Comment by TrickzOnU | Hacker News Reader

Comment by TrickzOnU | Hacker News Reader

Let me share my horror story -- I fell for a company that offered me the same salary (no raise despite big promotion.) Then, he (Division CTO of Fortune 500 medical company) started subtracting salary from this baseline for all my "benefits" like free shuttles, 401k matching, etc. I was supposed to take the lower wage in exchange for amazing work, 3 fully paid conferences a year, yada yadda.

Two months into joining, the shuttle went from free to paid. Ouch. Then, the manager expected me to stay late 3x a week, which meant i could not even take the shuttle 3x a week, and instead have to take a taxi. Still not enough salary to buy a car + insurance + parking. Then policy changed and 401k match disappeared. Finally, policy changed and all conference reimbursements ended. Final blow -- my PDP is tied to 3 conference posters a year, so i pay out of pocket for travel/registration/hotel.

By the way, the work is great, but i'm paying so much out of pocket that i'm getting the hell out of there. Sucks for me. Sucks for the manager too -- I spend half the day now doing eLance projects.

Yeah that is the old 'total compensation' switcheroo. Where you finish negotiations at what you assume is a salary number, but the employer later claims it was a total compensation number (salary + benefits). When the 'benefits' could change later, or they are accounted for using Hollywood accounting.

Another common one to look out for is 'projected bonus'. Where you find out that you make 1/2 of what you thought you agreed to, but the manager says "Making that much is up to you! You could make that number with bonus" (if you hit your ultra stretch goals that the company could change at any time).

These are both reasons to insist on an offer letter with the salary figure clearly stated. Also pay attention to the background of a hiring manager. This kind of BS mostly comes from people who were previously in a sales role.

You are probably trying to show us how bad your employer is. What I'm reading though, is how you should have walked away at least 5 times in the process.

What part of the work is actually "great" btw. I would guess you don't have any other job yet. Because everything sounds very horrible.

It has been a year now. I moved to a high-cost-of-living area where even owning a car is expensive. There is a cost to moving back as well. A lot of it is psychological - I cannot believe i allowed myself to be fooled so badly, it has really shaken my confidence in HR and hiring managers.

Yowch. When you say "subtracting salary", do you mean in the offer, or after you were hired?

I was given a salary figure, until I got on-site for the final round, at which i got a very hard sell and the reveal -- some of the salary was "in kind" -- free shuttle bus, 401k match, etc (all in policy, not in offer letter.) Policy changed shortly after I joined, and I learned the policy change was being discussed months before I joined -- so the hiring manager extracted these concessions knowing full well they perks may be reduced or removed.

>> the manager expected me to stay late 3x a week

I'd argue the job isn't that great.

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