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Working at Netflix 2017

brendangregg.com

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Re: Working at Netflix 2017

#81

Post by sqeaky »

dionidium wrote: post #60
pmiller2 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By "culture of fear," do you mean the way they stated their willingness to let anyone go if doing so better meets the company's needs than retaining them? That's just what all large companies do; they're just making it explicit.

As humans we do all sorts of things that it would be monstrous to state as explicit policy. Be careful with this justification.

Is it more monstrous do do a bad thing then lie about it or to do a bad thing and own up to it, including the criticism?

Can we even say firing slackers is bad?

Re: Working at Netflix 2017

#83

Post by Teichopsia »

RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote: post #66
mimsee wrote: post #3

> We don't do anything shady, and we're proud of that. We're an honest company. Maybe not shady, but surely controversial. [0]: https://www.w3.org/TR/encrypted-media/ [1]: https://blog.archive.org/2017/04/18/drm-for-the-web-is-a-bad... [2]: https://www.defectivebydesign.org/drm-in-web-standards

There are many shady tech company practices: * Open sexual harassment culture * Building spy software for the government * Selling censorship tools to governments * Selling your private data to advertisers * Allowing advertisers to target a person's emotional state * Profiting off of fake news and click bait * Tracking people across the web * Using monopolies to limit competition in other realms * Strong arming third…

Could you re-phrase this somehow? I'm not sure if you are talking about companies in general or Netflix.

Edit: I rather ask than make an assumption. Thanks for the confirmation.

Re: Working at Netflix 2017

#84

Post by brendangregg »

foepys wrote: post #55

This might be a bit off-topic but I heard that Netflix pays pretty well, even compared to other SV tech firms. Why does the author only have a pretty small desk directly at a (what I assume) small recreational area? Is this considered a normal desk at a top SV tech firm? I'd probably go nuts after a few days because people are constantly passing by and are talking while I want to concentrate on work. I'm from Germany…

The norm in SV (from visits to other companies) seems to be open office layout -- desks everywhere without walls or dividers. Ours is more private, I think it's called "semi-open", and out of shot behind me is a carpet-wall-thing that's about 5.5 feet high. So I'd say Netflix is a bit more private than the norm.

I don't know what happened to private offices in SV. Sun Microsystems had a private office for every engineer, but Facebook tore them down when they took over. (I gave a talk at Facebook and included a floor plan from the Sun days: https://www.slideshare.net/brendangregg/linux-bpf-superpower... )

Re: Working at Netflix 2017

#85

Post by sqeaky »

lscotte wrote: post #52
fooey wrote: post #11

Netflix's culture deck is one of the most horrific things in the tech industry I've ever seen. It's so ruthlessly mercenary, I have a hard time understanding how why people put up with them.

I actually found the culture deck refreshing and attractive and a big part of why I joined Netflix. There's nothing ruthless about getting rid of people who aren't doing their jobs.

I have had to work with willfully incompetent people who could not be fired. I will not do it again. I have been contracting the past decade and it lets me fire the company when I am done.

Neither nor the company have any illusions this is anything other than business relationship: I make code I get money, done.

I don't want to fail because I need to drag dead weight around.

Re: Working at Netflix 2017

#86

Post by overcast »

sqeaky wrote: post #78
overcast wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, so we'll make it stupid simple for people to do. A giant, unencrypted library of movies, that can be saved and redistributed. Pirating exists, but if I asked most people how to do it, they still wouldn't know how to download a torrent client, find the torrent, unpack the movie, get a movie player, etc.. You know how locks on your front door keeps the honest thieves out? Same idea. I've never understood the com…

The point where things break because of it. It hasn't happened with Netflix on any large scale, yet. But it has happened in the past. There are videos games that are single player and can't be played without an active connection back to the publisher. What happens when the publisher doesn't like you or mislabels you as a pirate? What if you just want to play the video game you bought and payed fro without an Internet…

You're comparing a subscription service to a game that you purchased a license for. The former you're not entitled to a copy of, the latter you are. With or without DRM, companies are also entitled to revoke your licenses regardless. You don't own any of it. DRM would also not exist, if it wasn't for everyone stealing the stuff. Do you really think companies want to pour all of the money and resources into this, if they didn't have to? Should games even have keys without DRM? What if I lose the key, and the company folded years ago. Now I can't play the game because they dared to require a key to play. Is your solution making everything openly available to download, and just relying on the goodness of the human heart to pay for it? Good luck.

Re: Working at Netflix 2017

#88

Post by jhasse »

Teichopsia wrote: post #83
RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are many shady tech company practices: * Open sexual harassment culture * Building spy software for the government * Selling censorship tools to governments * Selling your private data to advertisers * Allowing advertisers to target a person's emotional state * Profiting off of fake news and click bait * Tracking people across the web * Using monopolies to limit competition in other realms * Strong arming third…

Could you re-phrase this somehow? I'm not sure if you are talking about companies in general or Netflix. Edit: I rather ask than make an assumption. Thanks for the confirmation.

His last sentence should make it clear that he wasnt talking about netflix, shouldnt it?

Re: Working at Netflix 2017

#89

Post by ethbro »

Teichopsia wrote: post #83
RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are many shady tech company practices: * Open sexual harassment culture * Building spy software for the government * Selling censorship tools to governments * Selling your private data to advertisers * Allowing advertisers to target a person's emotional state * Profiting off of fake news and click bait * Tracking people across the web * Using monopolies to limit competition in other realms * Strong arming third…

Could you re-phrase this somehow? I'm not sure if you are talking about companies in general or Netflix. Edit: I rather ask than make an assumption. Thanks for the confirmation.

Strongly assume parent was referring to all those things that are done at other companies... vs the 720p issue at Netflix.

On the other hand, if Netflix has managed to reimplement the NSA's dragnet internally, I'm going to be really impressed by their engineers' productivity.

Re: Working at Netflix 2017

#90

Post by ryandrake »

bmwe30is wrote: post #56
zerr wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you factor in stocks, bonuses, healthcare and benefits the pay is same as in any other big N companies. Add family-friendliness, job stability to the list and you have much more than Netflix offers.

I would venture to say that our family-friendliness, stability, and benefits are on par (if not better) than other large companies. Everyone takes whatever time off they need. There's no guilt associated - we always shun folks that check email and chat channels when they take vacation. I personally appreciate cash directly in my pocket versus a gym, yoga rooms, and toys scattered about in the office. I come to the of…

> I also appreciate the sense of mobility in my career. I don't have to wait four+ years for stock options to vest. Four years is a very long time in any tech company.

On the flip side, you also don't want to be faced with a massive drop in your take-home pay after the 4th year (once salary+RSU becomes just salary), forcing you to jump ship. I've been to a few "vesting parties" for co-workers where they quit after exactly 4 years to the day. I'm told some companies are known to do "evergreen grants" to help mitigate this effect.

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