This sounds like they are penalizing YOU for bad management on their part. They suck. Really.

As far as negotiating salary/vacation, the one thing you need to remember is that any other company would be GLAD to have you. You're not incompetent, on the contrary you have valuable skills that other companies would be willing to pay for.

Double this. You have lots of experience, and as much as job-hunting sucks, I think it would so be worth it for you to get the hell out of there and away from those psychos.

And do companies really still only give one week's vacation to new staff?

Well, I dunno. I haven't job-hunted in 13 years.

your office environment always sounds sort of fishy. Like they do as much as they can to sidle-up-to but maybe not cross (or sometimes do cross) the lines of legality and take liberties where they can when it suits them.

Bingo. They used to get audited by the IRS every. single. year. Maybe they still do, for all I know.

Steph, I'm just gobsmacked. I have no idea how people like that sleep at night. Or, for that matter, put their pants on in the morning without accidentally choking themselves.

(((Steph)))

Pure speculation on my part, but the company closing the office one day a week? Arbitrarily cutting back an employee's salary? Could it be that the company isn't doing well financially, and the management is scrambling for fixes? It sounds similar to the kinds of stories I heard during the dot-com crash.

Getting your resume together is a good idea.

They used to get audited by the IRS every. single. year. Maybe they still do, for all I know.

From various clues, they sound like the kind of right-wing wingnuts who think that government intervention in daily life is a betrayal of the Great Principles That Founded Our God-Blessed Nation (tm) because the leader of a company is obviously wiser and more blessed than the peons who work for him and the government is just getting in the way of laissez-faire capitalism. Employment law is just another way for The Dammed Gubbmint to mess things up.

edit: Avoiding/evading/circumventing those sorts of "unwarranted intrusions" is seen as a victory for Right Thinking Americans Everywhere.

You'd be amazed at what passes for business thinking in Utah. There are reasons we're the fraud capital of the country.

Oh, {{{{Tep}}}}. They all said it already, but, what they all said.

Well, I dunno. I haven't job-hunted in 13 years.

Gotcha. I can't assume that every industry is like biotechs, that's for sure. We start with 3.5 weeks of PTO, but that includes "sick time". Some companies treat those separately. However, I don't allow my employees to use PTO for sick time. I don't agree with the policy of encouraging people to come in to the office and spread their illness. When my staff are sick, they stay home and I don't report the time taken.

Tep--do consider going out tonight, only because I know this event gives you great pleasure, and being with folks who don't actually CARE about your work, since they barely know you, might help put the douchenozzles in perspective.

I can't assume that every industry is like biotechs, that's for sure. We start with 3.5 weeks of PTO, but that includes "sick time"

Heh. And javachik, not every company in biotech is like generous--I interviewed with one that gave 15 days PTO. Total. I was like "...you've got to be fucking kidding me. That's it? Sick AND vacation?" My first company in DC you started with 24 days of PTO. It was sweet. We didn't get tons of vacation days, but damn. My first company out here in Seattle, I think it was something like 20 days, but you also got the week between Christmas and New Year's off?