I started in the government, and then I went to the private sector. I made more money, but my vacation was cut in half, and my work week was longer hours consistently. That lasted about 2 years, and I am now back with the government. The government (in my line of work anyway) can’t quite contend with private industry…

LOL

Yep. Not sure how old you are, but I’m 50 and have been working for 32 years. My wife and I both make a good living and don’t have kids. If the work-life balance is shit, what’s the point? I’m very clear when I interview- I take all my vacation time, I don’t work 12 hours a day and calling me after hours has to be…

I don’t know how old you are, but companies seem to be getting wise to this after years of hand-wringing about “why do Millennials constantly job-hop” (or, “why do Millennials have no sense of loyalty?”) A lot of companies like your former employer are going to be up shit creek when they can’t attract and retain…

To an extent. While the relative compensation might stick around longer, particularly for ego-driven individuals, everyone can hit a point where increases in compensation don’t change anything, where the person is already financially secure and has flexible spending for their lifestyle/hobbies/etc. The general number…

During the discussions when I was let go from my last job, one of the bosses said something about how it was obvious that I had been unhappy there. He was fully aware that I was dissatisfied because of a lack of opportunities for advancement. I’d been told they were “coming” for years, but nothing ever showed…

People will say this kind of stuff on surveys but studies have shown that compensation actually is important, even if it’s just on a subconscious level. People don’t tend to care about how much they actually make though, what’s important is what they make relative to their peers. Most people would actually take less…

I have no problem with bubbly personality types who are fun to be around as long as they are semi competent. When I have to start doing someone else’s job because they are slow/incompetent/whatever and I am “reliable/steady eddie” I draw the line.

I’ve worked at places that value “get the job done” over personality. It was miserable because I was surrounded by people I couldn’t stand to be around all day. It also had the highest churn-rate of anyplace I’ve been since it was such a miserable work environment. It is possible to balance the two, and that is where…

Yeah. I worked at a company that had decent-to-good company culture. No expectation of working late or weekends, easy flexibility if you had a doctor’s appointment or sick kid and wanted to work remotely for a day, frequent optional events like team picnics or taking a half day to go see a baseball game ... and one…

My company seems to value personality over people who can actually get the job done. Its frustrating trying to work when your coworkers are shit at their job but they are “fun to be around”.

The hard thing about culture is it’s entirely subjective, especially in a diverse workforce. I’m on an employee engagement team at work, and no matter WHAT we do, there are always going to be people who say our culture doesn’t jive with them. We have second the highest employee engagement score of any group in the…

If you read past that sentence he makes it pretty clear that it’s a bad thing for his company.

I currently work in a situation where all the leadership in our company is the same personality type.

Another good source of what employees value most is the Gallup Workplace Engagement Survey. The number one factor affecting employee engagement? Their immediate supervisor, and how that supervisor treats their employees. While this may initially sound like it came from the Desk of No Shit Dick Tracy, the survey…

The problem is if you have real leadership, employees don’t need to worry about salary, since they’ll be paid appropriately according to their contribution and skill set.

I’m going to bet you’ve never actually done this.

I think that’s called assault?

And how many times have you been punched or maced trying to perform this trick?

That begins in earnest next Tuesday and runs for the next 1,460 days.