Hacker News Reader

Comment by muzani | Hacker News Reader

On an hourly basis, a full time job pays 2-4 times less than a contract job.

What full time jobs give is a sense of security, a community, a sense of belonging. It's not simply a trade of time for money, it's where people build friendships and identity.

It's also quite disrespectful to treat people as disposable. They built up the company, not the boss. To fire 95% of a company, the ones who got them there, that's... cruel.

View on HN

I agree that full time jobs provide more security than contracts, but only to the extent the law requires. For instance, depending on the country you must be given a few weeks notice before being fired and a severance package. You agree to these terms upon being hired and shouldn't feel entitled to anything more.

I believe it would be more cruel to the rest of us if an employer was required to keep unnecessary employees just so that they can benefit from sense of security and community. It would be terribly inefficient and hurt the economy.

And it's unfair to discredit the success of employer only because employees did the majority of the jobs. The key here is that managers do the most important jobs and take more risks.

I did joke once that a full time job is, in essence, a really warped insurance package. You still get paid if the business does poorly, and some cash if it fails entirely. But the insurance premium is that you get paid much less than the value you contribute.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com