Reddit CEO eliminates salary negotiations for new employees

Re:Reddit CEO eliminates salary negotiations for new employees by ForHackernews on Monday April 06, 2015 @05:47PM (#9330887)

Being a good negotiator is not well-correlated with being a good performer on the job for most jobs, perhaps least of all for software engineers (who tend to be conflict adverse and not particularly socially adept). It's absurd that playing hardball during hiring negotiations counts for more than anything I could possibly do once I'm actually working a job.

If anything, awarding massive rewards to stronger negotiators is a market failure in a capitalist society, in the same way that paying more to taller or more attractive people is.

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Re:Reddit CEO eliminates salary negotiations for new employees by nsxwolf on Monday April 06, 2015 @06:33PM (#9331093)

If that's true, that it's not well-correlated, why haven't companies figured this out yet? You'd think someone would be paying attention when there's money involved.

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Re:Reddit CEO eliminates salary negotiations for new employees by ForHackernews on Monday April 06, 2015 @08:11PM (#9331369)

I'd say several reasons:

1) People are people and ingrained biases and social pressures are incredibly powerful forces.

2) The amounts of money are tiny ($1,000-$20,000) relative to a large company's operating budget. It's the same reason businesses overspend on airfare and SaaS products.

3) The hiring manager isn't spending their own money. It's no skin off their back if they pay a new hire an extra five grand.

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