarkable for being in Europe, but… five weeks vacation per year.
I’m curious how that stacks up with others.
In New Zealand we get (for full-time employment):
- 20 days of annual leave (these can carry over, though the business encourage you to take them - and they can pay you out for 5 days a year, if both you and they agree).
- 10 days of ‘sick leave’ (this accumulates up to, I think, 20 days) - can be used for dependants (eg caring for a sick child).
- Up to 3 days bereavement leave.
- 12 ‘public holidays’ (1 is a different day per region, the others are national holidays)
So we get less annual leave, but it gets more nuanced once all of the other leave types are considered. I think NZ is somewhere in the middle of the field when it comes to leave entitlements.
In the Netherlands it is a minimum of 5 times the days you work each week, so if you work five days it’s 20 each year. Most companies add 5 extra days to this in the collective agreements (basically union agreements). These agreements also cover public holidays, 5 is the average amount I think.
Lots of companies have a 38 or 36 (less common) hour work week. Usually you’ll work for 40 hours under these contracts, and for the extra hours you get “ADV” days, 12 if your contract is 38 hours. Depending on the company these days get scheduled in advance, or it’s extra days off.
Quick edit: sick days is basically limitless if you’re sick. There’s other types of leave like bereavement leave or for care taking, but that is totally company dependent.
Sick days are complex after a long period (like a full month or 2). but thats a different can of worms. And its not like you will lose much pay either.
So yes, they are “limitless”. Suck it usa :')
It’s interesting; I was listening to a recent NPR Planet Money podcast about why the US doesn’t have guaranteed vacation like all other high income countries. Much of it boiled down to history and politics, but one point that stuck out to me is that unions actually at one point opposed guaranteed vacation days, because if the government has laws for worker rights and leave, it reduces the demand for unions.
I don’t know how much of a factor it is today, but for reference, I have a highly sought set of skills and experience in the US, and I get 35 paid holiday days per year, virtually unlimited sick leave, a two for one 401k match, comprehensive medical and dental, continuing education stipend, etc. Not guaranteed by law, but provided as work incentives.
I wonder if much of the middle class here didn’t have such things, how many more laws or unions we would have to get them.
Thanks for that info, and ye that does sound like early american history/politics. Cover your own arse and screw the rest hehe.
I think the rest of the world has proven that unions are always needed, so they would not have vanished if government added laws to give everyone a minimum holidays. There is always something to fight for or, and thats the most important one, make sure it all happens like the law says it should. This is also something unions do.In any case, i cant say how many middle class ( whatever that may even mean these days because i dont consider myself middle class but im not lower class either ) are in the usa since im from the wrong side of the world for that. But what we hear and read ( which are often the loudest people ) its a lot and its just wrong to have to rely on a company giving them to you cause youre valuable. Its like the garbageman/woman from around the corner is not worth not working to death because they are “just collecting trash” which is not a high skill job
Different countries (and companies) in Europe have different holidays. Especially German ones are as stingy as they can be.
Wut? Germans have amongst the most personal leave(20 days are mandatory, much more are common, average is 27 atm) sick days and public holidays(10-13 depending on the state) in Europe.
Only France and Austria currently have more leave,but they have different drawbacks.
Everyone who just wants in the US sucks in every way train love this one. It’s all looking for the worst shit in the US comparing it against the best in the EU.
In Spain this year is special for me … I can have a total of 10 weeks off, plus two days of family time, plus two days of bereavement leave (my mother passed in April).
Plus any sick leave I might need, though I have to have a doctor’s note if it’s more than one day.
I feel like I’m a holiday millionaire … pity it isn’t every year!
Unlimited servers. I work for a VPS provider and on my first day my boss setup my account with $10k of credit and showed me how to add more in the admin panel “whenever [I] need it”. As long as I’m only using things with plenty of excess capacity and don’t cause problems, I can spin up whatever I want.
Sadly, I’ve already got a rack of hardware at home, so all I’ve done so far is spin up a server with 96GB of ram and put a 2-page static website on it, lol.
Hardware depreciates.
Sell your homelab and stick the proceeds in a stocks and shares ISA.
when you leave the company and no longer have access to their hardware you’ll have the money to rebuild with newer machines
If you can spare the resources you should consider spinning up a Nethack server
Nethack server
Ooh, interesting. I’ve never tried playing that.
Finally you can start your own Minecraft server.
Yeah, game servers is about the only thing I’ve come up with for a way to take any real advantage of the perk.
I work a solid 20 hours a week from my basement and get 200k+
Teach me your ways 👀
DevSecOps, staff engineer. 50/50 IC/Managing technical people and direction.
Also want that!
Product manager?
Fully remote, decent salary with quarterly bonuses, truly unlimited vacation, and my work life balance is 80/20 in my favor
what the hell do you do
Web dev
Porn star with themselves on OnlyFans.
Weirdly, it is my boss. He always got my back and takes everything I say really seriously. I am not the only one who thinks he is the best boss. We get a lot of perks that some of my friends are jealous of, but I value my boss far more than most of those perks. I have learned that if the boss sucks than great perks doesn’t keep me, maybe a bit longer, but usually not for long.
Im mostly remote in an industry ai cant really take over.
which one, and why?
Knowing where to not eat, stay, swim, or do any beauty/health treatments (tattoos, mani/pedi, hairdressing, etc.), and knowing how to protect myself.
Scouting out festivals and special events pre-opening and during for free.
Learning secret recipes and secret ingredients to make food level up.
Flexibility.
Edit: Clearly did not read instructions. The top one is the best perk. The second one is on par if I got to do more festivals!
Health inspector?
I get to be my own boss (because I own the company) not much of a perk because it comes with a lot of drawbacks.
Also, your job sounds an awful lot like a housewife.
It’s way better than that. Full respect to housewives, but I could never be one, I love my freedom way too much. Ironically, I spend more time with my boss than his wife does.
Got it! Mistress.
Is all of that on top of your actual package or does he hold you green card in exchange?
Health insurance is FREE! They cover all my co pays and prescriptions!
Of course this comes at a loss in hourly wage, but I value it at somewhere around an extra $5 an hour due to the insane American healthcare system. I will stay as long as I can.
Full time but 14 days off a month, 7 in a row.
98% work from home.
Flexible working hours (39h per week)
6 weeks vacation.
Sick leave nearly unlimited and with no questions (only the legally required doctor’s statement if it’s >3 days at once).
I don’t have a schedule. I arrive and leave when I want and taking a day off is no issue.
