May 19, 2006

4 days/week

I'm staying at the German Bank!

When my boss came to me with the flattering proposal of reconsidering my resignation, I was struck with the idea of negotiating.

Since she is no position to offer me a permanent position, I thought I would leverage what little bargaining power I had to acquire a better work-life balance. I asked for one personal day every week for the rest of my temporary days.

She considered the offer and has granted me free Fridays which is just infinitely better than casual fridays--which we don't even have. Not yet in stone, but my impression is that all systems are go, beginning June.

Somewhere between August '06 and March '07, they will be hiring permanent employees at which time I will reconsider the lifestyle I will be accustomed to for a significant raise and a blackberry. Not a bad deal at all for a grasshopper in banking.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

salary-wise, is it better to work as a consultant w/o benefits rather than work as a full time employee? like, they pay you per day right?

Sweet & Vicious said...

Consultants are paid per hour. So in banking it usually is to your benefit to work by the hour unless you have a fancy title and an office. You have to be at Director level to warrant an office at most banks.

The big drawback is that you don't get paid vacation days or sick days. That said, there is no limit to the number of vacation and sick days pending your manager doesn't object to the amount of time you are out of the office.

Most consulting jobs do come with benefits. I have Cigna, for example, but I have to pay a larger portion of my paycheck and my agency pays the rest. I prefer Oxford insurance which a large corporation would cover--as in I would put in less out of every paycheck to have this better benefit.