Alda Vigdís

What do I want in a Job?

Recently, I have seen various posts floating around the web where people share their views on what a workplace needs in order to look attractive to them and to keep them interested and engaged.

This is my take on those lists, based on my experience in remote and on-location jobs throughout my career, both full time and part time.

Some of the following points are nice-to-haves while others are less negotiable and that mainly depends on the size of the company, location, culture and enumeration.

Environment

• The office environment (if any) is pleasant, with separate desks, room acoustics and ventilation being thought of and no yelling across the room.
• Everyone — including the C-level — uses, knows the etiquette of and is active on a group chat platform such as Slack.
• I will work with people in a single time zone or a limited number of adjacent time zones (i.e. no insistance on me being available at 10 am Central European Time and also end-of-day at US-West Time for instance).
• A sufficient coworking space stipend for a “fixed desk” and amenities.
• A Berlin office with my team in it or a sufficient travel budget to meet my team or induvidiual coworkers and stake holders in person regularly or as required.
• The daily commute can include my gym without an unreasonable detour.
• There is a safe place to keep my bike, preferably next to my desk.
• I have lockable drawers to keep things in.
• Company swag, if any, is delivered using a method that includes customs handling or in person (i.e. no hours-long journeys to the customs office to pick up single keychains or t-shirts).
• Company swag is well designed and made to last.

Overtime and time off

• Food and snacks are not used as compensation for overtime.
• Monitoring, overtime and on-call hours are compensated for or result in PTO.
• Explicit number of annual paid vacation days is provided — preferably 30 work days off each year.
• Sufficient sick leave allowance, preferably acucmilated.
• Excercise, education and health stipend is provided.

Travel

• A sufficient upgrade or amenity budget for railway travel and flights.
• Sufficient car rental budget where applicable.
• Daily subsistance allowance during business travel may be based on a standard reference like the one provided by the ICSC (International Civil Service Commision).
• Sufficient accomidation budget that follows a reference value.
• Rest/recovery days are provided before and after long distance travel as required.
• My physical and mental health and safety is ensured during travel.
• There are policies in place that allow me to veto travel destinations and transit locations depending on their hostility to queer people, women and other minorities.

Team

• At least someone at the company takes care of HR functions as a full-time role.
• An HR representetive is available to my team.
• The team understands the effect ADHD and other neurodiversity syndromes have on work performance, including the positive effects.
• Developers and designers work together.
• Team lead and management delegates work and responsibilities.

Work

• There are opportunities to participate in or to initiate important descision making.
• Opportunities for public speaking are provided.
• Agile methodology is used correctly and as appropriate.
• Opportunities to train my skills and to work on meaningful open source projects within office hours are provided.
• Work on open source projects that the company depends on is not considered extracurricular
• “Distributed monoliths” and “interdependent microservices” are acknowledged as a problem.
• Sufficient equipment (new or refurbished) and budget for it are provided from day one.
• Security policies do not prevent me for using the equipment in an efficient way.
• Periods of customer-facing work are provided.
• Feature ownership by more than one person is ensured.
• Feedback related to my experience with web accessibility and performance is not only welcome, but expected.

Company

• The company has a clear management structure, roles and communication pathways.
• The hiring contract only includes legally enforcable clauses.
• The hiring contract is not temporary.
• The company is or can be run as a susatinable business.
• No unnecessary or ill-informed micromanagement from founders.
• C-level delegates work and does not directly participate in software development functions.
• The company is diverse enough, especially on the tech side, for me not to end up as a volunteer diversity officer.
• Knowledge management and documentation is taken seriously within the company.
• The company has a culture of “work to live”, not “live to work”.
• The company culture does not promte outdated Silicon Valley slogans such as “embrace the chaos” or “move fast and break things”.