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Comment by esoterica | Hacker News Reader

> I'd like to get rid of most salaried positions and get people paid by the hour.

I think having someone counting the number of hours you have your butt in a seat is a particularly degrading form of micromanagement, and I'm glad I don't have to endure it. Your TC is the only number that matters; there's no financial difference between getting paid 300k and no overtime and getting paid 200k + 100k overtime. It's silly to claim that the one is exploitative and the other is not just because the former involves "unpaid overtime".

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We pay all our developers by the hour, and I think it's super important.

To correct your first misconception, we don't count peoples hours, people just tell us how many hours they worked each pay cycle.

We also pay 1.5X per hour for more than 40 hours per week if we asked you to work extra.

The primary advantage is that it aligns everyone incentives. In management I know that there is a very real cost to us if we ask people to work more hours.

It's important that we feel the sting, because it means that we are less likely ask people to work overtime, and only when it's really important.

It also lets people work more or less as they choose. Some people might choose to work 30 hour weeks for a while, and it doesn't cause resentment in other team members. People know they are getting paid less for doing it.

I mean it’s means it encourages people to work hard, not smart. That’s a direct disalignment of incentives.

Salaried work has misaligned incentives as well, hence the article.

I’ve been a software engineer for 18 years and have had 4 jobs, only one (brief) one was hourly and it was arguably the least satisfying by far. I was seen as a resource which is essentially what you’re arguing for “if you’re paid hourly then your time is more valued by management”, but the problem is you’re never given the freedom to roam. Your time is always over managed and accounted for, I could never get into a “flow” state. I imagine that company never created anything novel, it was just factory work.

This is basically how every company theoretically does it in Finland, because of legislation. But then some people work 9 hours and report 8 because they feel pressured to perform better. Or they constantly work long days and receive balance hours (that could be used as vacation), which are cut once a year.

I do like the system, but there are times when you still have to stand up for yourself if your company isn't one of the fairest.

well, I can't speak directly to your situation, but my comment is mostly hinging on my belief that all the mandatory meetings and 'just one more thing' emails we currently deal with would suddenly be less frequent if management had to be mindful of their time and cost.

I have worked for the same employer as both hourly consultant and salaried employee. I saw much more restraint on their part when hours were being counted. On the other hand I am now able to push salary aspect in my favor (ie rely on same salary even if I have to take time off for child’s illness, for example)

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