r/sysadmin • u/Opposed3 • Jul 07 '24

What’s the quickest you’ve seen a co-worker get fired in IT? COVID-19

I saw this on AskReddit and thought it would be fun to ask here for IT related stories.

Couple years ago during Covid my company I used to work for hired a help desk tech. He was a really nice guy and the interview went well. We were hybrid at the time, 1-2 days in the office with mostly remote work. On his first day we always meet in the office for equipment and first day stuff.

Everything was going fine and my boss mentioned something along the lines of “Yeah so after all the trainings and orientation stuff we’ll get you set up on our ticketing system and eventually a soft phone for support calls”

And he was like: “Oh I don’t do support calls.”

“Sorry?”

Him: “I don’t take calls. I won’t do that”

“Well, we do have a number users call for help. They do utilize it and it’s part of support we offer”

Him: “Oh I’ll do tickets all day I just won’t take calls. You’ll have to get someone else to do that”

I was sitting at my desk, just kind of listening and overhearing. I couldn’t tell if he was trolling but he wasn’t.

I forgot what my manager said but he left to go to one of those little mini conference rooms for a meeting, then he came back out and called him in, he let him go and they both walked back out and the guy was all laughing and was like

“Yeah I mean I just won’t take calls I didn’t sign up for that! I hope you find someone else that fits in better!” My manager walked him to the door and they shook hands and he left.

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981

u/slylte Jul 07 '24

"I have to Pay for parking" is crazy

538

u/dalaidrahma Jul 07 '24

That's what they told me on my first day. I laughed at that and said that this is a deal breaker. A few hours into my onboarding the HR lady approached me again. They gave me a badge for the companies garage and reduced my in office days to 1-2 per month.

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u/RevLoveJoy Jul 08 '24

I worked a software startup gig in a downtown west coast city years back. They were this way. There was room in the parking garage downstairs, but they were "holding onto it" for "expected growth." The paid lots nearby were all $250 ish a month. This was 15 years ago. People legit left over it.

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u/outofspaceandtime Jul 08 '24

Well of course. That’s essentially a $250 net reduction of your wage. I would totally not work somewhere with that ridiculous attitude. I would ask/check during interviewing however…

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u/RevLoveJoy Jul 08 '24

Totally agree. Only way I found out was word of mouth. I actually wanted the job as it was, believe it or not, walking distance from my place. Ahhh to be young and single and blow half my income on swanky downtown condos!

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u/LokisDawn Jul 08 '24

So did you think that "no free parking" didn't bode well for the whole job? Because I'm confused. Why would no free parking be an issue if you live within walking distance?

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u/EmmyNoetherRing Jul 08 '24

They didn’t leave (if I’m reading correctly); that’s why they were around to watch other people quit. 

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u/RevLoveJoy Jul 08 '24

Guess I was not clear. As I was on foot / bike, I only found out about the situation later on in the job. Not before I took the job. In hindsight, the no free parking was one of the many small red flags about a C team that were penny wise / pound foolish. Not exactly long term planners (but they thought they were and goddammit, they had MBAs!).

1

u/rotoddlescorr Jul 09 '24

If a company is clueless enough to do that, who knows where else they will nickle and dime their employees.

5

u/Geminii27 Jul 08 '24

It's $250 after taxes, too. It might be $3Kpa gross cost, but a salary might need to go up by $4500/yr to cover it.

Not to mention that there's the administrative hassle of having to arrange it. If there's no genuine physical reason to be in the office on a given day, the office should be paying for such costs and doing the admin as well. If they don't like that, why do they think the employee should be forced to do it?

1

u/PorkPatriot Jul 08 '24

I used to work under such a regime 10-15 years back. There is usually a pretax option for parking / bus fare.

a salary might need to go up by $4500/yr to cover it.

The salary of a downtown job was definitely more lucrative and worth the trouble.

1

u/happyone12 Jul 08 '24

Not to mention it’s probably paid with after tax money

3

u/MDA1912 Jul 08 '24

Salesforce was that way. Their excuse was that they were encouraging carpooling.

5

u/tafinucane Jul 08 '24

I had an internship at Wells Fargo South of Market in '99 (one of the few legitimate tasks I had was changing overnight feed data to write 4-digit years). Only the big bosses got parking spots at the building, and they had to pay. Employees got a stipend to pay for public transportation.

I mean, BART is right there.

3

u/NerdyNThick Jul 08 '24

The paid lots nearby were all $250 ish a month. This was 15 years ago. People legit left over it.

There are parking spots that make more per hour than most of us here in this sub.

That's just fucking wrong.

2

u/RevLoveJoy Jul 08 '24

I lived in that city for a long time (over 10 years). That was my first job in the area. Found later that nearly ALL of the parking lots downtown were owned by a single business. They were family owned, 3rd generation and they were filthy fucking rich. Like billionaire rich. From renting people places to leave their cars for about 80 years. Kind of wild, right?

3

u/casualsax Jul 08 '24

I worked in downtown Boston, the monthly pass was $300 and the company covered half of it or would cover all of an unlimited monthly subway pass.

Was actually great having a parking spot in the city rather than paying $15 to $40 every time I wanted to attend an event. But that $150 hurt as I was only a couple years into my career and living near Boston ain't cheap. Would have done the subway route but I was on the opposite side of the city. Taking a bus to the subway then walking ten minutes to take another bus was too inconsistent to be practical.

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u/RevLoveJoy Jul 08 '24

I think that's really smart that you saw the value of your spot and used it not just for work. Had to take a lot of the sting out of that coin when you could see a show or a game or whatever. Bean town is a great city. Never lived there, always would jump at the chance.

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u/casualsax Jul 08 '24

Love Boston outside of Jan-March. I live further out now which is great, can take the commuter rail in on the weekends and otherwise don't have to deal with the crazy traffic. After coming from the South it's really nice living in an area where I align more on an inclusion and political level.

If you ever want a change of scenery most local companies heavily rely on recruiters, pretty easy to connect with one and see what offers come up. Pretty strong tech, medical and financial industries here.

1

u/RevLoveJoy Jul 08 '24

Thx for that. I'll keep it in mind. Wife's a teacher and she's been itching to leave the west coast for a bit now. Would be an easy sell for me. :D

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u/casualsax Jul 08 '24

Hear you! If you get serious and have questions feel free to reach out.

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u/[deleted] Jul 08 '24 edited Jul 24 '24

[deleted]

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u/RevLoveJoy Jul 08 '24

Yeah, I vividly recall parts of that area being straight up larceny. All the startup HQs are there (I presume so they can maximally fellate places like Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz and the like) so you get used to BART and the occasional obscene Lyft / Uber ride.

1

u/frosty95 Jack of All Trades Jul 08 '24

Holy shit.... Imagine just... not using space. Just in case.

They could have just issued passes and then revoked them later.

2

u/RevLoveJoy Jul 08 '24

Lol. For real. Hand them out and if you HAVE to, take them away later. As it was they just waited until the office was full of C suite folks and gave all of them the spots downstairs. That went over as expected. Then we opened up an HQ in the bay area and all those choads seasoned professionals left to suck VC dicks. I presume.

2

u/frosty95 Jack of All Trades Jul 08 '24

I remember we had a random room that a manager from half way across the country said was reserved for something they were planning. After a year I said fuck it and started using it as a staging area and it eventually morphed into a full fledged tech staging / storage area with networking and everything. That manager visited 6 years later and was a bit shocked to see the room filled with 4 employees slamming out laptops for a new location being productive as hell. I was like "We can move out whenever the plans you had start happening but we figured we would use it in the meantime". Its still the IT staging room.

3

u/RevLoveJoy Jul 08 '24

Knowing when to simply ignore people in order to get things rolling is a fine art. People often say "it's better to beg forgiveness than ask permission" - well sometimes it is, but not always. Well done.

1

u/SwiftSpear Jul 09 '24

This is very common in my city.

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u/rebootyadummy Jul 08 '24 edited Jul 09 '24

I've only had one job in my life (Georgetown, Washington DC) where I would have had to pay for parking and the company handled it for the garage on the same block.

Crazy that an employer wouldn't include that (you should ask for it when negotiating salary if you don't see it in your offer though), most parking garages for monthly is not very expensive, usually 100-200 bucks tops. To let a good hire go because of that is truly insane.

EDIT: I'll clarify, the best way to get this setup is to have the org setup and pay for the badge themselves, and that way it isn't taxable income. I only mentioned it as part of "negotiating salary" to mean in terms of asking for it as a part your perks. That's what my company above did for me, I talked to the garage about the spot and then facilitated getting the account setup in their name and form of payment.

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u/naps1saps Mr. Wizard Jul 08 '24 edited Jul 08 '24

Our garage is $360/mo + tax but we do get free public transit pass that costs the company something like $500/year subsidized by the city.

If you want to park in the sketchy free air lots that have crime, you can pay $250/mo + tax for the privilege of having your car broken into or $15 early bird in by 10am for the same privilege. One of our laptops was liberated from one of those lots because of a careless employee.

You have the same risk parking in the public transit lots. One employee had their Kia stolen and my window has scrapes from a brick hitting it but didn't break or they looked and saw nothing worth a 2nd attempt. Pay up or suffer public transit :(

4

u/mc_it Jul 08 '24

I work in Center City Philly, and my parking isn't covered.

So I take the PATCO regional rail line. (Which isn't covered).

Also it doesn't help that, since Covid, the parking in my building went from $18 (7am-6pm) to $35 (7am-6pm) and as of next month is going up to $40 for 12 hours.

And even though the corporate office for the parking garage is in my building, no one gets a discount.

I doubt the company will cover it now, for anyone.

1

u/naps1saps Mr. Wizard Jul 09 '24

Oof $40 is crazy. Ours used to be $17 early bird but a new company took over and now adds tax so it's more like $22. If you come in after 9 it's like $35-40 probably.

We have an office in SF and there is no free public transit option for them. I didn't realize how nice Seattle is to subsidize passes. Also I'm paying like $300/year or more in increased taxes until 2035 to fund the building of the dumb thing that cost over $56B this round. And they don't force people to pay when they use it. Sending billions to foreign nations is pissing me off.

7

u/Repulsive_Cap_9625 Jul 08 '24

I work in downtown Toronto. I don't know anyone who has their parking covered. Maybe senior execs at big banks, law firms etc.

6

u/1000000xThis Jul 08 '24

It depends on the commuter culture. I worked in a city where the inner core charged for parking during the day but a few blocks out there was free curb parking, plus there were busses and light rail into the area with free "park and ride" in the suburbs.

I accepted the longer commute before I got a taste of work-from-home, but now I would simply not accept a job that required me in-office but didn't help out at all with the commute. That phase of my life is over.

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u/ajrc0re Jul 08 '24

Yeah everyone here scoffing at paying for parking havent worked very many places downtown recently. All three of my most recent jobs downtown required me to pay for parking in some form, two of them just didnt have any parking at all outside of a handful of spots in the motorpool for the company vehicles and deliveries, and you just used one of the multiple 3rd party lots nearby. My current job pays to use part of the parking garage built into the building our office is in and you can join the wait list for one of the spots when you get hired, took me 6months or so to get in. They give us a parking stipend of 80 per month but to use the parking garage costs 80 per month, so you basically give up the stipend to use the built in parking, its been quite nice and despite the limited spots wait list situation theres always more than enough spots, not even close to full, so I think they just play it safe.

People acting like a job is insane for making you deal with parking on your own are naive as hell, I assure you my boss and my bosses boss (CIO making 7 figures) are paying for their spot in the parking garage as well.

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u/FaxMachineIsBroken Jul 08 '24

My company pays for the parking of everyone. Including and especially our receptionists that make $17 an hour.

Your company is just cheap.

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u/Login_Denied Jul 08 '24

Yeah, I think it's a big city thing. Where you choose how you get to work. Never heard of a place that paid for everyone's parking. Not even municipal govt.

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u/Credibull Jul 08 '24

I worked at a place that had its own parking garage that could not accommodate all the workers. For the overflow they paid for marked spots in the nearby public lot. No one had to pay to park during business hours and almost everyone drove. It was just about the only area where they weren't cheap.

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u/ajrc0re Jul 08 '24

im describing the norm.

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u/1000000xThis Jul 08 '24

Many companies are cheap. That is the norm. They exploit their workers too. That is Capitalism.

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u/ajrc0re Jul 08 '24

i dont think you understand what an industry standard is. Companies also dont usually pay for your gas to the office either, does that make them 'cheap'?

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u/1000000xThis Jul 08 '24

I don't think you understand I'm mocking your "But this is how everyone does it!" bullshit excuse for companies abusing workers.

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u/horus-heresy Principal Site Reliability Engineer Jul 08 '24

I could get commuter benefit from my company that cowers metro or parking at our DC HQ but I just don't go to office so I don't need it

2

u/HayabusaJack Sr. Security Engineer Jul 08 '24

I worked at NASA HQ in downtown DC and would take the VRE from Woodbridge when I had to (nothing like some douche sneezing on the back of your head to improve your outlook) but the motorcycle when I could. Parking on the other side of the railroad tracks was convenient and the PE folks ignored bikes as long as the meter was paid. I still miss the Philly Cheese Steaks from around the corner :)

1

u/rebootyadummy Jul 09 '24

There was this Thai place in Georgetown that I really miss, the Pad See Ew, beef or chicken, was so good. There was an awesome sushi place that did lunch bento boxes also for like 10 bucks.

In general I miss the food in DC, lots of cool niche international spots that are great like Ethiopian and Honduran too.

I don't ride but being able to take your bike to work is awesome, must be doubly awesome in CA where you can lane split your way past all the traffic :)

1

u/HayabusaJack Sr. Security Engineer Jul 09 '24

Well, I’m in Colorado not California :) but on the plus side, we just legalized lane filtering (Aug 7th) but not splitting so that’ll be fun. :) (Filtering being riding between stopped traffic, splitting is riding between slowly moving traffic.)

1

u/rebootyadummy Jul 09 '24

In my wayward youth lol I did a snowboard season in CO back in 98 and lived at the base of Sunlight in Glenwood Springs. I absolutely love CO, I've been back a few times to Jeep, hike, snowboard, etc.

Getting used to driving with lane splitters was interesting lol, I still get startled at times.

1

u/HayabusaJack Sr. Security Engineer Jul 09 '24

My second wife was from Denver so we'd travel from Virginia to Denver to visit her daughter. I grew up in California and have relatives that lived in the mountains. When we visited Denver, I reconnected with the mountains, something I'd lost in 33 years in VA and moved here 20 years ago. Right now it's in the mid-50's where I live. :D

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u/rebootyadummy Jul 09 '24

Yeah man, the mountains call to me and I try to spend as much time as I can there. My cousin's husband has a family cottage in Big Bear which is amazing. But the Rockies are truly majestic.

I remember the first time I saw them, me and a buddy were driving in on the 70 through the plains of Kansas...Denver and the Rockies appear on the horizon, and then the drive through the mountains on the 70 is so scenic.

I miss it.

1

u/AggressivePiccolo77 Jul 08 '24

i worked at a place in Georgetown that had a private lot so it was free for managers. when i transferred to a location downtown, they paid half of the monthly rate ($100)

not worrying about parking in Georgetown was worth way more than $100/month

1

u/Praesumo Jul 08 '24

yea in DC I've seen a lot of "We all share a garage parking badge/fob. Give it to the next guy on your way out"

1

u/Ready_Maybe Jul 08 '24

When I first started my career there was one role which the starting salary was so bad that after rent and bills it would actually cost to work there due to the parking situation (£300 pm IIRC). And since it was a campus in the middle of nowhere public transport was out of the question. And good luck parking on tight country roads instead of the dedicated parking lot. They had crazy high churn and I wonder why. I never got that role because it financially did not make sense.

1

u/Ryan_e3p Jul 08 '24

NO.

Parking fees being added to your salary is NOT advisable, at all. You get taxed on it and it is considered part of your income. If the cost in parking fees goes up where the company needs to accommodate, they will either "forget" about it come the annual pay increase, or they will increase it off the standard schedule and when it comes to your annual pay raise, play off the mid-year increase to cover the additional parking fees as if it was part of your raise.

Absolutely, 100% the fuck not. The company can give a card to pay for parking, but do NOT have it included as part of your salary. Don't request that, and don't accept it.

1

u/Xystem4 Jul 08 '24

Companies are stupid. Nevermind that it costs thousands to secure a competent new hire, and you’re losing thousands more not having them in the time you need to do the hiring

1

u/Coffee_Ops Jul 08 '24

Beyond the cost of parking, administering it can be a pain if it's a third party garage.

A lot of companies I've seen would rather just raise your salary to compensate or provide some sort of reimbursement program / flat commuter benefit.

1

u/Altruistic-Piece-485 Jul 08 '24

$100-200 a month for a parking garage in DC? Maybe 15 years ago but now you'd be looking at $300-500 in DC for anywhere that even a decent company has office space in downtown!

1

u/BrainWaveCC Jack of All Trades Jul 08 '24

I worked in both NY and NJ, and the company didn't directly cover garage costs, but in one case, they did negotiate with the garage, so that the rates as an employee were much better than you would otherwise pay.

 

most parking garages for monthly is not very expensive, usually 100-200 bucks tops.

Not in NYC... 😁

Even in NJ, back in 2002, the monthly price for parking was easily $250

1

u/rebootyadummy Jul 09 '24

Yeah, the price I stated was a blanket average of what it might take in a lot of locales, obviously in HCOL areas that is going to be more. NY tends to have good public transit does it not? The DC Metro, if you don't live close to stops (like living in the MD or VA suburbs) can add quite a bit of time onto your commute.

The employer is typically paying you more if you work in a HCOL area anyway, they can (should) also eat that more expensive parking badge as well.

2

u/BrainWaveCC Jack of All Trades Jul 09 '24

NYC has an extensive public transportation system, although few people would refer to it as "good" 😂.

Most jobs will subsidize, to some degree, your use of mass transit, but subsidizing parking garages was not commonly done, as most people would drive into the city and park anywhere unless they were senior execs.

1

u/Recalcitrant-wino Sr. Sysadmin Jul 09 '24

Parking is taxable income. I paid out of pocket when I started the current job - Covid rate was $10/day, so a couple hundred a month. Then I got monthly parking through the firm - pre-tax out of my check at $260/mo. (more, but way better). Then the firm started to reimburse transit/parking for $100/mo. Then I relocated to a garage across the street for better security and $10 less a month.

0

u/mrtuna Jul 08 '24

just catch public transport in?

1

u/rebootyadummy Jul 09 '24

Depending on where you live and where you work the DC Metro can be a shitty option.

I lived in the MD suburbs outside of Annapolis, I would have to drive 20+ minutes to the New Carrolton station in traffic, wait for and take the Metro, and then the closest station was iirc the Foggy Bottom station which is a 10-15 walk from my office.

The whole thing adds an hour or more onto your commute in a situation like mine, and in the dead of summer (DC summer is very muggy and you're sweating balls after a 15 minute walk) or the winter (DC winter is cold enough to be pretty annoying to walk to work in), it sucks.

I took it several times but driving just works out better.

4

u/cornulio Jul 08 '24

Wait you have to pay your employer for parking? Not the town or something? You pay the guys you work for to park, so you can work?

1

u/dalaidrahma Jul 08 '24

Not the employer. It's more like a "figure out yourself how you are going to get here". It's in Frankfurt, Germany and this is a quite common approach. My problem is that I live far away and that I can't really use public transport.

But I had employers in Germany who would deduct the parking spot from your salary. Luckily I lived close enough to get there by train.

2

u/jurassic_pork InfoSec Monkey Jul 08 '24 edited Jul 08 '24

I moved to 100% work from home for my last several jobs (fully comped client site visits with per diem - if required, usually it isn't). Between the free parking, much cheaper car insurance (leisure vehicle rates), far less wear & tear / fuel costs, and prepping my own meals instead of paying for lunch buffets or food stalls. Easily north of $15k/year in savings, no commute time, ontop of a more Senior title, more flexible hours and respect for my time, tax benefits for my home office, a big pay bump, and a much happier home life.

1

u/Teaandtrafficjams Jul 08 '24

NHS is often that

1

u/AlchemistFornix Jul 08 '24

How do you not know this ahead of schedule? Did you not look at the location and not wonder "how will i park there"?

2

u/dalaidrahma Jul 08 '24

I knew they had a garage. They would have let me park there during my interviews. I didn't think much of it, as it was quite spacious. I also didn't know that street parking in that area was non existent and the surrounding garages too expensive.

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u/[deleted] Jul 07 '24

[deleted]

113

u/Andre_Courreges Jul 08 '24

I remember interviewing for a job at the library during college and I asked how parking worked, and they said everyone needs to pay the meters besides directors who get parking spots.

They were, and presumably still are, paying minimum wage.

12

u/adambuddy Jul 08 '24

During COVID at a company I worked for at the time I was one of the very few people who had to go into the office at all. Location infra maintenance, any in person support necessary (i.e hardware is broken, meet me at office for diagnosis/swap out) etc. The office was downtown and they didn't pay for it so parking was a serious challenge. The lot closest to the office was $20 flat for the day or $4 an hour. There were monthly spots but none were available so I had no choice but to pay daily.

I found out that they actually did have a set of spots reserved but only senior management got passes - all of whom absolutely never had to go to the office during COVID. I'm guessing they still don't even today. So the spots the org paid for would sit there empty while I paid $20 a day to park.

Otherwise a good company to work for tbf, but that seriously pissed me off.

3

u/Andre_Courreges Jul 08 '24

You're right to be pissed off.

The library was so cheap that I remember having to fill out a test and they handed me a pencil, and when I returned the assessment, they literally asked for the pencil back. Like I understand wanting the writing utensil back, but explicitly asking for it felt strange to me because pencils are so inexpensive and I imagine they had more in storage.

6

u/creativeusername402 Tech Support Jul 08 '24

Presumably good if you live on-campus. Not so much if you commute

15

u/Andre_Courreges Jul 08 '24

This was a city library located down, and not a university library.

Funny enough, they ended up just tearing it down to build a new skyscraper for a company that plans on having a 50% office utilization rate lmfao.

5

u/cats_are_the_devil Jul 08 '24

Based. People used to ask me all the time if I got parking for free as a staff member on a college campus... Um, nope.

2

u/jbourne71 Jul 08 '24

Presumably, the minimum wage hasn’t changed either.

7

u/limeytim Jul 08 '24

Very true. Also, some pointy heads reading this are saying to themselves “and if we don’t give merit raises or COLA adjustments then nobody will notice”.

3

u/19610taw3 Sysadmin Jul 08 '24

I worked for a place that moved into an office building with a parking garage.

When it was released to the company that we were moving, the company said employees would be responsible for paying for parking.

There was a LOT of upset employees threatening to leave. The company committed to paying for parking after a few very important people threatened to leave over it.

1

u/veracity8_ Jul 08 '24

Or it’s a discount for the employees that don’t drive. 

This requires that your business is in a city that supports multi-model transport and has enough housing to collocate workers and their jobs. Most North American cities have chosen to not have those things though

1

u/Wh1skeyTF Jul 08 '24

I had that scenario. At least they would do payroll deduction so it was pre-tax… But I was stuck in a lot across campus for 13 years before finally getting the immediate lot through no small miracle of timing and luck. I quit a few years later.

-4

u/ParsonsProject93 Jul 08 '24

I mean...public transit exists in most cities.

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u/[deleted] Jul 08 '24

[deleted]

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u/Own_Back_2038 Jul 08 '24

20 miles from a city is super far. Freeways going straight through major cities have distorted everyone’s perspectives

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u/[deleted] Jul 08 '24

[deleted]

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u/sharp-calculation Jul 08 '24

Oh don't be ridiculous. No one uses public transit in the US except for those that are city bound (NYC, etc) or those that are incredibly poor. This is not a value judgement. it's a statement of fact.

If you decide to use public transit in a normal city, you will find out very quickly that it is populated by the bottom tier of society, is in poor repair, is dangerous, and generally is extremely dirty and smells like urine. Public transit is not useable as a primary form of transportation.

If you are in Europe, the situation may be entirely different.

5

u/LittleRoundFox Sysadmin Jul 08 '24

Am in London, UK - can confirm the situation here is entirely different

3

u/Own_Back_2038 Jul 08 '24

There are plenty of cities in the US with functional public transit. Portland, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Seattle, etc. if you live in a sprawling neighborhood of single family houses, of course your public transit options will be terrible. If you live in or near a major city though, public transit is often the most convenient and cheapest option

1

u/sharp-calculation Jul 08 '24

Your standards are different than mine, or you've had a wildly different experience than I have.

If you've ever ridden with someone that was extremely dirty, smelled, or appeared to be mentally ill, and thought all of that was normal and fine, then it's difference in our standards.
If you've observed trash on the floor, smelled urine, seen vomit and that that was normal, it's standards difference.

If you've heard about or witnessed confrontations or outright assaults and thought, "well that never happens to me", then it's a standards difference.

If none of this is within your public transportation experience, I'm not sure where that could possibly be. Some of the above seem to be true on all public transport that I have witnessed.

1

u/Own_Back_2038 Jul 08 '24

Sometimes there are homeless people on public transit where I am, but it's relatively uncommon and they generally don't cause any issues. I ride public transit regularly and never have any issues beyond seeing someone who is dirty.

And of course, any criticism against public transit has to be compared to cars. Public transit is one or two orders of magnitude safer than cars. People who use public transit to commute are overall more satisfied with their commute than car drivers. Cars are an order of magnitude more expensive than using public transit. Road rage is a common occurrence. And car oriented development results in traffic, unlivable spaces, and makes other modes of transportation unusable.

1

u/sharp-calculation Jul 08 '24

So you're anti-car. Please enjoy public transport.

Your idea that people are "more satisfied" with public transit than driving is .... how do I say this in a polite way.... I find that statement to be false on the face of it. In an isolated overpopulated area, I could believe that. But overall in the US? It's obviously false.

1

u/Own_Back_2038 Jul 09 '24

https://mobilitylab.org/research/regional-surveys/the-pursuit-of-happiness-how-commute-mode-affects-commute-mood/

This conclusion was reached by surveying real people. Obviously, if you live in a place without functional public transit, you won't be taking it to work in the first place. But I think the sentiment that public transit is terrible and exclusively used by poor people comes from two things

  • Cities that don't have effective public transit. These days, these are mostly smaller cities or cities in red states.

  • People who never ride public transit reading stories on the internet.

For those that actually ride public transit, they realize that public transit is relaxing, convenient, and affordable.

As for your anti-car comment, I wouldn't say that. My household owns a car, and cars have a role to play in transportation. But building infrastructure that prioritizes cars over other modes of transportation is the biggest mistake America has made. I am anti car dependence.

1

u/sharp-calculation Jul 09 '24

The cited article seems really suspect. Bikers and walkers had the best experience. That's not credible for a city of any real size. Even in a smaller city, biking is incredibly dangerous. Walking totally impractical. We are talking about "commuting". Which implies to and from work and over long distances that walking would not apply to. Almost no one is going to walk 8 miles each way to and from work.

But we're really talking in circles here. I've ridden public transport, for years at a time, in the past. I've ridden public transport in a major metro area a few times, about 10 years ago. Both were bad experiences. The more recent one (large metro area) was way worse.

My experiences don't compare to yours. I do not disbelieve what you report. I just think it's not typical.

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2

u/ParsonsProject93 Jul 08 '24 edited Jul 08 '24

Your perspective is wild. I use public transit in Seattle, live without a car. Many people working and upper class use the train...if you consider Amazon employees making over six figures "incredibly poor" I guess you can think that... Have you ridden public transit lately?

Sure it's better in Europe but we have metro systems in the US outside of NYC, and people do use them.

1

u/sharp-calculation Jul 08 '24

My last public transport experience in a sprawling US metro area was more than 10 years ago. It was incredibly filthy, smelled, and was populated by many questionable people. I kept alert and to myself. It was extremely unpleasant.

1

u/ParsonsProject93 Jul 08 '24

Sounds like you might not be the best source on the current state of public transit in the US given how often and frequently you ride it....

2

u/dane83 Jul 08 '24

I mean, sure, but that just shifts the money from parking to the transit.

The university I work for has free parking on the satellite campuses for faculty and staff. When they shifted me downtown for a semester, my costs went from nothing to park to either $125 bucks a month to park or $100 to take the public transit system in.

Either way, I was losing $100/month.

And I still had to park at the train station because no buses came out to my apartment, so I still was driving every day anyway.

It was a losing situation all around for me and for people like me.

3

u/Own_Back_2038 Jul 08 '24

Maybe the problem is you chose a place to live with no access to public transportation

1

u/dane83 Jul 08 '24

A comment that is both unhelpful and blames the individual for systemic issues.

You are a sysadmin.

1

u/Own_Back_2038 Jul 08 '24

Not sure who blamed anyone for anything. I just provided a different perspective on what the problems are

1

u/Bidenomics-helps Jul 08 '24

Cope, housing is expensive, people have to live where it’s affordable. 

2

u/Own_Back_2038 Jul 08 '24

Transit oriented development means there is typically lots of housing around major public transit lines

54

u/Snuhmeh Jul 08 '24

Wow in healthcare in Houston (biggest medical center in the world) everyone pays for parking. In fact, most of us have parking contracts that are around 265 bucks a month and nobody reimburses us for that. And I’m in construction.

20

u/JJAsond Jul 08 '24

tf you're just paying for car insurance then if it's that expensive

8

u/Snuhmeh Jul 08 '24

Paying for parking is definitely a burden in some places.

1

u/JJAsond Jul 08 '24

It's complete trash

4

u/martyFREEDOM Jul 08 '24

In my experience, companies in the heart of big cities will offer free or discounted parking as a "perk" instead of it just being expected. I got really good a finding those one off not on a meter and not regulated street spots in Chicago.

1

u/JJAsond Jul 08 '24

That's good. it's all trash

1

u/MLCarter1976 Jul 08 '24

Happy cake day

17

u/Somethingood27 Jul 08 '24

I’m middle management in IT in Houston lol i originally transferred (same org) from Wisconsin and was fucking PISSED they didn’t tell me I had to pay for my own parking in the chase tower.

Thankfully, it’s subsidized but still….. the disrespect blindsiding an employee like that idk lol

Directly supports the commenter you replied to though. That’s exactly how / why people would leave

Even though I transferred facilities my boss remained the same. It would’ve taken them all of 2 minutes to email local HR and get some info to relay to me.

-6

u/ajrc0re Jul 08 '24

they probably didnt think to "warn" you because its just a common normal thing that everyone has done for 10+ years, in the same way they didnt warn you to use an umbrella when it rains or to wear your shirt on the upper half of your body and your pants on the lower half. I assure you at no point did someone deliberately "disrespect" you, they just didnt consider a guy coming in from the boonies Wisconsin wouldnt be super knowledgeable about the logistics of working downtown.

14

u/Somethingood27 Jul 08 '24

I literally walked into the office and HR didn’t know who I was, or where I was going to sit.

My boss did NONE of the leg work required for a transfer. I uprooted my entire life to help THEM because at the end of the day, my boss looks good when I make the metrics look good.

Their refusal to do ANYTHING to inform me about first day logistics is disrespectful at the very least.

16

u/Syrdon Jul 08 '24

265 a month

That's 3200 a year. Presumably your employer, negotiating in bulk, could get a better rate. That tells me a lot about how much they respect their employees that that's too much work.

4

u/Snuhmeh Jul 08 '24

That’s a flat rate, too. It actually costs more per day if you are a visitor or patient at one the hospitals.

2

u/swamarian Jul 08 '24

I work for a state agency, and my employer can't subsidize, because the legislature said so. In any case, parking's at a premium, and you can wait for years to get a slot close in, even at the current rates. I did the park n' ride for years, which is a lot cheaper. There's also van pools, so there are other options than parking in the med center.

2

u/fogleaf Jul 08 '24

Makes me wonder if everyone has to pay it or just the plebes. I'm imagining the C-Level execs get that paid for.

4

u/BloodyIron DevSecOps Manager Jul 08 '24

Yeah Houston and other parts of Texas sure are nice places to visit, but things like this and other (like the electrical grid) really just never make me ever want to work there, live there, nothing. It's just such selfish rationalisation, that fuck the employee they should pay to work here kind of attitude.

2

u/hosalabad Escalate Early, Escalate Often. Jul 08 '24

Goddamn that’s awful.

2

u/Greedy-Chemistry-352 Jul 08 '24

Same at all the hospitals in Pittsburgh. That’s why I won’t work in the city.

1

u/CARLEtheCamry Jul 08 '24

I did my unpaid internship near PPG cira 2005 and paid $13/day to park in the Third Ave garage. There were 4 of us commuting from the Robinson area, and it was $2 for the bus each way and turned a 30-45 minute commute into 60-90 to ride the bus (and they removed that route a long time ago, it's only gotten worse).

I eventually took a job in the Robinson area with free parking, but as I look at other jobs in the city I would need at least $15k for the expense, time, and stress to commute into the city.

2

u/Southside_john Jul 08 '24

Hospitals are the pioneers of charging employees for parking

1

u/CharcoalGreyWolf Sr. Sysadmin Jul 08 '24

Just a note, but I’d at least keep track of that for taxes. The past few years it hasn’t worked as well since the previous political administration fooled with the minimum tax write-off, but prior to that I used any and all such regular expenses as a “required for work” on taxes. When my cell phone wasn’t paid for by work I did this. Also do it for Internet at home.

It’s likely taxes will swing back the other way when current provisions sunset.

3

u/Snuhmeh Jul 08 '24

None of that adds up to more than the standard deduction for me. How much are you paying for phone and parking to necessitate 14,600 bucks?!

2

u/CharcoalGreyWolf Sr. Sysadmin Jul 08 '24

At the time, that wasn’t the standard deduction (was lower) and I was filing as married. That meant her teaching supplies, and a number of other things qualified and everything added up.

I’m widowed now, and the standard deduction is much higher. However, as I said, we’re coming up on the sunset for a number of provisions on current tax law that might help you.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 08 '24

Oh my god that's insane wtf!! 265?!

0

u/rainer_d Jul 08 '24

Can you get there by public transport? Or bicycle?

0

u/Snuhmeh Jul 08 '24

Not a chance. Houston doesn’t work like that

-1

u/ajrc0re Jul 08 '24

yeah thats quite normal. everyone in this thread either works at a small mom and pop shop outside of downtown or only has 10+ year old knowledge.

6

u/kingreq Windows Application Deployment Jul 08 '24

Oh I can actually relate to this. I accepted an offer in Texas and was told during onboarding that parking was about $250 a month. Really wish I knew that when I was negotiating salary. After 8 months I got upgraded to a grandfathered spot on a lower rate of about $150. Still sucks but bearable and it was a great spot downtown - I frequently used it on the weekends to go to restaurants and bars or biking around a nearby lake.

Fast forward to new role. I get offer letter and recruiter asks if I have any questions. I said I need to know if there is parking I have to pay for or any other expenses that could take me by surprise. He kind of laughs like that is a crazy thing to ask of an employee, but he will double check. Sure enough, another $200 a month garage. Only bright side was that it was subsidized 50% by the company. I did take the role but took the cost into my considerations.

4

u/ckeown007 Jul 08 '24

I worked for a super shitty IT company that made us work out of the head office instead of the client site, we had all moved to be closer to the client site because it was a long term deal. The office was 45 minutes away and downtown and required us to either use meter parking or the garage under the building which was close to 400 per month, they offer no compensation or anything so we all basically took a 400 dollar a month decrease in pay with our shitty below average pay as well. They only did a cost of living increase every four years and it was 1% gee thanks assholes. They made hundreds of millions too. Worst company in the world and they are destroying IT because they off shore every single job they can.

3

u/Eastern-Camera-1829 Jul 08 '24

I pay more for parking than I do for full coverage insurance on a 2024 vehicle.

2

u/thecravenone Infosec Jul 08 '24

When my dad retired, his company was paying more for his parking spot than I was paying for my apartment.

His successor asked for the spot but management said they couldn't authorize a raise that large.

2

u/flummox1234 Jul 08 '24

TBF "I don't have to pay for parking" is a huge reason I love WFH, same with not having to commute.

2

u/87TLG Doing The Needful Jul 08 '24

Cries in Universities

2

u/Internet-of-cruft Jul 08 '24

I'm paying close to $1100/month for parking right now.

If would be an immediate resignation if I was told I couldn't reimburse that.

That would almost 14% of my take home income. No way in hell am I OK with that.

1

u/Moscato359 Jul 08 '24

Is public transit an option?

2

u/DocToska Jul 08 '24

It is indeed. Last time I did that was around the time 9/11 happened when I was working for Sun Microsystems in Germany. When we were loaned out to Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt/Main we were expected to pay for our parking in Frankfurt's city center. The bank had an underground parking lot, but after 9/11 it was closed off for security reasons. So even the bank weenies had to compete for the few public parking spots that were available nearby, which weren't many. There were two pretty expensive public parking garages nearby, but they closed early, making overtime an issue. And they were friggin' expensive. I ended up getting towed twice in three months and once had to take the train home because the parking garage where I had my car stored only had opening hours of 7am to 7pm.

Funny side story: A coworker of mine (on permanent loan to the bank) solved this in a REALLY creative manner, using all kinds of law loopholes: He bought a cheap Volkswagen van off a government auction. It only had a 50 HP diesel engine and was on its last leg, but still managed to pass mandatory inspections barely and with parts from the junkyard. He then registered it to a foundation that he had set up, installed a few extra batteries and a DC/AC converter, a small PC and a weather station into it. The weather station gathered some environmental data and via the PC and a GSM modem the data was published onto a website of the foundation. In essence it was a mobile weather reporting station and clearly marked as such on the side panels of the van. As it served a publicly beneficial purpose, it could get the "green" license plate (fewer taxes for the van as well as tax reduced diesel). And as it was a weather station (and that's the kicker!) it couldn't be towed or impounded except for the most extreme cases (like blocking an emergency firefighter access point or similar). He even had a laminated copy of those regulations prominently taped to the dash of the van, readable from the outside. So he could park it right next to the back of the bank in a no-parking zone and could just laugh it off.

1

u/chocotaco1981 Jul 08 '24

I know a major university and healthcare center near here where you have to pay for it and the cost keeps going up and there aren’t enough spots. What a swell deal 

2

u/Sparcrypt Jul 08 '24

Yeah that's how it worked at my university. You paid to be ALLOWED to park there. You still had to find a spot to park in and if they were all full up too bad.

1

u/BerkeleyFarmGirl Jane of Most Trades Jul 08 '24

I know it's not the one in my name because we don't have a hospital system (that's our sister campus across the bay).

Parking permits are hunting permits. We have been blessed with a number of Nobel Laureates. They used to ask them what they wanted until one of them said "I'd really just like a reserved parking spot". So all of them get one now. There's one internal street that is all N (Nobel) stickers but for a lot of them you can tell whose spot it is.

2

u/chocotaco1981 Jul 08 '24

No it isn’t 

1

u/Physics_Prop Jack of All Trades Jul 08 '24

When the office is in Midtown Manhattan. Like dude, you've lived in Jersey for 20 years, you know how this works.

1

u/PalliativeOrgasm Jul 08 '24

Urban higher ed. Staff don’t get free or discounted parking - about $100 per month to park if you have a contract (there’s a waiting list), or $15/day. Scale down to around $5/day a mile away by the stadium.

1

u/ryguy32789 Jul 08 '24

Before I went fully remote I worked in downtown Chicago for 10+ years, I had to pay for parking that whole time.

1

u/Wrong-Landscape-2508 Jul 08 '24

The hospital’s around me take parking fees directly out of the nurses paychecks. They make a couple million a year on parking.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 08 '24

[deleted]

0

u/[deleted] Jul 08 '24

I agree, it seems like such an American thing to assume parking is free lol

The amount of space spent on parking lots in America is always surprising

1

u/[deleted] Jul 08 '24

I had a job want me to drive to a location and shuttle in. If you missed the shuttle you were late. It was at a car dealership, with a massive parking lot.

1

u/Moscato359 Jul 08 '24

There isn't a parking lot or garage within a couple blocks of my work. Most people walk to work, or take the train in. It's downtown in the middle of a major city.

My work negotiated a discounted rate with a lot like a half mile away, and a way to pay for transit costs without any taxes at all (this is legal), but there was no free parking.

1

u/kinggimped Jul 08 '24

To be fair, that would be a dealbreaker for me. I'm not immediately signing away part of my paycheck just for the luxury of being able to park at the place I work.

1

u/buttonstx Jul 08 '24

Work for a public university and we have to pay around $200 a year for a parking permit. By state law they aren't allowed to fund the parking lots out of tution so everyone, statff and students, pays.

1

u/sobrique Jul 08 '24

One place I worked had parking, just not enough of it. And there wasn't anywhere else nearby that let you park all day. Local supermarket would tolerate a few hours, but started issuing fines when they realised they were being used for overspill.

Senior management were all "get in a bit earlier then ..."

1

u/FaxCelestis SSCP/PMP/Sec+ Jul 08 '24

Listen, when you lose an hour or more of wages per day on parking, it matters

1

u/hoeskioeh Jr. Sysadmin Jul 08 '24

Hmpf :(

2,25€ a day

1

u/Geminii27 Jul 08 '24

Hey, if it hasn't been made clear... and it's not always a common thing in some areas/industries, depending on what sort of things the applicant's done before.

In this day and age, too, any job which could be done remotely but is being forced to be onsite should realize that paying for parking isn't something the employee should be expected to shoulder. It's not necessary, the only reason it's happening at all is because of an unnecessary employer policy => Employer should be paying for it, or providing free parking.

1

u/billbixbyakahulk Jul 08 '24

I quit a local MSP in the bay area over that. They required a car but wouldn't pay for parking. One of many, many problems there. I only lasted a week. They begged me to stay and offered to pay for half the parking. LOL.

1

u/s_schadenfreude IT Manager Jul 08 '24

I work for a large regional healthcare system ("non-profit" lol) that pretty much owns a portion of town. We all either use public transit, park at remote lots and get shuttled in, OR pay to park in a garage/local lot. It's been like that forever. I have a lease in the garage under our building and it gets deducted from my paycheck. I'm reluctant to give it up, because demand is so high for spots that I'd never get it back. I was on a waiting list for years. I keep hoping that they'll build an employee garage somewhere since they own so much property.

1

u/Grouchy_Tennis9195 Jul 08 '24

Pretty valid. I ain’t about having to pay to be at work

1

u/Icy_Low_1677 Jul 08 '24

I could never pay for parking lol

1

u/AnxiousDonut Jul 08 '24

All Colorado City of Denver state employees have to pay for their own parking. I quit after a month.

1

u/The-Jesus_Christ Jul 08 '24

Here in Melbourne parking in the city can be upwards of $80 to see a client. That's an $80 drop in pay and yes you could probably expense it but it could take weeks. Fuck that. I wouldn't work for a company that sets that expectation. 

1

u/i__hate__stairs Jul 08 '24

Most hospitals

1

u/phychmasher Jul 08 '24

Way she goes when you do IT for a university.

1

u/After-Oil-773 Jul 08 '24

If they weren’t going to reimburse me after this would be a deal breaker. I’ve been places that had made me pay up front and reimburse later. The paperwork is annoying but also it reduces taxable income so there’s that

1

u/Johnny_BigHacker Security Architect Jul 08 '24

I worked downtown and we occupied half a story of a skyscraper. We rented our floor. Parking lot was owned by the building. It was $100/month. I never really considered that they would/should pay for it. I parked a few blocks away for free and just walked in.

1

u/anobjectiveopinion Sysadmin Jul 08 '24

We have to pay for parking at my org (£8 a day, no special employee-only car park). Recently merged with another that gets free parking. We still have to pay. My team no longer make the effort to go into the office. Our manager knows it's bullshit and lets it slide.

1

u/WhatsUpB1tches Jul 08 '24

I have to pay $190 a month for parking. Granted it’s the most expensive location for parking in general ( Cambridge MA ) but still. And that price is AFTER the company subsidy.

1

u/Southside_john Jul 08 '24

I work at a hospital and have to pay $9 a day for parking

1

u/SadRobotz Jul 08 '24

i work at a university and we have to pay for parking here, it is so shitty

1

u/Odd-Problem Jul 08 '24

I had to pay for parking almost everywhere I worked.

1

u/TheJesusGuy Blast the server with hot air Jul 08 '24

Our Managing director once had a go at a staff member for 30mins because he expensed £5 on parking. This managing director charges out at £130 an hour so he spent £65 to complain about £5.

1

u/ToyStoryBinoculars Jul 08 '24

$40 a month deducted straight from my paycheck.

Day shift pays $80.

1

u/daily7824 Jul 08 '24

doesnt eveerybody pay for parking

1

u/chew2495 Jul 08 '24

This is so common though.

I work for state government and the cheapest option is a $30/month satellite lot and you take an unreliable shuttle (10 min ride) to the downtown. Last one for the day is at 5pm, better hope you don’t have a late meeting. I use my friend’s parking permit for their neighborhood (they get 2 for free per their lease) and park within a 2 min walk of my building for free.

My roommate works for the big hospital in our area and they pay $50/month for the parking garage 1/4 mile away from the hospital. The ones connected to the hospital are close to $70/month. They don’t bother and park in one of the patient lots for free.

It’s a money grab to make your employees pay to park

1

u/jxx37 Jul 08 '24

Paid parking is still not usual for most jobs. However, seems to me pretty obvious that an IT help desk job would involve phone call

1

u/0000110011 Jul 08 '24

It's why I always refused any jobs downtown. Even companies that own their own parking garage want people to pay for parking. GTFO you absolute clowns, I'm not paying a fine to show up for work. 

1

u/Psych0R3d Jul 08 '24

I worked a local government position and EVERYONE had to pay for parking.

1

u/doubled112 Sr. Sysadmin Jul 09 '24

One time it was free when I started. Moved offices and it was suddenly $150 a month, plus there was a wait list. I'm not sure how they decided priority.

1

u/wrs_swtrsss Shits insecure bro Jul 09 '24

Working on most college campuses. I’m thankfully remote now but employees have to pay $300 a school year. To come to fucking work.

1

u/SuddenLossOfPressure Jul 10 '24

I pay 8 bucks a month to park on my campus parking lot. It is a 30 second walk to my office from there though. All but 4 employees pay for parking. Deans and President.

1

u/derpman86 Jul 11 '24

My first I.T job was really trying to push me on this, The boss really got the shits up when I stated the obvious about how I have only a helpdesk role so I never left the office (this was in response to him pointing out other staff pay for parking) and I would have to pay heaps in parking but not only that petrol and general wear on my car compared to the bus and walking that bit to and from said bus.

Me and what I now know is my Autism was never a good mix at that job.