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Bay Area cities are cracking down on free food at tech companies

businessinsider.com

61–70 of 533 posts

Re: Bay Area cities are cracking down on free food at tech companies

#61
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The stupid thing is that most of the tech companies, outside of the giant ones, get their food from local retailers.

This proposal would ban the construction of office cafeterias so if you're just serving free catered food (which is what most small and medium companies do, I'd guess) it's fine.

What's the minimum they can charge?

Re: Bay Area cities are cracking down on free food at tech companies

#62
post #12

as someone who works in a place a solid few miles from restaurants, and has a break room with a few microwaves/a toaster oven as well as a vending machine with gas station tier food... how common are workplace cafeterias like this? is it just sv megacompanies or is it smaller firms across the country?

I've worked in several places with on-site cafeterias (IBM, a former IBM site, THD, McKesson, Infostrada, Swisscom). None of them were free tho.

Re: Bay Area cities are cracking down on free food at tech companies

#63
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing in the constitution says that a jurisdiction can’t ban free food.

You can’t tell corporations how to spend their money either, as money is a form of speech. Isn’t that the gist of the Citizens United decision?

You can definitely tell a corporation how to spend their money, just not as a way to limit protected speech. That's pretty much all zoning laws are after all restrictions on how people and corporations can spend their money.

Re: Bay Area cities are cracking down on free food at tech companies

#64
post #7

Can anyone comment on the legality of this? IANAL and it’s just a feeling, but it seems like this must be unconstitutional somehow?

Nothing in the constitution says that a jurisdiction can’t ban free food.

The food isn't really free but part of the compensation package.

Next thing you know they're going to ban the office supply cabinet and if you need pens or paperclips you need to take a trip to the local Staples.

Re: Bay Area cities are cracking down on free food at tech companies

#65

My bet is that it makes no difference. FB workers are rich, and they'll not want to eat every day in the caf, and they'll be out and about as much as they would otherwise. The alternative won't be 'restos' it will be 'the microwave'.

It's going to make a huge difference in terms of FB's appeal to potential employees. Who wants to work at FB if it means that you'll have to waste time and energy figuring out what to do for lunch every day?

Re: Bay Area cities are cracking down on free food at tech companies

#66
Company-provided lunch provides an opportunity to build relationship among the coworkers. Most people do not says "no" to free lunch, especially if it's good. So, they naturally sit down together to eat.

When I worked at a company that offered free lunch, the company used it to help build rapport and camaraderie among the coworkers. It's one time during the day when the entire team can sit down and eat lunch together and get to know about each other, which is not possible through Slack nor via meetings. Just hanging out with everyone on the team, talking about the latest Marvel movie or Star wars, etc. It was also about convenience as well as reducing stress and decisions on an already-busy day.

If the team still wants to do lunch together everyday at an outside restaurant, it would not be easy, especially the logistics, which would be a nightmare -- getting everyone to agree on one place where everyone likes their food, finding a place that can seat the entire group at a single table, finding transportation / assigning driver/riders if it's beyond walking distance, and having to divide the check afterward (or Venmo), etc. Just for a meal that lasts no more than an hour, top.

Re: Bay Area cities are cracking down on free food at tech companies

#67
I don't see any positive outcome to policy that tries to restrict benefits companies can offer? In a nation where many companies don't offer the greatest benefits anyway, it seems rather atrocious.

I get that this is localized in an area that has companies that probably offer better benefits than most others, but the idea of restricting benefits at all seems ludicrous to me

Re: Bay Area cities are cracking down on free food at tech companies

#68
post #6
post #4

Talk about fascist capitalism. If I ran these companies I'd make everything cost one cent and have a giant barrel of pennies just sitting around with "take what you need" written in it. It's not free anymore. Problem solved.

That's taxable income then, no?

If food is taxed there, then yes. I think Google, FB, etc. can afford it. They can afford to give out free meals after all.

Re: Bay Area cities are cracking down on free food at tech companies

#69
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>It will fail on the long term, as more and more companies question the wisdom of setting up shops in the Valley and California in general, and move to locations with much lower tax and restrictions, such as Austin TX. But that will only last a decade or two before they turn Austin (or wherever) into SF 2.0 and all the business goes elsewhere.

> But that will only last a decade or two before they turn Austin (or wherever) into SF 2.0 and all the business goes elsewhere. I don't think local government in Texas is as amenable to well-meaning but ultimately intrusive and disruptive policies like in Northern California.

By the time Austin is SF2.0 local government in Austin will be made up of all the same clowns that make up local government in SF. CA was like Texas once upon a time.

Re: Bay Area cities are cracking down on free food at tech companies

#70
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But that will only last a decade or two before they turn Austin (or wherever) into SF 2.0 and all the business goes elsewhere. I don't think local government in Texas is as amenable to well-meaning but ultimately intrusive and disruptive policies like in Northern California.

By the time Austin is SF2.0 local government in Austin will be made up of all the same clowns that make up local government in SF. CA was like Texas once upon a time.

You think? In my opinion, it's the manifestation of the hippy culture of the 60s and 70s.

California was never a hands-off state, never had the hands-off tradition that Texas had.

I don't see any reason to expect that the same stuff would happen in TX.

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