Compensation is less than what I was making but the medical insurance/dental/vision is way less than what I had to pay before so I guess it balances out. The cost of insurance may be less but the deductible is high even when you buy up. So far though I've been pretty healthy so out-of-pocket has been less than $100 so far which isn't bad. I came from 2 weeks vacation and 6 sick days so Avalara's PTO is the same actually. They don't match on the 401k which is sad and the stock options?? well I thought they were giving us 200 shares; not the option to buy 200 shares at a low price so that was a little disappointing. The only company I've worked for that went public gave us 5 year vested stock and my first gift was 500 shares; after that each year I received 750 because I had been promoted which warranted more stock. I liked that. Every month I could actually sell 1/12 of the shares if the price of the stock was higher than what they bought them for, of course. That gave me extra money for things like vacations, furniture, etc. We also received a yearly bonus if the company was profitable and they were every single year. The last year I was there, I guess they weren't so the Board of Directors decided to give up their bonuses and split it between all the employees so we each got something anyway; even then mine was $900.
On a down note, I sometimes get the feeling that if you don't have your head down working every single minute of the day, your job is in jeopardy. I've heard there are spies all around us watching us to make sure we're being productive. And if we're not, you get the ax. Like when upper management comes around, you have to put your nose to the grindstone. That makes me a little nervous that, if this is true, a company feels the need to do this. We all work hard but you can have fun while doing your job too and we're all adults right?
