Key for me: -Good pay/benefits -Competent management that doesn't micromanage -Flexible scheduling and a thought process along the lines of "you don't necessarily have to work 40 hours a week as long as you are getting your work done". Obviously, though, if someone only "needs" to work 10 hours a week they should be asking for more work...there has to be some common sense about it. -***Hiring people who can handle not being micromanaged and can be trusted to ask for more work and not abuse the flexible schedule.*** I feel very lucky to work where I do. Management trusts us and while things aren't quite as flexible as I'd like (WFH is mostly a no-no), our work-life balance is really good and the cherry on top is a decent wage/good amount of vacation days.

1) It could be considered fair if the senior developer can get the same amount of money after spending a month getting up to speed on this new technology.
2)I guess there might not be training out yet...but I have to imagine it would be cheaper overall to either send the senior to training or buy them the tools needed for them to learn the technology. That new hot tech won't be new and hot in a few years (it'll either be obsolete or a lot more people will know it( and you'll be stuck paying out the wazoo for a barely out of college kid.

I wouldn't say it would turn students off to have a CS class that didn't involved programming or theory...it just won't turn them on and get them to understand what one would be doing with a degree in computer science (if they continued CS into college). I signed up for CS classes in high school as a girl who knew nothing about computers. I didn't really know what I was getting into, all I knew was that I thought computers and video games were cool. Luckily, the classes I took involved programming (pascal/VB 6.0) and I found that I thoroughly enjoyed coding and went on to major in C.S in college. Now, if I had taken a "CS" course that was just typing or something non-programming related, I most likely wouldn't have known what I was missing and wouldn't have jumped into a CS major in college.

The parent is modded as funny, but the end result of the Christmas get together with my extended family is essentially the same. We make lists of what we want and there is a spending limit. So everyone picks a name and goes out and spends 50 bucks or w/e on a gift that the other person has written down and then during Christmas everyone gets a gift (something on the list they wrote so it's not exactly a surprise) worth that 50 or so bucks they previously spent. It's like we take 50 bucks and just pass it one person to our left at Christmas...really ridiculous and I've opted out the past few years.

I don't understand the point of gifts if they aren't a surprise or if there is the expectation of getting or having to give something in return. My husband and I don't do Christmas gifts to each other...instead we'll randomly get each other things throughout the year if we are feeling generous. For example, my husband loves to wakeboard and really wanted this shirt that says "got wake?". However, we give ourselves a "fun" budget each month and he had spent a lot of his fun money and needed to save up even more so he ended up not getting the shirt. I knew that he wanted it and I had the money and wanted to get him something so I secretly ordered it. When it arrived he was super excited and surprised. That's how I prefer to do gifts:).

I had the same kind of experience, though it was kind of random and not because I was taking martial arts. For a few months, my average "can't get away" nightmare turned into me doing some serious damage to the people trying to hurt me. I jammed a broken broom stick through one person's neck, stabbed someone with a scissors, killed this army commando guy by jamming a green spray paint can down his throat and spraying paint into him (my personal favorite)...among a few other things. I still woke up a little disturbed because of the violence involved, but being able to actually do something about being attacked felt great.