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by irl_chad 1215 days ago
I agree. Full time employment comes with it the expectation of a higher level of job security (contractors are fired or laid off first), along with benefits (PTO, healthcare, stock options, etc).

Let’s say 100k base salary. 5% additional comp (bonuses or stock, this is conservative number). Healthcare for you, another $300/month, not even counting employers who cover dependents. Ignoring all taxes including FICA. PTO 3 weeks (120 hours).

Base salary is 48/hour, but your total comp will bring it to more like 58/hour. Which is probably more than your contractor counterparts.

You trade a little bit more of your time (responding to outages or crunching for a product launch deadline) for the security and benefits.

If one of my employees refused to respond to an outage because it’s outside 9-5 working hours, I would fire them for cause (pending approval from legal of course).

4 comments

Firing an employee for not responding to an outage outside working hours is your problem, not theirs, presuming you didn't include out-of-working hours in their contract.
What’s the difference between refusing to respond to an outage and having pre-existing commitments that make you unreachable (e.g. outdoor activities outside of cell coverage) or that aren’t compatible with work (e.g. childcare)?
On-call schedule. Everyone goes on rotation, gets different days. If you miss your day, well, you knew in advance you would be on call that day.
Right, that's an appropriate way to do it. It sounded like you were expecting everyone to be on call all the time.
I wouldn't call the full-time status as "job security". It's healthier to arrange your life and finances in a way that assumes your job can end at any moment. Employers love FT because you pay a fixed salary but you can squeeze more hours out of the employees. This person is case in point. Did she get a bonus? No. She got shit-canned.

There was a study that claimed losing a job caused the same level of grief for some as losing a loved one. Don't be that person. You are just a mercenary on contract, you are not part of a mission, or saving the world or (ugh), a FAMILY.

Lol - maybe setup a proper oncall system with actual compensation if you expect out of hours working time?
Yeah because total comp starting 125k total comp for lowest positions at my company, fully remote, can’t handle an outage. It’s part of the job description of a software engineer - if you don’t like that, don’t take a W2 job and just work as a contractor?