Yes, I had a similar situation with ‘flexible work locations’. Basically the job ad said flexibility in where you work but the reality was we want you in head office 3/4 days a week. No negotiation.
The worst job I ever had was with Loomis Armored. They advertised $18.75-20.35 an hour and I had years of banking and cash handling experience for the vault job I applied for. They offered me 18.75 and I asked why my experience wasn't relevant, they said "it was relevant for hire but everyone starts at 18.75". They had a signing bonus that paid out every three months and most people don't make it past two. It was truly that bad..
Unlimited vacation is particularly sinister since it gives the employer so much leeway to claim you're abusing it. Wonder if they try to get out of paying you unemployment benefits this way.
I worked for Mentor Graphics from 2013 to 2015. We originally had something like 5 weeks of vacation, and then they went to unlimited vacation. When I tried to take the normal 5 weeks, my manager told me that they went to unlimited so that we would take less vacation. I'm certain that this wasn't the company's official policy, as my boss was toxic. But none the less, I was written up for taking excessive vacation after 4 weeks.
@@ghost_mallI never had a problem either when I worked for a company with unlimited PTO. I know people say that it’s dirty because the company doesn’t have to pay out vacation time if you leave, but for me, some things are more important than money. I’d rather have the peace of mind, knowing that I can take a break from work when needed and not have to worry about it.
Perks that a friend of mine was offered: The weather here in FL is great and we don't have state income tax!! (justification for offering $20K less than what he was making in IL)
I sold Honda cars for about 7 months some 20 years ago, and the new demo car was a perk that for many was hard to walk away from. Me, I dropped it off one Sunday night at 10pm, put the keys in the drop box, and walked home in the freezing cold and never looked back.
Thank you so much for exposing "unlimited" time off that really isn't. Not only do you not get any payout at the end of your employment, but this can turn an illness into a "vacation." If you're offered "unlimited discretionary time off," ask about labor utilization expectations, particularly on client-billable work. This can bite you in a very bait-and-switch way. If you have "unlimited" DTO, but your utilization minimum is 95%, in a work-year of 2080 hours, you can only take off 104 hours or 13 days. This is not just vacation - but also sick days and non-corporate holidays, along with any other time not billable to the client, like corporate-mandated training, or even proposal work. Consider this carefully if you're late-career or you're a caregiver - you may have to work extra billable hours to make up for taking time off.
This is kind of why i suggest to work for larger companies. Because in big companies there always someone to help with the extra workload and by law and popular demand have to promote work life balance. Not the case with smaller companies where they have limited people and higher expectations.
@purpleburglaralert so true. Nowadays i have gotten in the habbit of asking for my whole trip cost if my schedule to leave is slightly disturbed. And if the disturbance is gonna extend into my vacation i want 2-3x my vacation budget. Not the actual cost but the budget i made that is fully inflated. Most employers are smart enough to simply wish me have a nice vacay.
@@asadb1990 It would be nice if that were true, but that's not what I have found in my experience. I've actually found the opposite with large companies. While there are more people that can help with the workload, individuals are judged on their production alone, not as much on intrinsic or hard-to-measure factors.
@PamBurks03 im in construction and in large companies people plan for the unexpected and delays are part of the job. And you have to take your vacation and sicks days (last minute vacation lol) because they don't want you to keep accruing year to year. At my last large employer i took a 5 week vacation even though my annual limit was 3 weeks. During that time my employer never contacted me at all. And i left early on the final work day as well. Similarly i worked for a smaller company and they expected me to work through my holiday because they didn't want to handle the workload. So i kindly suggested them to pay for my hotel and credit me my vacation days while working and they refused and i in turn stopped my work just before i boarded my flight. This ended up being a super long day of around 12h and during that time the boss kept emailing every hour "is it done yet?".
One of my conditions for accepting the last job offer I had was for them to write a double digit percentage pay-rise into my contract after a year to make up for the lower than expected offer - since I knew I wouldn't get one that size in the foreseeable without changing companies again and the project aligned with my values. The recruiter who found me came back with one better and got it for after the probation period instead, so got the rise I wanted within 6 months - which was serendipitously timed to land just as energy prices were ramping up. 😄
Unlimited vacation benefit plans are okay IF they come backed with a minimum vacation policy where the company pushes for a minimum of 2-3 weeks or so vacation used per year. Sort of like a mix of traditional and unlimited vacation policies.
I have unlimited vacation. I take many Fridays off and they don't say much about it. I also take a week here and there and nothing is said as long as you tell them ahead of time. I don't have to ask for permission as long as I tell them ahead of time.
@santi8aranz8 that's the way its supposed to be. But many employers guilt trip their workers from taking the time. Or the workload is usually too insane to actually take the time.
@@Johnny-Utah-91 very much a “Hot people are hot” situation. Regardless of a company’s policies, good companies will behave respectfully and bad companies will suck.
My previous employer originally had an accrued PTO policy and a few years in my employment, they switched it over to unlimited PTO to "attract candidates". I was one of the senior technical people so it was a bit 'hard' for me to just take vacations on the fly without having a ton of work waiting for me. Long story short, I ended up losing thousands of dollars because of this change. If your current employer mentions they are thinking of making this change, you should really consider other options if you have them before your PTO hours get obliterated like mine did.
My schedule can be really hectic, and I'm full time salaried, so don't even get overtime. When it was fixed PTO, it was "use it or lose it," so I'd often end up getting the whole month of December off - but now with FTO, it's hard for me to just say "I'm taking December off" without getting a lot of flak about it. I knew when we switched I was going to get screwed - studies had consistently showed people with unlimited took less than people with fixed.
Worse 'perk' i ever got: Free food! Catered lunch daily from various restaurant!. All the snacks you can eat, soda, coffee, tea - all free. Downside: you're expected to stay at your desk all day. No getting some fresh air walking to the post office. No midday errands. No checking your email and having a moment to yourself. None of that. Instead, you're trying to eat lunch while your boss or coworkers are talking work and never get a break. 9-12 straight hours without a moment away from your desk. People end up sitting in the bathroom to get some downtime! haha
Gorgeous point about future perks - it’s unbelievable how every individual involved in fulfilling these promises can shrug and say it’s out of their hands after you’re hired and work for it…. Like, who’s hands was it in when you offered it, then?
Kind of like how they say how great a company is when they are trying to grab you, then when your first review comes up all of a sudden: "Gosh, the business is just so bad right now....maybe we'll get to you when things turn around"!
A situation that happened with my brother and a friend. on two separate occasions. They had great per-IPO options. Just prior to an acquisition the founders issued themselves massive additional options, diluting everyone else down to 1% what they originally had.
I had an options package verbally quoted at $0.03/share but was actually given $0.30/share after I was hired. “The board voted, nothing we can do”. Fortunately that company went under so getting screwed on share price didn’t matter.
@@danf4447If VCs are involved I don’t think any company will offer that, even to the founders. Only the money people get anti-dilution, and even then early round investors almost always have to sign away such rights to induce later-round investment. Typically it’s all about the post-dilution valuation. If that grows nicely each funding round everyone can be happy. I’ve only seen investors deliberately dilute the employees to hell in imminent bankruptcy, because they all leave as a result and you don’t really have a company anymore. They were really buying the IP not a functioning company.
An excellent point. I used to work for a large entertainment/media company who happens to have several theme parks in the US (y’all know the one). And I had to think about it one day as I was looking at some of their newly posted job descriptions and associated salaries - and it dawned on me that the pay is historically miserable pretty much across the board there partly because of the “perks,” one of which is free theme park admission. When you consider that someone who’s using their free park admission on a regular basis is technically “saving” hundreds of dollars just to get in the place….it puts the hourly wages into a different sort of perspective Not necessarily a good one cuz I’d rather have cash (which is why I’m not there now…) but certainly a different one. Sort of 😅
This is fantastic. To me, these perks are icing. They don't make the decision for me. Perhaps perks may be a tie-breaker, but, as you said the bottom line bas compensation, first and foremost. By the way how about perks like recreation or game rooms. I've always heard to beware on these. They can mean you have no work-life balance. They assume you will be in the office almost all the time. They are just a way to take an occasional break.
When I started at my current employer (before we were acquired), one of the perks was a 401k with "6% matching". What that means at most companies: They will match your contribution 100% up to 6% of your salary. What that meant at my company: They will match 6% of your contribution. So, I contributed 6% of my salary to my 401k, and my company contributed .36% of my salary. So, my starting salary was $75k and they were going to contribute a whopping $270.
The place I work contributes a bit over 6% of my gross check depending on how much I contribute. So I I put 5% in my 401k, they would match. I throw far more in, so I get the full 6+% of my gross every check.
@whidbeyrules5566 After we were acquired, the new rate is 1 for 1 up to 4%, eventually capping at 5% match to your 6% contribution. Good enough for me, and much better than the old system.
29 day annual leave (includes public holidays). I’ve seen this one so much and it’s so annoying. 20 days is standard and the public holidays are there by law. (I’m in Ireland btw)
thanx so much for your efforts to show the truths of hiring practices! - my thoughts are always though that, while im completely aware that “it is what it is” .. the fact that good people have to play some disgusting game of cat and mouse just to work proudly and live well is absolutely sickening .. honestly it’s truly my opinion that’s why nobody wants to work most jobs now .. they watched tears of their parents lives flushed down a toilet . may not be what most want to hear but that’s how many young people think .. all the years not spent with loved ones and all the anger and broken families from all these toxic company work environments .. companies and their leaders that claim to care about America but truly couldn’t give two f***s about this nation or it’s future as long as they’re top dog in some city somewhere each weekend
Amen, brother … your videos always describe my current healthcare IT reality!!! Please keep up the awesome videos - I send them to my peeps to keep my family of friends informed!
I got bit with the delayed raise promise. I had just come off a temp job in 2006 as an Accounting Assistant in a very rural area where I was making $13/hour. I was then offered a permanent job by a different company in a large city $10/hour, but I would get a review and a raise after 90 days. Similar job offers I was considering were in the $30k-35K range, which were about 50% more than what this job was offering. However, this was a bona fide job offer, so I took it rather than risk further unemployment. I worked 90 days probation, was doing really well, and when I asked about the raise I was advanced to a whopping $11/hour. If I had known that, I might have continued to keep looking elsewhere.
Curious, how much longer did you work with this company after your "raise"? Sounds like they had no intention of keeping you, just they wanted a temp employee and they got you at less than what they would pay a temp.
@@dyingculture1 Ugh, four years. Inertia and comfort can be a bitch. No, this was actually how that particular hiring manager operated, and he was the son of the owners. I advanced later after finishing my Bachelor's and he was asking me about becoming a Senior Office Manager (I ended up not taking that role) and talked about using this strategy when hiring employees. Fortunately, I got a $4,500 raise after a year, and made a little bit more in the three years after that to where I left making $35k. Meanwhile, most comparable jobs at the time were paying $45-50k so I still got a substantial raise from leaving. Not only did I get paid more money, I got a much better working environment (until that company was later acquired).
if companies is offering you "unlimited vacation", then the first thing they are doing before you even sit down, is lying to you as you walk in the door for the first time
HA. I got a job offer with a big prestigious publisher and the salary was breathtakingly low. I told the HR woman that was barely enough to live on and she told me that is how they do it and it would only be for the first year and then I could expect a substantial raise. After a year, I went back to her and asked for my raise. She looked at me like I had 2 heads and denied she ever said that.
Over 40 years of working and I have found HR managers/directors...whatever they call themselves....to be the biggest bald faced liars in the company. They don't care about you, they care about themselves and the stuff shirts they work for.
That is so true about the remote/hybrid positions. I got a hybrid position where they told me we could come to the office if we want (I usually went). But suddenly after one year they changed for a 3 days required to go.
Ah, yes, hybrid work... I had a company that moved the goal posts from "once a month" to "twice a month" to "once a week" to "twice a week" during the bloody interview.
I get 40 hours of vacation and sick days combined per year. No rollover. No getting paid out if you leave without using it. I promise you, I would not be taking less time off because of unlimited PTO.
Very nice pointers. I agree with base salaries being more important than bonuses. I personally don’t like bonuses because of the higher taxes you have to pay for them compared to base salaries so I would rather have a higher base pay with no bonuses or the option to contribute all the bonuses in my 401k to avoid the high tax consequences of bonuses.
Depending on your tax rate, your bonus may be taxed at a higher rate when you receive it, or if your income is high enough, it could be taxed at a lower rate than the rest of your withholding. However, your income tax at the end of the year is based on your annual salary, so if they’ve withheld too much on that bonus, you get the excess back. Also, if they didn’t withhold enough and you didn’t have them take extra out of the rest of your checks to compensate, you could owe at the end of the year. It does even out at the end, but I do understand not wanting to essentially give the government an interest free loan if they’re holding onto your bonus money.
This is true and isn't at the same time. Your tax rate isn't changed between bonuses and income. It all counts as income. By default however bonuses are taxed at 23%. You can turn it off.
Hybrid is diffferent than remore for sure. I have seen some companies bring teams into the office once a quarter for one week. I would define that as remote with minir travel as it is infrequent enough for it to not be an issue for most professionals.
I made the mistake of thinking equity was worth it... I worked at a company where a good portion of my total competition was equity with the vesting not starting till I hit my one year anniversary. Needless to say the company laid me off less than one year and I lost all my pre-IPO stock options. I also worked at another company that gave RSU's which would not vest until 4yrs out but then left prior to the 4yrs to pursue the opportunity at a start up that I thought I would be at for a long time but got laid off from... Sometimes I think options and RSU's are just a carrot being dangled in front of your face.
Sometimes it pays off. I worked at a company for 2 years and it got acquired by Google... they ended up vesting everyone with stock options immediately, and I cashed out 200k.
@@JustMe99999 Happy it worked out for you. I'm not saying it never works out. What I'm saying is that it's risky and relying too much on Stock options is not a good idea since there is no guarantee that you will get anything from them.
Another “Perk” for many sales positions is offering a “Car Benefit” program. They tell you that you can drive the vehicle you want and the fleet/car program will reimburse you for the car. The devil is in the details since there are many restrictions, such as age of the vehicle, mileage, insurance requirements, etc, etc. You never come out ahead with these car programs and almost always it actually costs you money to drive your personal vehicle for the company. The icing in the cake is that all the liability in case of an accident is on you and not on the company.
Had a friend that got burned by this. The car he had to choose was out of his price range under normal circumstances and guess who’s name is on the loan? Not the company’s so if you quit you’re stuck trying to quickly off load a car.
Amazon does the "stock options" and tried to act like it was part of their "essentially $15 an hour" pitch they gave us in South Carolina. Starting pay was $11 an hour but then they added. "Here are these benefits (health insurance, stock options after two years, and there was a third thing) that add up to $15 an hour."
At this point, I retired. If they want to hire me, I'm going 1099, quadrupling my base wages as that is the typical rate of consultants. I don't care anymore, time with family is time I will never get back
I work in IT, so I obviously know a few people personally who also work in that field- and they don't feel like they have time to take the paltry amount of vacations days they have now! And I am hearing the same things from people in health care, engineering, etc. So the idea of unlimited vacation days is a joke to so many of us. I have to work 2x as hard before I take the vacation to make sure everything is in order for when I'm gone and then 2x has hard the week when I'm back. All just to get 5 business days off. Whooopeee!
The counter argument about companies with traditional PTO with generous rollover plans is people (including myself) tend to hoard their leave and still not take the vacation time they should for their mental health.
The last warning sign is similar to contract to hire roles that pitch that a contractor will convert to FT on average within x amount of months. I tend to say no to those kinds of roles since it's not a full guarantee that I'd convert.
I worked for one engineering firm that promised this. I worked for them for 6 months Then the work dried up. I left them after a few months because they had no work. After I went to a new firm, lo and behold, the owner of the firm wanted to make me full time. I knew he was running a scam.
Speaking of signing bonuses, you can often negotiate one to cover the cost of exercising your stock options at your previous position. A prospective employer will know this is hugely attractive and might very well put them to the top of the list in terms of competing offers, or conversely, if they don't they go to the bottom of the list.
7:01 I caught two companies doing the telework bait & switch in interviews when both told me I would need to relocate to their home city to be considered.
I have been victimized by perks so many times it was not even funny. Horrocks Engineers promised they would pay for relocation expenses after a year. I was laid off before that happened. Also, they were busted by the state of CA for committing wage theft. Stebbins Engineering promised profit sharing and a 401k match. You needed to be there 7 years to get it. They laid off people before the 7 years so they would not get it. I lost $50K of bonuses in the 3 years I worked there. They also mandated their employees sign a non-compete or else you did not start work. That is a major problem because the bad bosses used it to keep people from working after they were fired. BCA laid me off after they claimed they never laid people off due to the lack of work. Middlebrook & Louie refused to sign off on my engineering experience so I could get the next engineering job. I worked there for five years.
I was given a “verbal offer” by email. I was to start in October and be eligible for the companies incentive bonus program the following year in March according to the email. Then the HR called me while I was considering it and told me she had made a mistake and that I wouldn’t be eligible until the year after that in March, so a full 1.5 years later. She said I would have had to start in September to get the original offer. I had already accepted the verbal offer, and told my current employer I was leaving. Mistake or not, it put me in an awkward position, so much so, that I ended up rescinding my acceptance. I’m sure I’m on that company’s never hire list now, and it’s unfortunate for me because it is a fortune 200 company, but the “mistake” losing me more than $15k was enough of a difference to stay with my current employer.
In the service trades companies will advertise you get a truck, a gas card and, a computer and a company cell phone. None of which are for personal use and are necessary for you to do your job as an employee.
1. Unlimited sicktime. Watch for employees (not employers) abusing it. Plenty of colleagues happy to abuse. 2. 10-15% of salary as yearly bonus, based on performance. Define performance? When is the year end? Sure. They will be happy if you "leave" just before that year ends. 3. Flexibility on almost everything. Great perk but have it on paper well defined. 4. As called helping environment. 5. Vacation. 2 weeks even if you bring real experience impossible to gain it in 5 years of complex exposure (if you are allowed, of course) **Bellow the bottom line **** 1. Ask for more vacation 2. Instead of elusive bonus, ask for half that bonus to be added to the salary 3. Ask for what type of training they are willing you to get up to speed.
#2, a lot of companies will talk pay out the bonus in March or April. So, if you're still around to collect the bonus you're already committed a good bit to sticking around for the next year instead of jumping ship right then.
1000% with the hybrid schedules. I work for an older company and they advertised and hired me for my position as remote. A year and a half later they are requesting us to come in even though they told me it would be permanent remote. I wish I had got that card in writing so now I have to go out of my way to get ADA accommodations to support me working permanently remote even though I was verbally told I would be working remote. I would never let this happen again I’m getting it in writing going forward!
A trend I am seeing is awarding Restricted Stock Units to employees, which vest over a multiyear schedule: say you are awarded 500 RSU's. 125 of them will vest next year, 125 the next year and so on. Large publicly held companies are doing this, in my opinion, as a golden handcuff. It's not unusual to have $100K+ in unvested RSU's, which you will lose if you leave the company. It's also highly unlikely that a new employer will give you a comparable amount of RSU's or a cash bonus to compensate for the leaving those RSU's on the table.
The unlimited vacation perk is particularly insidious. It incentivizes an employer to create a manipulative, toxic environment. If you ask for vacation you’re not a team player and you’re less promotable. Employees will be incentivized to take less vacation, not more. And, of course after leaving the employer there is no accrued benefit. All of this favors the employer even though it’s presented as a perk.
lol yeah I definitely would not put anything in the 401k if i could start over. the vesting schedule means its for the loyalists only. i turned my real money into monopoly money for no reason
Also look out for the word "compensation" instead of "wages", "salary" etc. Compensation is the total overall value of your wages plus benefits/perks like the ones spoken about here, and when there are vague values to a perk, companies will ALWAYS err on the higher side - or outright make it up.
@4:07 a company i interviewed for didn't give yearly raises and bonuses was more stock. no monetary bonuses. they were a private company and had no plans of going public in the 3 years. sure they were getting bigger but it just seemed off to me.
It's really all about "AWE": Age, Wage, Experience: Right Age (low), Right Wage (low), Right Experience (high). Anything else, they ain't interested. There is no 'Strong' negotiating position. Age, Wage, Experience. You got it, or you don't. Simple.
By law/IRS rules 401k matches have to vest in no more than 3 years if they choose full vesting at the end of the period or up to 6 if they give up a percentage each y ear. Honestly if someone leaves in less than 3 years it means the company was a bad fit (unless other things come into play) IMHO don’t make 401k match a differentiator unless they immediately vest you if it means taking a lower salary
In Illinois, some state institutions require the person to reside in Illinois. So it's 100% remote but the job description clearly states you must be based in Illinois. This is a state rule, the employer isn't the one enforcing it. Apparently Illinois is in the minority of states that require this.
Some companies will put geographical limitations because their system isn't setup for other states (for tax/UI/etc) and they are not going to setup all those for 1 person working remote. So, they may list like 5-6 states that person should be residing even though position may be fully remote.
The most lame "perk" I ever got was a Microsof contractt deal where we would travel to Florida to work sometimes. It turned out that we were expected to travel on our weekends without pay.
Unlimited PTO removes the liability from the employer and they can insert the approval process to you. So I alway view as a negative while the recruiter tries to sell this point.
Working for others is just exhausting anymore. Nobody is hiring and if they are they aren’t paying or expect too much. But running a small business and paying people properly is so hard too. There is going to be a breaking point in the next few years. The working class isn’t going to continue to be pushed back much longer.
Right now it's ticking me off of jobs posted as Remote but you are required to live like 50 - 100km away from main office. I'm getting many rejections because I live like 3hrs away from main offices. If it's truly remote it should not matter how far you live if you are still within the same State/Province. I suspect at some point these jobs will push for a hybrid or fully back to office and want to be sure people are close to not have an excuse.
Thank you for calling out the bait and switch on ‘remote’ jobs. As someone who can’t be on site for a full day due to medical issues, there is nothing more infuriating than putting on your profile that you’re looking for remote work and getting ten recruiters all pushing hybrid jobs.
Sounds like a couple of my old gigs. Remote work? Naw, see you in the office even though you’ve been remote for 13 years. PRO? Well, let’s cap it and not allow for the buying of said pto. 401k match at 8%? We can’t be having that now. Complete annihilation of work life balance? Now, there’s a winner.
That used to be the case pre-Covid! As of 2023, it's down to 3.3 years, 1 full year less than before, based on the U.S. Department of Labor stats that came out in June 2023!
My company went to unlimited PTO. I have been documenting my time off for the last 3 years, and I take 25% less vacation time than I did before the program started. Some people in the system abuse it, taking a week off every other month. It really is a personality thing. It works for some, but not for all. Also, managers should be in tune with employees and sense burn out and encourage time off. My last two managers have never encouraged taking additional time off. I hate the system, but it won't change, especially if the company is benefiting from it.
Sounds like me - I never take vacation and just bank the hours, to get a large payout at the end. Now my company went to "unlimited" vacation, getting rid of PTO and floating holidays at the same time (floating holidays in lieu of federal holidays). The math says that I will have to take the equivalent of 28 days off to break even. Welp, I guess I will have to start taking tons of vacation.
A week off every other month is not abusing the system. It's what the system is designed to do. I wouldn't reduce my annual 8 weeks vacation if my employer went to unlimited vacation. I'd still take my full previous allotment.
@@Geoff_G I think it depends on the company standard. If your company allows 40 days a year, then its norm. Our company would typically budget 20-25 depending on years of service when the system was PTO. Also, with unlimited PTO, the company says they will NOT track individual's PTO, but they do. They say this for two reasons, to help employees not feel guilty, and to help create an equal playing field. They say that unlimited PTO helps recruit talent since all employees have the same time off standard (whether experienced or new grad). The company also claims that reduced paperwork from having unlimited PTO, and less "cash" on the books from having unlimited PTO. I think it just requires adapting to a new mindset that some people can do and some people cannot.
401k matching is usually after 1 year of service and likely after a certain amount has been invested. Matching is also capped or for every certain amount of dollar. -So a company can match maybe like the first 5% of the total you invested. So if you invest 10%, the company will only match 5%. -The company will match $1 for every $3 that you invested. So you put in 3k, the company will put in 1k -They can match the first 3% and $1 for every $3 that you invest. Remember that there is a limit on how much you can contribute to your 401k. I believe it’s like 20k a year.
Better yet, if the company has a huge match -- but only vests after 3 years, guess what can and will very likely happen at 2 years 11 months? Happens constantly and is currently LEGAL.
While checking the vesting period for 401k/403b consider if you want or are able to invest to their matching %, especially if plan to be there longer than 2 years. This is my 6th year part time with my company and if i get a new position like i hope before end of year, i still walk away with about 12k. Hr tried to dissuade me from investing to matching when i signed up. I planned on leaving in 2020 but 2020 happened and i got a few extra years out of them
Unlimited PTO screams red flag to me. I’ve never met anyone where the unlimited PTO perk worked out for anyone’s benefit. Call me crazy, but I’d rather just have accrued PTO like the traditional employee, build my PTO bank up, and take PTO whenever I need it.
They do that so they don't have to pay you out when you leave. If a high paid worker ($10k+/month) racks up 2 months vacation, that could be $20k+ check that you don't get to take with you.
While none of these perks are things offered by my current job, looking back, it's clear to me my work sprinkles a lot of honestly nice perks but offsets that with a relatively low salary.
I just had the hybrid vs remote bait and switch happen a few weeks ago. Advertised as fully remote, first interview they said we will need you to come to office to fill out paperwork, and there may be 5-7 days a year that are required. Second interview they said they are going to start some.employees coming back to the office. My follow up question on this suggested they would be in the office 2 days a week for all positions.
I've worked for 4 start-ups that gave me lots of stock options. All 4 NEVER were worth the paper printed on. Options cost the company nothing! That exactly what they're worth...NOTHING!
I've seen employers offer "unlimited vacation" but that came with a major asterisk on it. You were still only given 1 or 2 weeks a year, but you could take more time than that and have it fall off the next years time. Sounds alright I guess, but the thing is if anything happened that ends your employment any extra time you took would be billed to you.
Not related to unlimited time off, but the worst company I ever worked for was Funko Inc. Truly a slave driver of a company. Their policy of “6 month probation and then guaranteed consideration for full time hire” or something like that, was absolute rubbish. They hired out exclusively temp workers from TWO agencies, and burnt out every one at either the line or receiving. Their intention was clearly “burn and turn”, so they’d never have to hire full time with benefits. One guy finally had enough and cussed out the boss, dared him to fire him, and then the boss fired him. Thought he’d deck him first. The company is your frenemy. Always look out for you first.
I had a sign on bonus offered to me at my current job. But it was laid out very clearly that it is a one time bonus. The main reason for it though was that I was interviewing the company maybe even more than they were interviewing me. I was not looking for a job, I had one, and they reached out to me after pretending to be a client for a while, I guess that was their interview at that point. The nasty part was that I lied about the benefits and vacation. I tried to make it work for a year and a half, but I see what this company stands for, and that is pure profit for themselves and it is a meat grinder for the employees, especially the upper management, as at the end of the day this is where the responsibility and accountability lands. And the minimum 50 hr weeks has no maximum and stretches indefinitely, breaking state labor laws.
Sign on bonuses are the most common and shady perks I have seen recently in my area. They aren’t really bonuses in my opinion. If they are intentionally dragged out after a three month period and paid in half-hearted installments, then there really is no incentive or anything being offered. The worker earns it, and it is not given. A big difference.
They never mention the usual 3 year vesting when they promote their 401k Leave before any vesting and you lose all the contributions that your employer made 😊 But they never say that when they’re promoting it…
Best perks I received from one company - after 6 months and 20% deposit they would lend you 30% of your annual salary to buy a car, would pay 100% of moving costs if you lived further than 30 miles from the office - new home had to be with in 2 miles of the office.
What happens if you have it written that six months down the line they will look at how you do but they say you aren’t doing well and you know you are.
I had that happen with many employers. The city of Redmond WA did this to me. The woman who was my boss had no credentials to do my job or her job whatsoever. She placed me on a PIP because I was taking too long reviewing buildings for seismic safety. When I challenged it, she told me to shut up. After she laid me off, the city was sued for wrongful death at the hands of police. One of the pieces of evidence against the city of Redmond WA was the bogus PIP. IN the PIP, they admitted not to care for life safety. The city of Redmond WA ended up paying that family $20 million plus. The woman who fired me got fired.
If at the interview they use - Rock and roll atmosphere, work hard play hard, you're amazing/incredible,ni think you would ace it/no bother to you, we're a family, you get an offer of employment shortly after (even on the day of the interview, in some cases, right after the interview)- these are all deceptive tactics and you need to get out of their asap lol. Have a good day reader.
I worked for a major San Jose based structural engineering firm that claimed they were family. It was more like a dysfunctional family because they were always laying off their employees.
@@BadStructuralEngineeringFirms I think you need to go through hell before you get to heaven lol. I had a brutal job a few years ago, but the experience toughened me up and ultimately got me better work with a better employer with better benefits. I now have plenty of options and my future is bright. The brutal job I had I got
@@gerardsloan1593 They fight like siblings! Seriously, I worked for a small company and the owner/CEO hired his cousin for some job he had no background in BUT he's family!...He screamed at him so loudly the whole building could hear.
NEVER ever be more more loyal to an employer than you are to yourself. Anytime a prospective employer mentions unlimited PTO I say that's actually not a benefit because research shows that employees actually take less PTO with unlimited PTO.
Agree and this is why it is (IMO). If I get 10 days of PTO a year I'm taking 10 days off. If it's "unlimited" then guilt comes into play and I'm feeling guilty (almost) asking for the time off.
@@jellyrcw12 My old company had policy that they won't pay out unused PTO if one quits. They will pay if one gets laid off only. Apparently, only 2 states in US requires unused PTO to be paid so they had exceptions for workers in those states. Also, their policy was that one can not give 2 weeks notice within 2 weeks of taking vacation. (Not exactly can not, but they will black list you if you do and it was BIG company with a LOT of subsidiaries and all subsidiaries will share the black list)
I had a psychopath VP engage with me because he was bored in the pool with his family at Disney a year or two ago- he of course was trying to inquire 'what I do' as he was sizing me/us up, and how we were able to stay in the same hotel he was staying in. After I said I was an engineer he sort of backed off a bit and then revealed that he was on vacation for only 4 days (really? at Disney?) along with letting on that his company had 'unlimited vacation time', and that he limited himself to approximately 3 weeks or so of vacation (almost like I should be self limiting myself even if I have more vacation time available to use). He also said that the employee basically doesn't get paid for any accrued vacation time when they leave the company. It's basically a 0 hour net compensation. Let's just say I gave my wife 'the look' to get me away from the discussion so I could go back to being disengaged and unplugged from work related mindset for our vacation, just focusing on family time.
Also beware of companies who tell you you'll be getting PTO with every paycheck. My cousin just got a new job with a company like this and as it turns out, they force him to use that PTO every holiday, and if he needs to see a Dr of any type. People have been there years without seeing a single real vacation. This is WAGE THEFT and it should be illegal.
This makes me wonder how it would work here where we have minimum annual amounts by law. I've seen some companies advertising unlimited leave, but I presume they'd still have to keep records to prove how much was used in case there is a dispute. Not sure what the legal position is on paying out for unused leave. I suspect they'd have to pay pro rata on the basis of the annual requirement. Before the 90s we had many companies that used a company pension plan. The usual practice was that you lost your pension if you left the company. Thankfully the government made that illegal. Although we still had companies that pulled the matching payment trick. However they've usually lost in court unless they could prove that the matching payment was genuinely in addition to your agreed pay. It almost never was though. I've encountered a few companies claiming they're remote, then revealing that they're actually hybrid.
I noticed one perk that is pretty annoying is bonuses. I've had bonuses not come and they're once a year so you if you might be wanting to transition to a new job it's basically forfeiting that bonus. I'd rather just have the guaranteed income
Yes, I had a similar situation with ‘flexible work locations’. Basically the job ad said flexibility in where you work but the reality was we want you in head office 3/4 days a week. No negotiation.
AmTrust
Same here
That's technically flexible
Technically the opposite of flexible.
The worst job I ever had was with Loomis Armored. They advertised $18.75-20.35 an hour and I had years of banking and cash handling experience for the vault job I applied for. They offered me 18.75 and I asked why my experience wasn't relevant, they said "it was relevant for hire but everyone starts at 18.75".
They had a signing bonus that paid out every three months and most people don't make it past two. It was truly that bad..
How long did you stay?
I bet that you have helped thousands of people at this point by exposing employers
I'm one of them!
@@calvin6715an exposed employer?
I became an excellent interviewee
Unlimited vacation is particularly sinister since it gives the employer so much leeway to claim you're abusing it. Wonder if they try to get out of paying you unemployment benefits this way.
I got fired just before I actually started to take my 1 week "vacation " which was actually for relocation. Still haven't got my unemployment
@@cpK054LThis is a good example not to quit quickly. Ask for some time off, unpaid eventually. Sniff the new company.
I worked for Mentor Graphics from 2013 to 2015. We originally had something like 5 weeks of vacation, and then they went to unlimited vacation. When I tried to take the normal 5 weeks, my manager told me that they went to unlimited so that we would take less vacation. I'm certain that this wasn't the company's official policy, as my boss was toxic. But none the less, I was written up for taking excessive vacation after 4 weeks.
@@earthwormscrawl This is how a law is changed. Based on abuses. Better clear rules not lax rules.
@@ghost_mallI never had a problem either when I worked for a company with unlimited PTO. I know people say that it’s dirty because the company doesn’t have to pay out vacation time if you leave, but for me, some things are more important than money. I’d rather have the peace of mind, knowing that I can take a break from work when needed and not have to worry about it.
Perks that a friend of mine was offered: The weather here in FL is great and we don't have state income tax!! (justification for offering $20K less than what he was making in IL)
Yeah FL weather is great - until hurricane season. With a 20K pay cut? Hard pass.
Good call out. Those are “added” benefits of the location. But should not be factors in total compensation.
The classic "you get half your pay in sunshine"..
It always struck me that perks in general were there to create a disincentive to the employee leaving but at a minimal cost to the employer.
I sold Honda cars for about 7 months some 20 years ago, and the new demo car was a perk that for many was hard to walk away from. Me, I dropped it off one Sunday night at 10pm, put the keys in the drop box, and walked home in the freezing cold and never looked back.
Thank you so much for exposing "unlimited" time off that really isn't. Not only do you not get any payout at the end of your employment, but this can turn an illness into a "vacation."
If you're offered "unlimited discretionary time off," ask about labor utilization expectations, particularly on client-billable work. This can bite you in a very bait-and-switch way.
If you have "unlimited" DTO, but your utilization minimum is 95%, in a work-year of 2080 hours, you can only take off 104 hours or 13 days. This is not just vacation - but also sick days and non-corporate holidays, along with any other time not billable to the client, like corporate-mandated training, or even proposal work.
Consider this carefully if you're late-career or you're a caregiver - you may have to work extra billable hours to make up for taking time off.
This is kind of why i suggest to work for larger companies. Because in big companies there always someone to help with the extra workload and by law and popular demand have to promote work life balance. Not the case with smaller companies where they have limited people and higher expectations.
damn people are evil
@purpleburglaralert so true. Nowadays i have gotten in the habbit of asking for my whole trip cost if my schedule to leave is slightly disturbed. And if the disturbance is gonna extend into my vacation i want 2-3x my vacation budget. Not the actual cost but the budget i made that is fully inflated. Most employers are smart enough to simply wish me have a nice vacay.
@@asadb1990 It would be nice if that were true, but that's not what I have found in my experience. I've actually found the opposite with large companies. While there are more people that can help with the workload, individuals are judged on their production alone, not as much on intrinsic or hard-to-measure factors.
@PamBurks03 im in construction and in large companies people plan for the unexpected and delays are part of the job. And you have to take your vacation and sicks days (last minute vacation lol) because they don't want you to keep accruing year to year. At my last large employer i took a 5 week vacation even though my annual limit was 3 weeks. During that time my employer never contacted me at all. And i left early on the final work day as well. Similarly i worked for a smaller company and they expected me to work through my holiday because they didn't want to handle the workload. So i kindly suggested them to pay for my hotel and credit me my vacation days while working and they refused and i in turn stopped my work just before i boarded my flight. This ended up being a super long day of around 12h and during that time the boss kept emailing every hour "is it done yet?".
One of my conditions for accepting the last job offer I had was for them to write a double digit percentage pay-rise into my contract after a year to make up for the lower than expected offer - since I knew I wouldn't get one that size in the foreseeable without changing companies again and the project aligned with my values. The recruiter who found me came back with one better and got it for after the probation period instead, so got the rise I wanted within 6 months - which was serendipitously timed to land just as energy prices were ramping up. 😄
Unlimited vacation benefit plans are okay IF they come backed with a minimum vacation policy where the company pushes for a minimum of 2-3 weeks or so vacation used per year. Sort of like a mix of traditional and unlimited vacation policies.
I have unlimited vacation. I take many Fridays off and they don't say much about it. I also take a week here and there and nothing is said as long as you tell them ahead of time. I don't have to ask for permission as long as I tell them ahead of time.
@santi8aranz8 that's the way its supposed to be. But many employers guilt trip their workers from taking the time. Or the workload is usually too insane to actually take the time.
You mean the law? Oh right, this is USA based.
@@Johnny-Utah-91 very much a “Hot people are hot” situation. Regardless of a company’s policies, good companies will behave respectfully and bad companies will suck.
My previous employer originally had an accrued PTO policy and a few years in my employment, they switched it over to unlimited PTO to "attract candidates". I was one of the senior technical people so it was a bit 'hard' for me to just take vacations on the fly without having a ton of work waiting for me. Long story short, I ended up losing thousands of dollars because of this change. If your current employer mentions they are thinking of making this change, you should really consider other options if you have them before your PTO hours get obliterated like mine did.
My schedule can be really hectic, and I'm full time salaried, so don't even get overtime. When it was fixed PTO, it was "use it or lose it," so I'd often end up getting the whole month of December off - but now with FTO, it's hard for me to just say "I'm taking December off" without getting a lot of flak about it. I knew when we switched I was going to get screwed - studies had consistently showed people with unlimited took less than people with fixed.
Yup. Same here. They did studies and found that people always take less time off with "unlimited".
AND.....there is never a "payable$" sitting on their balance sheet
Worse 'perk' i ever got: Free food! Catered lunch daily from various restaurant!. All the snacks you can eat, soda, coffee, tea - all free.
Downside: you're expected to stay at your desk all day. No getting some fresh air walking to the post office. No midday errands. No checking your email and having a moment to yourself. None of that. Instead, you're trying to eat lunch while your boss or coworkers are talking work and never get a break. 9-12 straight hours without a moment away from your desk. People end up sitting in the bathroom to get some downtime! haha
Let's talk about nursing. 12 to 13hrs no sunlight and we dont even see a single toilet bowl.
Gorgeous point about future perks - it’s unbelievable how every individual involved in fulfilling these promises can shrug and say it’s out of their hands after you’re hired and work for it…. Like, who’s hands was it in when you offered it, then?
Kind of like how they say how great a company is when they are trying to grab you, then when your first review comes up all of a sudden: "Gosh, the business is just so bad right now....maybe we'll get to you when things turn around"!
A situation that happened with my brother and a friend. on two separate occasions. They had great per-IPO options. Just prior to an acquisition the founders issued themselves massive additional options, diluting everyone else down to 1% what they originally had.
Was it a drone based business, because I think I know the company...
Welcome to the financial world of the minority shareholders
been there done that. if you dont get or demand non dilutable options you will get screwed massively without a second thought.
I had an options package verbally quoted at $0.03/share but was actually given $0.30/share after I was hired. “The board voted, nothing we can do”. Fortunately that company went under so getting screwed on share price didn’t matter.
@@danf4447If VCs are involved I don’t think any company will offer that, even to the founders. Only the money people get anti-dilution, and even then early round investors almost always have to sign away such rights to induce later-round investment. Typically it’s all about the post-dilution valuation. If that grows nicely each funding round everyone can be happy. I’ve only seen investors deliberately dilute the employees to hell in imminent bankruptcy, because they all leave as a result and you don’t really have a company anymore. They were really buying the IP not a functioning company.
An excellent point. I used to work for a large entertainment/media company who happens to have several theme parks in the US (y’all know the one). And I had to think about it one day as I was looking at some of their newly posted job descriptions and associated salaries - and it dawned on me that the pay is historically miserable pretty much across the board there partly because of the “perks,” one of which is free theme park admission.
When you consider that someone who’s using their free park admission on a regular basis is technically “saving” hundreds of dollars just to get in the place….it puts the hourly wages into a different sort of perspective
Not necessarily a good one cuz I’d rather have cash (which is why I’m not there now…) but certainly a different one. Sort of 😅
This is a way to try to attract people creating an illusion they will get numerous benefits if they are hired
#findnewjob, #howtogetbestjobandenjoy
Yeah free admission is an amazing perk. If your still in highschool.
Isn’t that at best worth a season pass? I thought most parks have them.
What about park food? Do you still have to pay for a $10 hot dog?
This is fantastic. To me, these perks are icing. They don't make the decision for me. Perhaps perks may be a tie-breaker, but, as you said the bottom line bas compensation, first and foremost. By the way how about perks like recreation or game rooms. I've always heard to beware on these. They can mean you have no work-life balance. They assume you will be in the office almost all the time. They are just a way to take an occasional break.
Old saying: " A bird in hand (stated salary) is worth 2 in the bush (promised raise)"
When I started at my current employer (before we were acquired), one of the perks was a 401k with "6% matching".
What that means at most companies: They will match your contribution 100% up to 6% of your salary.
What that meant at my company: They will match 6% of your contribution. So, I contributed 6% of my salary to my 401k, and my company contributed .36% of my salary. So, my starting salary was $75k and they were going to contribute a whopping $270.
whoa... that is really shady ...
That's messed up ... sounds like some crazy start up.
My favorite is when the employer takes back their contribution.
The place I work contributes a bit over 6% of my gross check depending on how much I contribute. So I I put 5% in my 401k, they would match. I throw far more in, so I get the full 6+% of my gross every check.
@whidbeyrules5566 After we were acquired, the new rate is 1 for 1 up to 4%, eventually capping at 5% match to your 6% contribution. Good enough for me, and much better than the old system.
29 day annual leave (includes public holidays).
I’ve seen this one so much and it’s so annoying. 20 days is standard and the public holidays are there by law. (I’m in Ireland btw)
I’m a full time general manager and I get five paid holidays plus six sick days per year. Ready to move to Ireland immediately. 🥰
@@riledmouse4677 DO IT! We got 5 sick days too. Doctors note is needed of course, but still. 👌🏻
thanx so much for your efforts to show the truths of hiring practices! - my thoughts are always though that, while im completely aware that “it is what it is” .. the fact that good people have to play some disgusting game of cat and mouse just to work proudly and live well is absolutely sickening .. honestly it’s truly my opinion that’s why nobody wants to work most jobs now .. they watched tears of their parents lives flushed down a toilet . may not be what most want to hear but that’s how many young people think .. all the years not spent with loved ones and all the anger and broken families from all these toxic company work environments .. companies and their leaders that claim to care about America but truly couldn’t give two f***s about this nation or it’s future as long as they’re top dog in some city somewhere each weekend
Amen, brother … your videos always describe my current healthcare IT reality!!! Please keep up the awesome videos - I send them to my peeps to keep my family of friends informed!
I got bit with the delayed raise promise. I had just come off a temp job in 2006 as an Accounting Assistant in a very rural area where I was making $13/hour. I was then offered a permanent job by a different company in a large city $10/hour, but I would get a review and a raise after 90 days. Similar job offers I was considering were in the $30k-35K range, which were about 50% more than what this job was offering.
However, this was a bona fide job offer, so I took it rather than risk further unemployment. I worked 90 days probation, was doing really well, and when I asked about the raise I was advanced to a whopping $11/hour. If I had known that, I might have continued to keep looking elsewhere.
This is why other advocates for employees suggest to never stop looking. Day one at a new job, you are still trying to find better.
Curious, how much longer did you work with this company after your "raise"? Sounds like they had no intention of keeping you, just they wanted a temp employee and they got you at less than what they would pay a temp.
@@dyingculture1 Ugh, four years. Inertia and comfort can be a bitch.
No, this was actually how that particular hiring manager operated, and he was the son of the owners. I advanced later after finishing my Bachelor's and he was asking me about becoming a Senior Office Manager (I ended up not taking that role) and talked about using this strategy when hiring employees. Fortunately, I got a $4,500 raise after a year, and made a little bit more in the three years after that to where I left making $35k. Meanwhile, most comparable jobs at the time were paying $45-50k so I still got a substantial raise from leaving. Not only did I get paid more money, I got a much better working environment (until that company was later acquired).
Don't forget the in house gaming console or office views.
if companies is offering you "unlimited vacation", then the first thing they are doing before you even sit down, is lying to you as you walk in the door for the first time
HA. I got a job offer with a big prestigious publisher and the salary was breathtakingly low. I told the HR woman that was barely enough to live on and she told me that is how they do it and it would only be for the first year and then I could expect a substantial raise. After a year, I went back to her and asked for my raise. She looked at me like I had 2 heads and denied she ever said that.
Over 40 years of working and I have found HR managers/directors...whatever they call themselves....to be the biggest bald faced liars in the company. They don't care about you, they care about themselves and the stuff shirts they work for.
Harsh way to learn that unless it's put on paper, it doesn't exist.
Getting a job now sounds like how buying a used car used to be. Watch out for the traps.
That is so true about the remote/hybrid positions. I got a hybrid position where they told me we could come to the office if we want (I usually went). But suddenly after one year they changed for a 3 days required to go.
Ah, yes, hybrid work... I had a company that moved the goal posts from "once a month" to "twice a month" to "once a week" to "twice a week" during the bloody interview.
Great content B. Each one of your points sir I believe is correct. Keep shining the light on these subjects. Thanks.
I get 40 hours of vacation and sick days combined per year. No rollover. No getting paid out if you leave without using it. I promise you, I would not be taking less time off because of unlimited PTO.
Very nice pointers. I agree with base salaries being more important than bonuses. I personally don’t like bonuses because of the higher taxes you have to pay for them compared to base salaries so I would rather have a higher base pay with no bonuses or the option to contribute all the bonuses in my 401k to avoid the high tax consequences of bonuses.
Depending on your tax rate, your bonus may be taxed at a higher rate when you receive it, or if your income is high enough, it could be taxed at a lower rate than the rest of your withholding. However, your income tax at the end of the year is based on your annual salary, so if they’ve withheld too much on that bonus, you get the excess back. Also, if they didn’t withhold enough and you didn’t have them take extra out of the rest of your checks to compensate, you could owe at the end of the year. It does even out at the end, but I do understand not wanting to essentially give the government an interest free loan if they’re holding onto your bonus money.
This is true and isn't at the same time. Your tax rate isn't changed between bonuses and income. It all counts as income. By default however bonuses are taxed at 23%. You can turn it off.
If they try to sell me perks I’m immediately turned off
Well, that clears up tons of questions I have over job posts these days! Thank you so much for doing this video.
Great videos, Brian! I don't care about the benefits and perks all that much!! I care about the money!! Show me the money!! I like getting paid well!!
Appreciate it, Manny!
Hybrid is diffferent than remore for sure. I have seen some companies bring teams into the office once a quarter for one week. I would define that as remote with minir travel as it is infrequent enough for it to not be an issue for most professionals.
I made the mistake of thinking equity was worth it... I worked at a company where a good portion of my total competition was equity with the vesting not starting till I hit my one year anniversary. Needless to say the company laid me off less than one year and I lost all my pre-IPO stock options. I also worked at another company that gave RSU's which would not vest until 4yrs out but then left prior to the 4yrs to pursue the opportunity at a start up that I thought I would be at for a long time but got laid off from... Sometimes I think options and RSU's are just a carrot being dangled in front of your face.
Sometimes it pays off. I worked at a company for 2 years and it got acquired by Google... they ended up vesting everyone with stock options immediately, and I cashed out 200k.
@@JustMe99999 Happy it worked out for you. I'm not saying it never works out. What I'm saying is that it's risky and relying too much on Stock options is not a good idea since there is no guarantee that you will get anything from them.
Good companies vest RSUs over time, with at worst a 1 year cliff for the first 25% of your RSUs. A 4 year cliff is outrageous.
7:10 I’ve seen so many of these on LinkedIn. Glad you called this out
Eye-opening and so helpful!!🙌
Another “Perk” for many sales positions is offering a “Car Benefit” program. They tell you that you can drive the vehicle you want and the fleet/car program will reimburse you for the car. The devil is in the details since there are many restrictions, such as age of the vehicle, mileage, insurance requirements, etc, etc. You never come out ahead with these car programs and almost always it actually costs you money to drive your personal vehicle for the company. The icing in the cake is that all the liability in case of an accident is on you and not on the company.
Had a friend that got burned by this. The car he had to choose was out of his price range under normal circumstances and guess who’s name is on the loan? Not the company’s so if you quit you’re stuck trying to quickly off load a car.
Amazon does the "stock options" and tried to act like it was part of their "essentially $15 an hour" pitch they gave us in South Carolina. Starting pay was $11 an hour but then they added. "Here are these benefits (health insurance, stock options after two years, and there was a third thing) that add up to $15 an hour."
At this point, I retired.
If they want to hire me, I'm going 1099, quadrupling my base wages as that is the typical rate of consultants.
I don't care anymore, time with family is time I will never get back
I work in IT, so I obviously know a few people personally who also work in that field- and they don't feel like they have time to take the paltry amount of vacations days they have now! And I am hearing the same things from people in health care, engineering, etc. So the idea of unlimited vacation days is a joke to so many of us. I have to work 2x as hard before I take the vacation to make sure everything is in order for when I'm gone and then 2x has hard the week when I'm back. All just to get 5 business days off. Whooopeee!
The counter argument about companies with traditional PTO with generous rollover plans is people (including myself) tend to hoard their leave and still not take the vacation time they should for their mental health.
Nothing screams "we can't actually pay a proper wage" as much as an array of "perks" that dilute the real issue.
Related to unlimited vacation is policies that you can "donate" (i.e., be extorted of) vacation time to your colleagues with emergencies.
Spot on with that “unlimited PTO” thing.
The last warning sign is similar to contract to hire roles that pitch that a contractor will convert to FT on average within x amount of months. I tend to say no to those kinds of roles since it's not a full guarantee that I'd convert.
I worked for one engineering firm that promised this. I worked for them for 6 months Then the work dried up. I left them after a few months because they had no work. After I went to a new firm, lo and behold, the owner of the firm wanted to make me full time. I knew he was running a scam.
@@BadStructuralEngineeringFirms glad you were able to spot the dishonest behavior on that firm's part
Speaking of signing bonuses, you can often negotiate one to cover the cost of exercising your stock options at your previous position. A prospective employer will know this is hugely attractive and might very well put them to the top of the list in terms of competing offers, or conversely, if they don't they go to the bottom of the list.
But... that costs as much as sending an email. How am I wrong?
7:01 I caught two companies doing the telework bait & switch in interviews when both told me I would need to relocate to their home city to be considered.
I have been victimized by perks so many times it was not even funny. Horrocks Engineers promised they would pay for relocation expenses after a year. I was laid off before that happened. Also, they were busted by the state of CA for committing wage theft.
Stebbins Engineering promised profit sharing and a 401k match. You needed to be there 7 years to get it. They laid off people before the 7 years so they would not get it. I lost $50K of bonuses in the 3 years I worked there. They also mandated their employees sign a non-compete or else you did not start work. That is a major problem because the bad bosses used it to keep people from working after they were fired.
BCA laid me off after they claimed they never laid people off due to the lack of work.
Middlebrook & Louie refused to sign off on my engineering experience so I could get the next engineering job. I worked there for five years.
I was given a “verbal offer” by email. I was to start in October and be eligible for the companies incentive bonus program the following year in March according to the email. Then the HR called me while I was considering it and told me she had made a mistake and that I wouldn’t be eligible until the year after that in March, so a full 1.5 years later. She said I would have had to start in September to get the original offer. I had already accepted the verbal offer, and told my current employer I was leaving.
Mistake or not, it put me in an awkward position, so much so, that I ended up rescinding my acceptance. I’m sure I’m on that company’s never hire list now, and it’s unfortunate for me because it is a fortune 200 company, but the “mistake” losing me more than $15k was enough of a difference to stay with my current employer.
In the service trades companies will advertise you get a truck, a gas card and, a computer and a company cell phone. None of which are for personal use and are necessary for you to do your job as an employee.
1. Unlimited sicktime. Watch for employees (not employers) abusing it. Plenty of colleagues happy to abuse.
2. 10-15% of salary as yearly bonus, based on performance. Define performance? When is the year end? Sure. They will be happy if you "leave" just before that year ends.
3. Flexibility on almost everything. Great perk but have it on paper well defined.
4. As called helping environment.
5. Vacation. 2 weeks even if you bring real experience impossible to gain it in 5 years of complex exposure (if you are allowed, of course)
**Bellow the bottom line ****
1. Ask for more vacation
2. Instead of elusive bonus, ask for half that bonus to be added to the salary
3. Ask for what type of training they are willing you to get up to speed.
#2, a lot of companies will talk pay out the bonus in March or April. So, if you're still around to collect the bonus you're already committed a good bit to sticking around for the next year instead of jumping ship right then.
@@lluewhyn Or...5% of the profit (aka: margin). Hold on. Which profit: before or after taxes?
1000% with the hybrid schedules. I work for an older company and they advertised and hired me for my position as remote. A year and a half later they are requesting us to come in even though they told me it would be permanent remote. I wish I had got that card in writing so now I have to go out of my way to get ADA accommodations to support me working permanently remote even though I was verbally told I would be working remote. I would never let this happen again I’m getting it in writing going forward!
A trend I am seeing is awarding Restricted Stock Units to employees, which vest over a multiyear schedule: say you are awarded 500 RSU's. 125 of them will vest next year, 125 the next year and so on. Large publicly held companies are doing this, in my opinion, as a golden handcuff. It's not unusual to have $100K+ in unvested RSU's, which you will lose if you leave the company. It's also highly unlikely that a new employer will give you a comparable amount of RSU's or a cash bonus to compensate for the leaving those RSU's on the table.
The unlimited vacation perk is particularly insidious. It incentivizes an employer to create a manipulative, toxic environment. If you ask for vacation you’re not a team player and you’re less promotable. Employees will be incentivized to take less vacation, not more. And, of course after leaving the employer there is no accrued benefit. All of this favors the employer even though it’s presented as a perk.
lol yeah I definitely would not put anything in the 401k if i could start over. the vesting schedule means its for the loyalists only. i turned my real money into monopoly money for no reason
Also look out for the word "compensation" instead of "wages", "salary" etc. Compensation is the total overall value of your wages plus benefits/perks like the ones spoken about here, and when there are vague values to a perk, companies will ALWAYS err on the higher side - or outright make it up.
Astute observation.
@4:07
a company i interviewed for didn't give yearly raises and bonuses was more stock. no monetary bonuses. they were a private company and had no plans of going public in the 3 years. sure they were getting bigger but it just seemed off to me.
It's really all about "AWE": Age, Wage, Experience: Right Age (low), Right Wage (low), Right Experience (high). Anything else, they ain't interested. There is no 'Strong' negotiating position. Age, Wage, Experience. You got it, or you don't. Simple.
By law/IRS rules 401k matches have to vest in no more than 3 years if they choose full vesting at the end of the period or up to 6 if they give up a percentage each y ear. Honestly if someone leaves in less than 3 years it means the company was a bad fit (unless other things come into play) IMHO don’t make 401k match a differentiator unless they immediately vest you if it means taking a lower salary
In Illinois, some state institutions require the person to reside in Illinois. So it's 100% remote but the job description clearly states you must be based in Illinois. This is a state rule, the employer isn't the one enforcing it. Apparently Illinois is in the minority of states that require this.
Some companies will put geographical limitations because their system isn't setup for other states (for tax/UI/etc) and they are not going to setup all those for 1 person working remote. So, they may list like 5-6 states that person should be residing even though position may be fully remote.
The most lame "perk" I ever got was a Microsof contractt deal where we would travel to Florida to work sometimes. It turned out that we were expected to travel on our weekends without pay.
Unlimited PTO removes the liability from the employer and they can insert the approval process to you. So I alway view as a negative while the recruiter tries to sell this point.
I hate the "remote jobs" that are not remote. It makes the job search so god damn annoying. I like to waste their time after they waste mine.
Working for others is just exhausting anymore. Nobody is hiring and if they are they aren’t paying or expect too much. But running a small business and paying people properly is so hard too.
There is going to be a breaking point in the next few years. The working class isn’t going to continue to be pushed back much longer.
Hybrid also makes employers expect you to work longer cos u save on commute. Rl experience here
Right now it's ticking me off of jobs posted as Remote but you are required to live like 50 - 100km away from main office. I'm getting many rejections because I live like 3hrs away from main offices. If it's truly remote it should not matter how far you live if you are still within the same State/Province. I suspect at some point these jobs will push for a hybrid or fully back to office and want to be sure people are close to not have an excuse.
Thank you for calling out the bait and switch on ‘remote’ jobs. As someone who can’t be on site for a full day due to medical issues, there is nothing more infuriating than putting on your profile that you’re looking for remote work and getting ten recruiters all pushing hybrid jobs.
apply for remote job and first question from interview was "what is your position about relocation?"
In the application process. Remote work only.
Sounds like a couple of my old gigs. Remote work? Naw, see you in the office even though you’ve been remote for 13 years. PRO? Well, let’s cap it and not allow for the buying of said pto. 401k match at 8%? We can’t be having that now. Complete annihilation of work life balance? Now, there’s a winner.
That used to be the case pre-Covid! As of 2023, it's down to 3.3 years, 1 full year less than before, based on the U.S. Department of Labor stats that came out in June 2023!
My company went to unlimited PTO. I have been documenting my time off for the last 3 years, and I take 25% less vacation time than I did before the program started. Some people in the system abuse it, taking a week off every other month. It really is a personality thing. It works for some, but not for all. Also, managers should be in tune with employees and sense burn out and encourage time off. My last two managers have never encouraged taking additional time off. I hate the system, but it won't change, especially if the company is benefiting from it.
Sounds like me - I never take vacation and just bank the hours, to get a large payout at the end. Now my company went to "unlimited" vacation, getting rid of PTO and floating holidays at the same time (floating holidays in lieu of federal holidays). The math says that I will have to take the equivalent of 28 days off to break even. Welp, I guess I will have to start taking tons of vacation.
A week off every other month is not abusing the system. It's what the system is designed to do. I wouldn't reduce my annual 8 weeks vacation if my employer went to unlimited vacation. I'd still take my full previous allotment.
@@Geoff_G I think it depends on the company standard. If your company allows 40 days a year, then its norm. Our company would typically budget 20-25 depending on years of service when the system was PTO. Also, with unlimited PTO, the company says they will NOT track individual's PTO, but they do. They say this for two reasons, to help employees not feel guilty, and to help create an equal playing field. They say that unlimited PTO helps recruit talent since all employees have the same time off standard (whether experienced or new grad). The company also claims that reduced paperwork from having unlimited PTO, and less "cash" on the books from having unlimited PTO.
I think it just requires adapting to a new mindset that some people can do and some people cannot.
401k matching is usually after 1 year of service and likely after a certain amount has been invested. Matching is also capped or for every certain amount of dollar.
-So a company can match maybe like the first 5% of the total you invested. So if you invest 10%, the company will only match 5%.
-The company will match $1 for every $3 that you invested. So you put in 3k, the company will put in 1k
-They can match the first 3% and $1 for every $3 that you invest.
Remember that there is a limit on how much you can contribute to your 401k. I believe it’s like 20k a year.
Better yet, if the company has a huge match -- but only vests after 3 years, guess what can and will very likely happen at 2 years 11 months? Happens constantly and is currently LEGAL.
While checking the vesting period for 401k/403b consider if you want or are able to invest to their matching %, especially if plan to be there longer than 2 years. This is my 6th year part time with my company and if i get a new position like i hope before end of year, i still walk away with about 12k. Hr tried to dissuade me from investing to matching when i signed up. I planned on leaving in 2020 but 2020 happened and i got a few extra years out of them
Unlimited PTO screams red flag to me. I’ve never met anyone where the unlimited PTO perk worked out for anyone’s benefit. Call me crazy, but I’d rather just have accrued PTO like the traditional employee, build my PTO bank up, and take PTO whenever I need it.
They do that so they don't have to pay you out when you leave. If a high paid worker ($10k+/month) racks up 2 months vacation, that could be $20k+ check that you don't get to take with you.
While none of these perks are things offered by my current job, looking back, it's clear to me my work sprinkles a lot of honestly nice perks but offsets that with a relatively low salary.
We Are family here means you will be the red headed step child.
working for the state, their match was only good if you retired with them. read the fine print.
I've only seen the last one regarding entry level positions so far.
I just had the hybrid vs remote bait and switch happen a few weeks ago. Advertised as fully remote, first interview they said we will need you to come to office to fill out paperwork, and there may be 5-7 days a year that are required. Second interview they said they are going to start some.employees coming back to the office. My follow up question on this suggested they would be in the office 2 days a week for all positions.
I would take a sign-on bonus 100/100 times.
It's the closest us non-union employees get to a 'contract'.
I've worked for 4 start-ups that gave me lots of stock options. All 4 NEVER were worth the paper printed on. Options cost the company nothing! That exactly what they're worth...NOTHING!
I've seen employers offer "unlimited vacation" but that came with a major asterisk on it. You were still only given 1 or 2 weeks a year, but you could take more time than that and have it fall off the next years time. Sounds alright I guess, but the thing is if anything happened that ends your employment any extra time you took would be billed to you.
Not related to unlimited time off, but the worst company I ever worked for was Funko Inc. Truly a slave driver of a company.
Their policy of “6 month probation and then guaranteed consideration for full time hire” or something like that, was absolute rubbish. They hired out exclusively temp workers from TWO agencies, and burnt out every one at either the line or receiving.
Their intention was clearly “burn and turn”, so they’d never have to hire full time with benefits.
One guy finally had enough and cussed out the boss, dared him to fire him, and then the boss fired him. Thought he’d deck him first.
The company is your frenemy. Always look out for you first.
I had a sign on bonus offered to me at my current job. But it was laid out very clearly that it is a one time bonus. The main reason for it though was that I was interviewing the company maybe even more than they were interviewing me. I was not looking for a job, I had one, and they reached out to me after pretending to be a client for a while, I guess that was their interview at that point.
The nasty part was that I lied about the benefits and vacation. I tried to make it work for a year and a half, but I see what this company stands for, and that is pure profit for themselves and it is a meat grinder for the employees, especially the upper management, as at the end of the day this is where the responsibility and accountability lands. And the minimum 50 hr weeks has no maximum and stretches indefinitely, breaking state labor laws.
Sign on bonuses are the most common and shady perks I have seen recently in my area. They aren’t really bonuses in my opinion. If they are intentionally dragged out after a three month period and paid in half-hearted installments, then there really is no incentive or anything being offered. The worker earns it, and it is not given. A big difference.
They never mention the usual 3 year vesting when they promote their 401k
Leave before any vesting and you lose all the contributions that your employer made 😊
But they never say that when they’re promoting it…
Best perks I received from one company - after 6 months and 20% deposit they would lend you 30% of your annual salary to buy a car, would pay 100% of moving costs if you lived further than 30 miles from the office - new home had to be with in 2 miles of the office.
What happens if you have it written that six months down the line they will look at how you do but they say you aren’t doing well and you know you are.
I had that happen with many employers. The city of Redmond WA did this to me. The woman who was my boss had no credentials to do my job or her job whatsoever. She placed me on a PIP because I was taking too long reviewing buildings for seismic safety. When I challenged it, she told me to shut up. After she laid me off, the city was sued for wrongful death at the hands of police. One of the pieces of evidence against the city of Redmond WA was the bogus PIP. IN the PIP, they admitted not to care for life safety. The city of Redmond WA ended up paying that family $20 million plus. The woman who fired me got fired.
If at the interview they use - Rock and roll atmosphere, work hard play hard, you're amazing/incredible,ni think you would ace it/no bother to you, we're a family, you get an offer of employment shortly after (even on the day of the interview, in some cases, right after the interview)- these are all deceptive tactics and you need to get out of their asap lol. Have a good day reader.
I worked for a major San Jose based structural engineering firm that claimed they were family. It was more like a dysfunctional family because they were always laying off their employees.
@@BadStructuralEngineeringFirms I think you need to go through hell before you get to heaven lol. I had a brutal job a few years ago, but the experience toughened me up and ultimately got me better work with a better employer with better benefits. I now have plenty of options and my future is bright. The brutal job I had I got
@@BadStructuralEngineeringFirms The mafia are a family too.
@@loganmedia1142 also family run business are also unpleasant lol. Have a good day reader.
@@gerardsloan1593 They fight like siblings! Seriously, I worked for a small company and the owner/CEO hired his cousin for some job he had no background in BUT he's family!...He screamed at him so loudly the whole building could hear.
You may want to move the microphone arm so it's not blocking camera.
What are some good perks for someone who is single and has no kids (and no desire to change that)?
One benefit that’s always a hard no for me is if the healthcare provider used is Aetna.
NEVER ever be more more loyal to an employer than you are to yourself. Anytime a prospective employer mentions unlimited PTO I say that's actually not a benefit because research shows that employees actually take less PTO with unlimited PTO.
Agree and this is why it is (IMO). If I get 10 days of PTO a year I'm taking 10 days off. If it's "unlimited" then guilt comes into play and I'm feeling guilty (almost) asking for the time off.
@@kendallevans4079 Plus they don't have to pay out for unused PTO!
@@jellyrcw12 My old company had policy that they won't pay out unused PTO if one quits. They will pay if one gets laid off only. Apparently, only 2 states in US requires unused PTO to be paid so they had exceptions for workers in those states. Also, their policy was that one can not give 2 weeks notice within 2 weeks of taking vacation. (Not exactly can not, but they will black list you if you do and it was BIG company with a LOT of subsidiaries and all subsidiaries will share the black list)
Self employed here... What are vacation days? You guys don't regularly take time off for your health and family?
This happened to me, abiut the lower salary and promotion to the proper salary in a few months...it was 4 years and nothing 😒
I had a psychopath VP engage with me because he was bored in the pool with his family at Disney a year or two ago- he of course was trying to inquire 'what I do' as he was sizing me/us up, and how we were able to stay in the same hotel he was staying in. After I said I was an engineer he sort of backed off a bit and then revealed that he was on vacation for only 4 days (really? at Disney?) along with letting on that his company had 'unlimited vacation time', and that he limited himself to approximately 3 weeks or so of vacation (almost like I should be self limiting myself even if I have more vacation time available to use). He also said that the employee basically doesn't get paid for any accrued vacation time when they leave the company. It's basically a 0 hour net compensation.
Let's just say I gave my wife 'the look' to get me away from the discussion so I could go back to being disengaged and unplugged from work related mindset for our vacation, just focusing on family time.
Also beware of companies who tell you you'll be getting PTO with every paycheck. My cousin just got a new job with a company like this and as it turns out, they force him to use that PTO every holiday, and if he needs to see a Dr of any type. People have been there years without seeing a single real vacation. This is WAGE THEFT and it should be illegal.
This makes me wonder how it would work here where we have minimum annual amounts by law. I've seen some companies advertising unlimited leave, but I presume they'd still have to keep records to prove how much was used in case there is a dispute. Not sure what the legal position is on paying out for unused leave. I suspect they'd have to pay pro rata on the basis of the annual requirement.
Before the 90s we had many companies that used a company pension plan. The usual practice was that you lost your pension if you left the company. Thankfully the government made that illegal. Although we still had companies that pulled the matching payment trick. However they've usually lost in court unless they could prove that the matching payment was genuinely in addition to your agreed pay. It almost never was though.
I've encountered a few companies claiming they're remote, then revealing that they're actually hybrid.
I prefer my 30 day fixed vacations 😂
I noticed one perk that is pretty annoying is bonuses. I've had bonuses not come and they're once a year so you if you might be wanting to transition to a new job it's basically forfeiting that bonus. I'd rather just have the guaranteed income