
Ask HN: Second-thoughts about accepted job - hoppity_herring
I have recently accepted a remote position and will be starting next month.<p>I visited their offices to pick my laptop up and meet the team.<p>A few things were raised that seemed odd to me or may actually be warning signs.<p>I requested a ThinkPad and got no answer. Yesterday they presented me with a Dell, which is fine, though the screen resolution is 1366x768. I am not really comfortable working with this since everything is very bloated, and I know that it will annoy me long-term.
My work is very detailed, so higher resolution does a lot for my ability to work optimally.<p>They do not cover travel expenses. When travelling for them it would likely be in excess of about $100+ a week, though this is in my local currency, which is worth a lot less.
Their excuse was that it will be on my tax and that I could claim it back from there, but that puts the burden on me to cover expenses up-front, which they do not make provision for in my salary, and also puts the burden on me to claim it from our slow and shitty tax system.<p>The company is very small but leaders very resistant to change. They currently communicate via e-mail and WhatsApp (???), though I wish to get something like Slack in-place to aide us that work remotely.
I asked about this and the leaders were very hesitant and did not know what or how Slack works in the first place.<p>They are slow in setting my company facilities up.
They use G-Suite, so creating me a mailbox should not take days.<p>They do not have any formal or even informal onboarding despite existing for 16 years.
Nowhere is it mentioned how one can apply for leave, and I had to ask. It&#x27;s a form on G-Drive somewhere that you need to submit.<p>These things might seem small or petty though they do give me a general feeling of uneasiness.<p>The team is very, very small, and equally junior, meaning that a mid-level employee like myself would actually be one of their more senior employees.
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Geekette
Return the laptop and reiterate your demand for the ThinkPad (with preferred
specs) for reasons you stated.

Reiterate your request for travelling expenses - you're an employee not an
independent contractor, you shouldn't have to file separately for work
related.

Explain that for a company of their size and age, you expect certain processes
to be in place. If not, you're happy to wait/possibly help (e.g. by
recommending a HR/Ops/Payroll shop that can set things up as short term
project) to accelerate them to that point. Otherwise, you have to rethink your
job with them.

I assume this is happening because you did not have any conversation about
benefits during the hiring process. So, if you end up leaving, make sure this
you don't skip this step in your next interviews.

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PaulHoule
Send the laptop back. If they aren't going to provide you with good hardware,
your life will be hell.

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mooreds
So, what's your question?

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hoppity_herring
Do you have any second opinions?

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mooreds
Hard to give you advice without knowing a bit more about your situation.

This could either be a nightmare, with your requests ignored, the company too
busy to respond to reasonable concerns, no one to help you in your career and
the company in general being a mess.

Or it could be a chance for you to get expertise in managing up, carve our
your own area of excellence, and professionalize the software development
process at the company.

Do you have a clear set of personal goals? Do you have a clear set of goals at
this company? What does success look like for you and them?

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hoppity_herring
Thank you. What would be a good way to approach this? I don’t want to seem
pushy

