from Hacker News

“Reasons you shouldn't join us: if you're looking for work-life balance.”

by macphisto178 on 3/19/15, 2:22 PM with 68 comments

• by kevinmchugh on 3/19/15, 3:35 PM

  I once had a job, where the CEO, during his monthly all-hands call, banned the phrase 'work-life balance'. He talked about it as an invention of the industrial revolution that applied only to sweatshop work. He was from a farm, see, and on farms, you work until the work is done. The company, he told us, never promised its employees work-life balance, and we should all stop talking about it. We should work until the work is done, like farmers do.

  The chatroom I was in at the time exploded with everyone posting the job descriptions we currently had open, all of which boasted about the healthy work-life balance our company offered.

  Those job descriptions changed within a week, and I left within 2 months.

• by uptown on 3/19/15, 3:12 PM

  Blockai:

  https://angel.co/blockai/jobs/32805-back-end-engineer

  PRODUCT

  Blockai is the first universal blockchain browser. A single platform for using the best blockchain apps, with a bitcoin wallet and social identity to make it simple to use.

  We’re making it fun to explore and publish on the blockchain, visualized as a filterable stream. The same way that Netscape took people into the world of the web, and built open-source technologies to support its growth, we are doing the same for the blockchain. Unlike Netscape, we have a clear path to revenue with a bitcoin wallet built right in.

  We anticipate 1,000s of amazing applications will be built on the blockchain that will change the status quo of everything on the web. We want Blockai to become the main way people experience those applications.

• by dropit_sphere on 3/19/15, 3:29 PM

  One reason for working for them sounds less abusive, but more...stupid.

  "You're one of the best front-end engineers you've ever known."

  No, dickwad, that's a reason you should hire me. What it really means, of course, is: "We use the rash pride of inexperienced developers to set expectations sky-high, then justify the low salary when they turn out not to be the lovechild of Brendan Eich and Mike Bostock."

• by some_furry on 3/19/15, 2:56 PM

  Another reason: "You're primarily interested with salary."

  Sounds like this company prides itself on overworking their employees and paying them less than what they're worth.

  (Which is what a lot of companies do, but they aren't proud of it.)

• by mc32 on 3/19/15, 3:19 PM

  Gotta give them credit for being "honest". Of course it plays off on people wanting to appear as eager and not workshy, but this is pretty sadist and I imagine the company is being a bit masochistic in this job market.

  Who in their right minds would work for people who openly espouse overwork and aggressive work environment? I'd like a follow up on their ability to retain workers, provided they don't get "reeducated" in the process.

  I can't see how this could appeal to anyone beside new male graduates in a bit of a bind and have some latent sadist tendencies. Or people looking for sponsorship and might put up with this ridiculousness.

• by littletimmy on 3/19/15, 3:18 PM

  I'm curious to know what is this company that is a "once in a decade" opportunity "to change the world for the better".

  Is there a limit to this ridiculousness? What's next? "Join our company because it is literally the only path to salvation. Seriously, your life is worthless if you pass this up." Boom... now your company is a cult.

• by ryandvm on 3/19/15, 3:39 PM

  Run as fast as you can in the other direction of this job listing.

  It's bad enough trying to manage a work-life balance at a company that claims to support it. I can't imagine how hellish it would be to work at a company that consciously scoffs at it.

• by matt_morgan on 3/19/15, 4:07 PM

  We're all talking about what we would do when seeing this job post, but the issue isn't how many thousands of us wouldn't apply, but how many dozens would. And it's easy enough to test response rates to these things. I.e., as much as it turns off many of us it might turn on a few people, and they may even have some evidence that this approach works. No clue whether they did or didn't, but they can always post it again if they don't get applicants they like.

  There's no point in debating what we like when they can get the right answer with confidence via testing.

• by chojeen on 3/19/15, 3:17 PM

  Why would anyone ever take a job like this when there are tons of interesting jobs that actually do have work-life balance and pay a hell of a lot better? Hell, you could still work long 6-day weeks if you wanted to, but at least that way you would have the option of taking a break.

• by imroot on 3/19/15, 3:35 PM

  I had a company effectively tell me the same thing -- that taking their job would be disastrous for my hobbies/family ("We work from 10AM until 11PM most days, and later on Friday and Saturday") and then gave me a salary formula that would bring me down to making less than half of what I was currently making.

  I politely declined -- and am still getting emails from them once a week saying that they'd love to have me on their team and if I reconsider, please let them know.

• by abuehrle on 3/19/15, 2:45 PM

  So don't work for this company? Sometimes people live and breathe the work they do, and are looking for others who will as well. It's up to you to decide whether you want to participate in what they're doing.

• by kleer001 on 3/19/15, 3:39 PM

  Is this like a date who says "You shouldn't be in a relationship with me because I'm a hot mess." ?

• by ashwinaj on 3/19/15, 5:37 PM

  Maybe I'm in the minority with my opinion. This is pretty common in most startups in Silicon Valley (it is true in the one I'm working for currently). You usually have an option of getting a less pay, more equity or higher pay, less equity. It is assumed that you won't have much of a work-life balance, but some would like to spell it out clearly. Nobody forced me into this, I chose it because I wanted to work with brilliant people (I'm not saying there aren't any in established companies) and roll the dice and see where it goes.

  I really don't see how this is so controversial when there is a chance, however small, that there could be a big windfall if things fall into place. For someone who values work-life balance, they should look to join an established company.

• by serve_yay on 3/19/15, 3:17 PM

  At least they're coming out and saying it.

• by wingchen on 3/19/15, 10:39 PM

  Don't even think they will respect you in any other way other than work-life balance. That's something I learned through hard lessons.

  Life is too short to work for crazy bosses. Most of them think they are Steve Jobs, but in reality, they are just another slave driver.