[speaker001:] uh so uh what are your benefits like at your job and how do you feel about them
[speaker002:] uh pretty good actually I work for Hewlett Packard and they have uh a pretty good uh benefits package in fact they're they're kind of known uh for having good benefits the pay isn't fabulous although I saw a survey recently and I'm actually making just about as much as you know I'm making making actually over average over the average for my career my experience and all that stuff which kind of surprised me so
[speaker001:] oh that's good uh-huh what kind of a degree have you got
[speaker002:] I've got a Bachelor's in electrical engineering so
[speaker001:] oh
[speaker002:] and I'm not like a hugely advanced degree or any of that stuff
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] uh anyway the our benefits are pretty good we've got stock purchase program and a that that's pretty generous although you have to hold the stock for two years
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] before you get the company contribution which is kind of a a pain but uh there's a four O one K plan uh for uh sheltering some taxable income
[speaker001:] uh-huh uh-huh
[speaker002:] uh there's
[speaker001:] how long have you been with them
[speaker002:] I've been with them for seven years
[speaker001:] uh that's good
[speaker002:] yeah and the best thing and a lot of the stuff the best thing is like four years or five years it's pretty soon you're completely vested in the retirement plan and everything
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] so uh it's not too but there's full uh there there's several medical plans to choose from uh that cover pretty much everything I don't get sick that often so I don't pay much of it but you know I pay five dollars every time I visit the the hospital
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] that you know for a checkup or whatever
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] um they don't cover eyes though and I I have contact lenses so that's kind of a pain
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] but you know I I can live
[speaker001:] but for for all practical purpose you are almost a hundred percent covered
[speaker002:] oh yeah yeah
[speaker001:] so that you've got got small small things to gripe about
[speaker002:] right
[speaker001:] wow well that sounds like you must feel really good about it
[speaker002:] and yeah yeah and and the dental plan is fabulous the dental plan I pay absolutely nothing
[speaker001:] wow
[speaker002:] because uh I I guess they would charge a little bit if there was some orthodontia or something for one of my dependents or something like that but that's not the case so I guess nothing it's fabulous
[speaker001:] uh-huh uh-huh wow
[speaker002:] uh the what about you
[speaker001:] well I uh work in Washington at the Naval Research Laboratory I also have a part time job at a law firm and I get no benefits from them at to the part time work although they pay better per hour
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] than my my sort of quote real job does uh and benefits through the government are uh really uh they just uh they're not the greatest uh I before I I uh uh got my degree I'm uh computer a computer scientist
[speaker002:] uh uh-huh
[speaker001:] and before I got my degree I had uh done paralegal work for law firms here in Washington and uh
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] at that time I was in gravy city uh the law firms in this town are not you know for a long time were just rolling in the dough in the early eighties and uh benefits were just amazing and
[speaker002:] yeah uh-huh
[speaker001:] we had everything paid for and uh anyway with the government it's not uh quite that nice a deal uh but it's you know it's it's okay what we have to do is we have to pay uh about twenty percent of our uh uh our costs and it's deducted from our check each month and that sort of thing and the plans that are available to us uh range from kind of mediocre to really sweet and uh so I I think I'm actually involved in a relatively good plan plan at this point um but uh it could be better that's for sure and
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] uh but you know there there are other things that you get when you work for the government I uh in in terms of uh more relaxed atmosphere it's really nice to be for me anyway to be able to work in uh a research atmosphere uh where I don't have to uh uh you know worry about uh academics or anything like that and so I'm I'm really kind of happy about that end of of things it's uh
[speaker002:] yeah the one of the things with my company is that they've uh got a reputation for a lot of job security and uh there's a lot of different
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] things that they do lot of different divisions even this area in the San Francisco Bay Area that they do so there's uh I myself have moved around quite a bit within the company
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] and it's and I and I haven't had to move my residence to do that you know I still live in San Jose and
[speaker001:] wow that's fabulous you see now that's that's interesting because I have a cousin whose husband works for Hewlett Packard up in the Massachusetts area he he lives in Andover
[speaker002:] yeah it oh yeah yeah uh-huh
[speaker001:] and uh the work that he he's uh specifically an engineer and and does work with uh the Hewlett Packard machines that do uh uh sonographic imagining
[speaker002:] right
[speaker001:] and uh I've been over to see his complex over there and it's amazing it's it's all ecologically designed and and uh he seems really really happy with the the set up
[speaker002:] um yeah yeah in fact I know a guy who works at Andover who used to work who I used to work with out here and he moved his family back east a few years ago to to take that position
[speaker001:] and uh-huh
[speaker002:] kind of interesting um uh anyhow