Thinking of taking a sabbatical

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21

I would say there is a difference between finding good work life balance vs intentionally not performing. Work Life Balance is a good thing. Underperforming is not good.

In big tech , it seems to be the case that some employees just work all the time and others try a better work life balance. Both are supported. Of course the first case sees faster progress.

22

If company is listed on stock market, most likely most people here are stockholders (via VT) :slight_smile:

23

I apologize for my somewhat flippant remark/question of whether you’re a shareholder (I probaby am, too, via retirement account funds). I can only guess where your anger* might come from … but to expand on these thoughts:

  • You suggest immoral / unethical behaviour because the company paid him an incredibly high salary in the last few years.
    I applaud you on your moral high horse, but I’m really only riding a little pony here, and so is @rhyme, as far as I can tell. See my further remarks below.
  • I know all these figures sound incredible – mid 6 figure salaries, 7 digits of wealth accumulated – but how is this @rhyme’s fault? And why would you not be more enraged about an employer that likely tends to spend multiples of these amounts, i.e. millions per executive on work that … well, I’m personally a little biased, but let’s say that you could easily spend half of the millions per executive per year and there would be absolutely no difference in performance.
  • With that in mind, compare @rhyme’s salary to the person who cleans the bathrooms there? Outrageous!!!
    Compare @rhyme’s salary with the VPs and above at that company?
    Outragous by a factor even bigger!

Is this all fair? Of course not.

Should you apply your own compass of what is right for your own decisions in life?
Yes.
Does this mean you can always make clear cut decisions?
Well, no.

If I was lecturing, I apologize – I only meant to offer a somewhat (now also somewhat stale) inside perspective for these companies that seemingly have a license to print money, deserved or not.

* At least that’s what it sounds like, from a distance. If I misjudged, please just ignore my comments.

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24

There is nothing unethical in seeing things a bit more chilled…

And Salary says nothing about hardness of work or responsibility, since my first job my salary quadrupled but my first job was more consuming and stressfull than now.

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25

I think Gen Z have firmer boundaries for work/life balance. Many employees and self-employed have found that when they set boundaries, stop working for the entitled demanding clients, or pushing back on unreasonable requests from employers, that they paradoxically do better: make more money while working fewer hours and with less stress.

26

All valid points everyone!
In general taking things a bit more easy is certainly a good idea, I don’t think it will affect the performance much. I have already started to do so by working less in the evenings/weekends and the difference is minimal. Still like to get stuff done and don’t plan to procrastinate the whole day, just switch a bit my focus from work to other nice things in life until I decide what to do next :slight_smile:

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27

Search for “Buy, Borrow, Die strategy”

It is applicable for the wealthy in the US. For CH a key difference is that for most swiss residents capital gains on stocks are not taxable so you can already get “tax optimisation” by choosing to live off capital gains instead of dividends. Interest expense is tax deductible so a potential 2nd step is to take a loan but which involves more risk

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29

What are you referring to here? Gold, bitcoin etc.?

30

And did you pull the trigger after all?

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31

You salary for your age is astonishing. I happen to work in the ML field as well but my salary is 6 times less.

How many years have you been in this big tech? What was the starting salary?

32

@Giff In fact, I did :slightly_smiling_face:

@Makis4321 The salaries/YoE can be looked up on websites such as levels.fyi, usually for entry level positions the total compensation is roughly 200k

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33

May I ask what did you study?

I am also working in the ML/AI domain but I am an engineer by education.

34

Sure, computer science

35

Maybe you can train me for your job and I’ll take over so you can retire :wink:

36

Actually, the ML field has become way more competitive. I think I would fail most interviews, so not sure I’m of much help :wink: