- Flexible working hours - Remote work options - Vacation policy - Company culture - Workload expectations
What other criteria should I add?
1. Can employees apply for sick leave without evidence?
2. Is more than 90% of annual leave approved?
3. Do you allow paternity leave?
4. Is it okay for the median employee to ignore questions after sundown, before sunrise, or on weekends and public holidays?
5. Are people "on call" for less than half the month?
6. Does the median employee commute less than 15 hours a week?
7. If laid off, is the median employee given enough compensation to cover for the interview period when hiring? e.g. if living costs are $10k per month, and the average employee interviews for 4 months, the compensation should be at least $40k.
The reason for this is because sometimes people have to stay within certain lines. Like some people prefer working at night or weekends. Some jobs are late night shifts; someone has to take care of the satellites at night too. So sometimes it's okay, this is the norm.
But I think there are clear lines that everyone agrees on. If you're scoring less than a 4 on this, maybe you have low work-life balance.
To me low stress is:
* Expectations are clear and are the actual expectations. No seconding guessing what you need to do to impress the boss.
* Expectations are realistic
* You get a JD and the job actually matches it. Any additional duties are opt in and there is no pressure to do so and you can step down again if needed.
* If you want to take on more and there is a role available to do so of course that can be negotiated.
* PIPs are very rare. Only come out if say someone lied to get the job and cannot perform or are really really bad. For everything else talk like adults.
* Fairly static teams. Team shuffles every year are tiring.
* Static process. Process shake ups are tiring.
* Time given for learning a new skill when needed. If you need 2 weeks off tasks to learn something properly you get it (this seemed to be more of a think in pre 2008 days)
* Boss gets to know you and adapts things to your strengths for a win win.
It is really about a culture of treating people like humans not cattle. Or pets > cattle to steal the old Devop's analogy and reverse it!
I have given up hope in this industry through that any employer can provide this, and if they do for more than 12 months before a shake up that kills it. I think freelancing is probably better.
I have no problem working 14 hours into the night as long as I don't have to be there at 10 a.m. sharp every day and have to organize my entire life around my job. Sometimes you have other appointments during the day and I want to keep them without having to discuss it too much. Sometimes there are just shitty days when you want to finish work early. That should also be possible without being tied to a strict time limit. Of course, the bottom line is that you should be able to work the agreed working hours, but at your own pace. I'm currently in a job like this and tend to work 5-10 hours more per week as a result. Of course, I work from home, otherwise it wouldn't be possible.
Look for that. The rest follows.
It should be in a code of conduct.
Flexible working ours is also a sign for a good work/life balance because you can adapt your work to your life and not only vice versa.
I've sometimes been in on-call rotations over the past ten years and so there are exceptions where I'll react - but I'll get paid for being available, and I'll get paid more for actually reacting to things.
Outwith on-call rotations my computer is shut off when I've stopped working.