Comment by cam_l | Hacker News Reader

Comment by cam_l | Hacker News Reader

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"the risk I've taken."

Really curious about this part of your comment.

People with more to lose often imagine that they risk more than someone with little to lose. I think of it the other way around, do you risk more but betting a hundred k if you still have fifty in your pocket? or a hundred bucks if it's your last hundred? My take is, your risk gets higher as you get to the point of only having your health and future well being to lose.

And have you done your sums as to when your risk / reward profile starts getting even? maybe that is the point you start thinking about sharing the profit?

"It's just a job to them."

I have had a few jobs where my employers treated me as 'just' an employee.. though i never treated it as 'just' a job. If your employees stay with you for any length of time, then it is not 'just' a job, but a step in their career. You are in a position of power to help them in their career, or 'just' exploit them for profit. It is not all about money for employees.. if you are giving them a boost in their career, maybe that is more valuable than the cash for them?

Perhaps "just a job" was a poor choice of words. I certainly don't think of my employees as "just" anything. I do everything possible to help them advance in knowledge and abilities, and as I said, I have had extremely positive feedback. My meaning by both that and the risk comment was the same: as employees, they have a guaranteed salary from day one. They're not taking an appreciable risk, at least not as I understand the term to be commonly used. I spent years of my free time working on this project before I ever knew it would make money. Then when it started to look promising, I quit my day job, and built it to profitability myself before hiring anyone. It could have easily failed along the way, in which case I would have been out everything I could have earned in the meantime, not to mention all my free time invested, or the fact that unless I wanted to work at another startup I would've had more valuable experience in my day job.

I do agree with you that there is value in providing a positive work environment and helping further employees' careers, so I'm happy to be able to do those things.

cool.. thanks, i got the impression from your original comment that you are not a run of the mill employer. plus, it sounds like you did a fair bit to manage the risks appropriately for yourself.

but i also think employees risk a fair bit in moving to a new job, and in the the success or failure both of the job and the business. particularly if they aren't able to build savings of cash or spent time behind them to start the new step in their career, if something goes wrong. to add to that, they typically have no power in managing the risks of the business, and little power in how their efforts are valued in the job.

so, anything you can do to minimise those sorts of risks for employees—like you say, positive work environment and helping further employees' careers—also goes towards reducing their risk/reward profile.. and perhaps some way toward assuaging your doubt about pay?

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