Deirdre Saoirse Moen

Sounds Like Weird

Some Things Need To Be Mocked: Penny Arcade Edition

25 November 2013

Like this job posting.

  1. “We’re terrible at work-life balance” vs. “You need to have a crazy-person level of attention to detail” — which requires, you know, sleep. And downtime. Look, read Tom DeMarco’s book Slack.
  2. “A BA/BS or greater degree in Computer Science or a related field” vs. “Annual Salary: Negotiable, but you should know up front we’re not a terribly money-motivated group. We’re more likely to spend less money on salary and invest that on making your day-to-day life at work better.” So you should know that those student loans you almost certainly have aren’t going to get paid. Nor are you going to be able to afford a decent enough look to warrant being on camera.
  3. “Annual Salary: Negotiable, but you should know up front we’re not a terribly money-motivated group. We’re more likely to spend less money on salary and invest that on making your day-to-day life at work better” vs. “Flexibility to travel up to 30% of the time.” I know people who travel for a living where the taxes on their airline tickets alone exceed their annual salary. Travel is expensive. Travel 30% of the time is expensive. So, this is utter horseshit. The planes and hotels are worth more than the employee — that’s what this is saying.
  4. “We are quite literally looking for a person that can do four jobs.” You’ve got 15-20 people already, you are large enough for some specialization.
  5. “We’re looking for a web developer / software developer / sys admin to join our small family.” It’s not a family. It’s a job. The brick does not love you.
  6. “So yes, we run lean. Most of us would say maybe a little TOO lean, but being pushed to your limit is part of the job.” Listen worm, if I’m going to go into BDSM as a career path, it’ll be as a dominatrix.
  7. Note that there’s no statement of non-discrimination in said job posting. Which should be obvious with this line: “You should have no problems working in a creative and potentially offensive environment.” Especially given Penny Arcade’s history of being, well, offensive.
  8. More interesting commentary here in Christopher Buecheler’s post.

Related Posts