The Silicon Valley culture was aimed at attracting younger talent away from established companies, with childish perks like free food and video games, and a less rigid work structure. But it was never going be sustainable. At the core, the ‘promise’ that these new tech companies alluded to one day had to actually appear. And the slow creep of government regulation was always going to catch up too.
I always assumed most of these large companies would adapt and survive but it’s looking increasingly like they will not, or cannot.
No it was to keep them on campus and working. Oracle was doing that to keep butts in seats at work & minimize time going to dry cleaners or even dental appointments. Come early for breakfast and also get fed dinnner along with your long hours—on campus.
The most challenging thing I found at a large tech company was building and maintaining relationships. Grabbing food with coworkers on campus is a cheat code for this. Similarly if I visited a new office, I was guaranteed to be able to do the same thing with partner teams.
Almost no one doesn’t mean no one. There’s been so much growth in the industry in the past 20 years that even if everyone working in 2001 was still working now, I wouldn’t be surprised if they were a small minority compared to the sea of new talent
> As long as tech companies remain fantastically profitable the culture will not change.
I think it’s slowly changing. Maybe not getting “boring” and stodgy but changing. The culture from fb and goog in 2005 of crazy perks like food is probably going away. It’s probably be replaced with new things, like WFH and super funded 401ks and cushy healthcare. It’s a sign of an aging workforce and a changing WFH first culture. Eg Google provided digital (and pricy) reusable Covid test kits to everyone during the pandemic.
Software is one of the best tools we have for dealing with human communication issues (in a variety of ways). While there might not be many iPhone / fb / twitter size jackpots out there (until the next hardware growth enables new opportunities), there’s still tons of human communication problems to be solved.
Software is ultimately about replacing inefficient human communication and we still have a lot of that.
I am of exactly opposite view. Software is about replacing organic direct human communication. Since computers came under roofs streets are empty & local communities died out. Breaking up through electronic channel, creating fake digital public face being examples.
> And as petty a thing as, “We’re going to give you smaller to-go boxes so you can’t take the steak we’re giving you and go feed your family with it.”
That's not "petty" – people shouldn't have been doing that in the first place. A take-home box should be for you, not so you can pile up food to "feed your family".
Some of the criticism doesn't make sense: Providing food, amenities, even accommodation has been a method with which private and state organizations around the world used to cut their costs and better the life standards of their members since the dawn of the modern economy after the industrial revolution.
Especially for organizations that have thousands of employees in one location, providing a cafeteria can be much cheaper for both the employees and the organization than thousands of employees going out to eat in private establishments at lunch time. The organization providing housing to employees to work around the bloated real estate sector can also be beneficial to the employeees and the organization. Similarly, Apple mulling its own health services is a good idea - they can reduce their costs and increase quality of life.
Its economies of scale after all. If you have tens of thousands of organization members in a location, it becomes an economy of scale that can reduce every member's and organization's costs directly.
If you do not provide such services to your members using economies of scale inside your organization and instead leave it to the free market by giving monetary compensation instead, you can bet that the free market will do everything in its power to suck all of that monetary compensation out of the hands of the employees by providing the minimum service in return to maximize profit.
This used to be handled by having a non-free cafeteria.
The cafeteria will still be cheaper for employees than going out to restaurants, and it will be cheaper than the company picking up the tab for everyone.
It used to be common to make a lunch and bring it to work too.
This recent stuff that tech workers are entitled to a free meal at work or to go spend an hour+ to go to a restaurant for lunch every day is a very new thing.
> And as petty a thing as, “We’re going to give you smaller to-go boxes so you can’t take the steak we’re giving you and go feed your family with it.”
That's what she thinks is petty? I wonder if she feels the same about replacing snack bars and drink fridges with free vending machines to slow down the workers who fill their backpacks full of Odwalla, Monster, and expensive snacks every night.
These benefits were worthwhile when employees appreciated them, but appeasing increasingly hostile and entitled workers is a losing battle.
I can't remember how long ago it was.. before Google and Facebook started pushing crazy benefits Microsoft was kind of famous for it. MS's level of it back in the day was much lower than today, but still generous for the time.
At some point they had to stop as they had caught employees emptying the free drink fridges and taking them off campus and reselling them.
So they had to stop offering that stuff. Though I'm sure they had to re-add it later.
The Facebook/Google crazy level of perks with 3 meals provided very day, dry cleaning, massages, etc.. ? Free alcohol in the office? That stuff can go, and people will have to deal with.
Some of the other stuff like untracked/unlimited PTO (It's never really unlimited) and free coffee and snacks is nice to have.
I'm in my 40s. I started internships in 1996. All this free food and alcohol, etc.. didn't exist till around 2010.
We would have occasional "hey we're working late so we're getting pizza" in the 1990s and 2000s. We would have "hey we're having a BYOB in the cafeteria friday afternoon." Not this constant culture stuff that constantly wasted tons of money. But Coffee has always been free & around.
It does seem like younger workers who have only experienced the current environment have gotten entitled to it. We used to have crunch time and working weekends and all that nonsense and we didn't have the perks. Sometimes the companies ran out of money anyway. Tougher times can kind of suck. But it still makes these jobs great. They always paid really well. You were still sitting in front of a computer and not stuck doing physical labor.
>The Facebook/Google crazy level of perks with 3 meals provided very day, dry cleaning, massages, etc
I worked for Google at the campus on Crittenden for a short stint in 2015. We had a few folks keep the kegerator stocked with their home brews and a wall of liquor one could sample as needed. I kept the kitchenette stocked with hot sauce on my own accord b/c I wanted to have some handy.
I'm also in my (late) 40s and all of these little perks were very new to me. I quickly grew accustomed to them, but to be honest I didn't miss a single one of them after I left. I don't know that they really moved the needle for me at all.
Except for the shuttle. I *loved* having the shuttle. It greatly simplified the ability to not have a car for the first time in my adult life and it was awesome.
Yeah. This article is repeating the classic rationale established companies use coming into each downturn: Growth is over forever, so let's burn the seed corn.
Fast forward a few years, and a crop of startups (that innovated while the incumbents belt-tightened) blindside previously unassailable monopolies.
I find it kind of ironic that they use Facebook and Google as examples in the article.
Remember when FB bought the Sun campus, stripped it to concrete walls, and grafitti'ed the hell out of it? Google HQ is the fossilized remains of the SGI campus.
The big question now is: Who is going to dethrone the current rudderless big tech companies, and how will they do it?
hobbitstan|3 years ago
I always assumed most of these large companies would adapt and survive but it’s looking increasingly like they will not, or cannot.
IOT_Apprentice|3 years ago
addisonl|3 years ago
Ahh yes, food, such a childish thing.
fsociety|3 years ago
exabrial|3 years ago
1letterunixname|3 years ago
incanus77|3 years ago
Oh?
rzazueta|3 years ago
lovich|3 years ago
easterncalculus|3 years ago
wageslv|3 years ago
tflinton|3 years ago
encoderer|3 years ago
I see this as just a sour grapes piece from a journalist who has to cover tech from outside the bubble.
vineyardmike|3 years ago
I think it’s slowly changing. Maybe not getting “boring” and stodgy but changing. The culture from fb and goog in 2005 of crazy perks like food is probably going away. It’s probably be replaced with new things, like WFH and super funded 401ks and cushy healthcare. It’s a sign of an aging workforce and a changing WFH first culture. Eg Google provided digital (and pricy) reusable Covid test kits to everyone during the pandemic.
unknown|3 years ago
[deleted]
2devnull|3 years ago
rajin444|3 years ago
Software is ultimately about replacing inefficient human communication and we still have a lot of that.
Ebree|3 years ago
bumbledraven|3 years ago
That's not "petty" – people shouldn't have been doing that in the first place. A take-home box should be for you, not so you can pile up food to "feed your family".
unity1001|3 years ago
Especially for organizations that have thousands of employees in one location, providing a cafeteria can be much cheaper for both the employees and the organization than thousands of employees going out to eat in private establishments at lunch time. The organization providing housing to employees to work around the bloated real estate sector can also be beneficial to the employeees and the organization. Similarly, Apple mulling its own health services is a good idea - they can reduce their costs and increase quality of life.
Its economies of scale after all. If you have tens of thousands of organization members in a location, it becomes an economy of scale that can reduce every member's and organization's costs directly.
If you do not provide such services to your members using economies of scale inside your organization and instead leave it to the free market by giving monetary compensation instead, you can bet that the free market will do everything in its power to suck all of that monetary compensation out of the hands of the employees by providing the minimum service in return to maximize profit.
ben7799|3 years ago
The cafeteria will still be cheaper for employees than going out to restaurants, and it will be cheaper than the company picking up the tab for everyone.
It used to be common to make a lunch and bring it to work too.
This recent stuff that tech workers are entitled to a free meal at work or to go spend an hour+ to go to a restaurant for lunch every day is a very new thing.
dahdum|3 years ago
That's what she thinks is petty? I wonder if she feels the same about replacing snack bars and drink fridges with free vending machines to slow down the workers who fill their backpacks full of Odwalla, Monster, and expensive snacks every night.
These benefits were worthwhile when employees appreciated them, but appeasing increasingly hostile and entitled workers is a losing battle.
ben7799|3 years ago
At some point they had to stop as they had caught employees emptying the free drink fridges and taking them off campus and reselling them.
So they had to stop offering that stuff. Though I'm sure they had to re-add it later.
ben7799|3 years ago
Some of the other stuff like untracked/unlimited PTO (It's never really unlimited) and free coffee and snacks is nice to have.
I'm in my 40s. I started internships in 1996. All this free food and alcohol, etc.. didn't exist till around 2010.
We would have occasional "hey we're working late so we're getting pizza" in the 1990s and 2000s. We would have "hey we're having a BYOB in the cafeteria friday afternoon." Not this constant culture stuff that constantly wasted tons of money. But Coffee has always been free & around.
It does seem like younger workers who have only experienced the current environment have gotten entitled to it. We used to have crunch time and working weekends and all that nonsense and we didn't have the perks. Sometimes the companies ran out of money anyway. Tougher times can kind of suck. But it still makes these jobs great. They always paid really well. You were still sitting in front of a computer and not stuck doing physical labor.
jcims|3 years ago
I worked for Google at the campus on Crittenden for a short stint in 2015. We had a few folks keep the kegerator stocked with their home brews and a wall of liquor one could sample as needed. I kept the kitchenette stocked with hot sauce on my own accord b/c I wanted to have some handy.
I'm also in my (late) 40s and all of these little perks were very new to me. I quickly grew accustomed to them, but to be honest I didn't miss a single one of them after I left. I don't know that they really moved the needle for me at all.
Except for the shuttle. I *loved* having the shuttle. It greatly simplified the ability to not have a car for the first time in my adult life and it was awesome.
1letterunixname|3 years ago
P_I_Staker|3 years ago
skyde|3 years ago
toss1|3 years ago
gumby|3 years ago
hedora|3 years ago
Fast forward a few years, and a crop of startups (that innovated while the incumbents belt-tightened) blindside previously unassailable monopolies.
I find it kind of ironic that they use Facebook and Google as examples in the article.
Remember when FB bought the Sun campus, stripped it to concrete walls, and grafitti'ed the hell out of it? Google HQ is the fossilized remains of the SGI campus.
The big question now is: Who is going to dethrone the current rudderless big tech companies, and how will they do it?
2devnull|3 years ago