Hacker News Reader

I always ask how much overtime is paid and in what form, it usually allows me to learn _A_LOT_ about company culture and work-life balance just looking at how defensive they sound.

I understand in the US it is an odd question because for some reason you have not a max amount of hours per week specified in the contract.

View on HN

Yes. It is probably a rare thing, but some companies that I know of actually pay overtime willingly (to a degree) to get more good work done. I think the tradition thoughts that a lot of companies have that overtime is the worst thing. Overtime isn't bad, but you should compensate your people accordingly.

Most work in the US, at least in my experience, is "at-will" and salaried. At-will means that employees can quit at any time for any reason and employers can fire employees at any time for any reason (except certain things like race, religion, etc). Salaried means you get paid $X per year and the amount you work depends on the company; could be 35h/week, could be 80h/week, but it doesn't change how much you get paid.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com