Can everyone in this thread stop assuming Facebook employees are rich? There are plenty of non-engineering employees who make $50K for example and the free meals offer a huge benefit to them and even their families.
Bay Area cities are cracking down on free food at tech companies
241–250 of 533 posts
Re: Bay Area cities are cracking down on free food at tech companies
#242I'm sorry but this is so f*cking stupid. As a Bay Area resident my priorities are the cost of housing, cleaning our dirty streets and alleviating traffic congestion. This is an example of progressivism gone awry. Solving the basics is incredibly important. Our quality of life is in decline (in the bay area) and this is the best our politicians can do? I'm enraged.
Yes, but are you going to do anything about it? If you work at one of the big tech companies in the bay area, chances are you either cannot vote or you're only ever going to vote for the incumbent party, so what does it matter to them if they piss you off?
> you're only ever going to vote for the incumbent party, so what does it matter to them if they piss you off?
Primaries!
Re: Bay Area cities are cracking down on free food at tech companies
#243Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, but are you going to do anything about it? If you work at one of the big tech companies in the bay area, chances are you either cannot vote or you're only ever going to vote for the incumbent party, so what does it matter to them if they piss you off?
For the SF locals, it's usually democrats vs democrats, so party affiliation doesn't really matter. Because of this, inucumbents are much more easily voted out of office on the supervisor level (which is where this is coming from). So... vote when you can!
This is true but the Bay Area local democrats will be the majority. Hell, you're pretty much a republican in their eyes as a tech worker.
This will continue to be a thing as long as the upper-middle class isolates themselves through Uber / Lyft, fancy restaurants, and private shuttles. What's ironic is there are lot of upper-middle class people who live this lifestyle who aren't in tech but still shit on tech. Tech gets the bad wrap because it's the narrative. We have to start proving people wrong.
Re: Bay Area cities are cracking down on free food at tech companies
#244> The ban wouldn't be retroactive, however, so on-site food at companies like Google and Twitter would still be available Cool, so start-ups lose a potential hiring perk to the incumbents. (Does anyone know the story behind this bill? Which politicians and restaurants supported it? I’d like to avoid the latter going forward.)
>Cool, so start-ups lose a potential hiring perk to the incumbents. They could just do something similar to what colleges do: - increase salaries just a bit - but the increased salary goes to a food card - employees can't easily turn this into cash - you swipe it and "pay" - the company is essentially paying for the employee's food Money changes hands, but no one is at a net loss than what a free food perk would cost…
Problem is the employee is taxed on those funds AND those funds aren’t tax deductible for the employer like dine in (50%) or in house food (100%) so it’s nowhere near comperable.
Re: Bay Area cities are cracking down on free food at tech companies
#245Earlier quoted context omitted.
I really wonder what it will take to kill this Golden Goose. Bay area employees are already a big premium over employees in other areas, but companies still really want to be here. No free food is almost asinine... but it's not a big thing compared to the extra cost in salaries.
I'm wondering the same. Two growing trends that I'm observing: 1. Businesses moving out of California, especially NorCal. Sergey Brin already said two years ago that he would not have started Google in NorCal today. He was right. There's a lot more interest in other locations, such as Austin. 2. Remote work, and fully remote virtual offices. Personally I know a bunch of people who declined offers in the SFBay to avoi…
1. I was reading articles about people and companies picking up and moving out of California to places like Nevada...thirty years ago. California is still there, packed as ever.
2. Been hearing that for thirty years, too.
Now, that’s not to say that there isn’t a breaking point, I just don’t think we’re there yet. CA might be willing to amputate a leg or a wing, but there’s too much gold in the goose to kill it all at once.
Re: Bay Area cities are cracking down on free food at tech companies
#246Earlier quoted context omitted.
If all tech workers went out for lunch every day that would be a huge boon to the local low skill labor market.
So over 20,000 employees would leave the Googleplex every day at noon to get lunch? This just means the next massive campus complex will not open in Mountain View. Big profitable companies and their hordes of tax paying employees will go elsewhere, and definitely will not be supporting MTV's local businesses. Welcome to the wonderful world of unintended consequences!
As a Mountain View resident who has to drive on Shoreline, please no! This would be disastrous. It's already a mess at 9 a.m. every day thanks to Google. I have to leave to get to work super early just to get on the freeway before the Google traffic makes me drive a 1 mile stretch in 1/2 hour.
Re: Bay Area cities are cracking down on free food at tech companies
#247I'm sorry but this is so f*cking stupid. As a Bay Area resident my priorities are the cost of housing, cleaning our dirty streets and alleviating traffic congestion. This is an example of progressivism gone awry. Solving the basics is incredibly important. Our quality of life is in decline (in the bay area) and this is the best our politicians can do? I'm enraged.
It would be nice if politicians had to disclose conflicts of interest when proposing legislation. I'm sure this shot to the top of the priority list not out of some moral imperative, but because someone somewhere was losing a buck, or could make a buck if this passed.
... Peskin is many things, but he's not someone who proposed legislation because someone bought him off.
Re: Bay Area cities are cracking down on free food at tech companies
#248Earlier quoted context omitted.
So over 20,000 employees would leave the Googleplex every day at noon to get lunch? This just means the next massive campus complex will not open in Mountain View. Big profitable companies and their hordes of tax paying employees will go elsewhere, and definitely will not be supporting MTV's local businesses. Welcome to the wonderful world of unintended consequences!
Is there anything stopping the next campus from opening a restaurant and not charging their employees?
Isn't a company restaurant that doesn't charge employees the same thing as a company cafeteria?
Re: Bay Area cities are cracking down on free food at tech companies
#249Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm wondering the same. Two growing trends that I'm observing: 1. Businesses moving out of California, especially NorCal. Sergey Brin already said two years ago that he would not have started Google in NorCal today. He was right. There's a lot more interest in other locations, such as Austin. 2. Remote work, and fully remote virtual offices. Personally I know a bunch of people who declined offers in the SFBay to avoi…
There is no truth to your assertion that companies will be leaving Bay. Google, Facebook, Salesforce etc. are actually massively expanding their Bay Area footprint. Google is expanding their Mountain View and building a massive new headquarters https://sf.curbed.com/2017/3/8/14858200/google-headquarters-... Google is also expanding into San Jose Apple just recently completed their spaceship campus Facebook is massive…
Salesforce's tower is mostly going to be rented to other tenants. The company will largely maintain distributed office space in the Financial District.
Re: Bay Area cities are cracking down on free food at tech companies
#250> The ban wouldn't be retroactive, however, so on-site food at companies like Google and Twitter would still be available Cool, so start-ups lose a potential hiring perk to the incumbents. (Does anyone know the story behind this bill? Which politicians and restaurants supported it? I’d like to avoid the latter going forward.)
>Cool, so start-ups lose a potential hiring perk to the incumbents. They could just do something similar to what colleges do: - increase salaries just a bit - but the increased salary goes to a food card - employees can't easily turn this into cash - you swipe it and "pay" - the company is essentially paying for the employee's food Money changes hands, but no one is at a net loss than what a free food perk would cost…
Would this card be used at the company cafeteria, or at local restaurants?
If it's the former, then I think it's still "free food".
If it's the latter, then it removes much of the benefit of the company providing the meal -- keeping employees on-campus and near their desks longer. I like my company's free food since it's easy to walk down the hall and eat a quick lunch between meetings, no need to take an hour to head off campus to a local restaurant. I don't care that the food is "free", but that it's fast and convenient.