Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

businessinsider.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

521–530 of 533 posts

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

#521

Post by smsm42 »

kup0 wrote: post #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

This is especially funny if one remembers the genesis of fringe benefits in the US. Those proliferated after, in the years of WWII, the government moved to cap salaries paid by companies. The companies, looking to attract best workers, started to offer a variety of fringe benefits - health insurance, lodging, life insurance, free food, free clothes ("uniform"), etc.

The regulation treadmill never stops, there's always a need to introduce new regulation to fix things broken by the previous regulation.

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

#522

Post by GordonS »

sundaeofshock wrote: post #73
GordonS wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see what's anticompetitive about it - surely they buy the food they give out from local retailers?

A food wholesaler and a restaurant are two entirely different businesses.

What makes a restaurant a more 'worthy' business that a food retailer or wholesaler?

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

#523

Post by closeparen »

mschuster91 wrote: post #407
closeparen wrote: post #347

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I was a BART commuter, I walked a gauntlet of slumped-over hard drug users, sprawled-out homeless people, human urine, and feces every day. Fortunately, I've only seen people drop their pants and take a shit on the sidewalk in front of me twice. Missed a random stabbing on the stairwell into my station by about 5 minutes. This is Civic Center Station, which serves Twitter, Uber, and Square. No amount of tech wo…

> No amount of tech worker foot traffic is going to clean up an area if the government isn't willing to police it. And policing will just drive the problem somewhere else. What America desperately needs is a new approach to a lot of issues that goes way beyond ever more police, courts and jails: - drugs and addictions (now that enough white middle class people suffer from heroin or worse, something hopefully will be…

And until we discover and universally [0] implement that "new approach," public space will be avoided at all costs by those who can help it.

[0] San Francisco welcomes the downtrodden from everywhere in the world; it's not enough to solve poverty in the US to clean up SF's streets; you must eradicate it from every inch of the Earth.

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

#524

Post by infinite8s »

hueving wrote: post #498
JetSpiegel wrote: post #462

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If those employees can act in concert like you suggest, they could form an union.

Why do you think that's something any of those employees desire? They make significantly more money, have more benefits, and likely work fewer hours than any union employees in the US. Additionally, unions in the US tend to base pay on seniority rather than any kind of merit, which is a huge turn-off for ambitious people.

You realize actors work in a union?

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

#525

Post by perfmode »

stcredzero wrote: post #514
perfmode wrote: post #483

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i don’t believe it has to do with position on a dominance hierarchy. i think it has more to do with dignity.

i don’t believe it has to do with position on a dominance hierarchy. i think it has more to do with dignity. Those two are the same thing. Dignity == not being at the absolute bottom end of a dominance hierarchy. Since human society is very complex, there are many somewhat orthogonal dominance hierarchies. That revered old statesman in your esoteric music fandom might be a school janitor somewhere. Those local-star m…

being treated with dignity hasn’t nothing to do with one’s social status.

to be treated with dignity would be for the billionaire’s staff to escort the low status individuals with grace and provide food for them in a way that affords them respect while satisfying whatever other constraint which precludes the billionaire from involving these persons in the main event.

to risk ruining my point by being petty: sounds like a billionaire with no class.

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

#526

Post by falsedan »

flyingfences wrote: post #480
falsedan wrote: post #434

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We’re talking about SF, so unless your office is in Bayview/Visitacion/deep Outer Sunset|Richmond there’s a restaurant within 15 minutes walk

> within 15 minutes walk So, a half-hour round trip.

Yes, assuming a standard stride length of 0.7 metres and favourable traffic conditions, each lunch attendee could be expected to achieve 2900 steps. If travelling as a group there could be a minor social interaction every 4-10 steps thus leading to over 700 conversational actions which may help build camaraderie, strengthening team bonds and inproving the overall efficiency of the team.

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

#527

Post by therealdrag0 »

irq11 wrote: post #515
always_good wrote: post #358

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why were you under the impression that nobody here knew that was a possibility and needed an exceptional anecdote? The upstream comment even said free lunch "promoted" camaraderie, not "is the only way it can happen."

The original comment regarding “bonding” was equally anecdotal - you just agree with it, and therefore perceive it to be an argument. Rationally, there’s no inherent reason that free lunches promote “bonding”, and no inherent reason that teams that go out to lunch won’t bond. It’s just cargo culting and post hoc rationalization for people liking free food. Intellectual rigor is alive and well on HN.

I absolutely brushed shoulders with more coworkers when I worked at a company that had a cafeteria (this wasn't even free to us). My current teammates eat together sometimes, but unless it's an 'event' it's just 2-3 people, and always someone who wont go due to diet or financial reasons.

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

#528

Post by afarrell »

cynic_ wrote: post #485
afarrell wrote: post #472

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because it is hard to be effective at work when you are hungry

If you stop eating at a certain period every day, you'll stop feeling hungry.

you might stop feeling hungry, but you'll then get mysterious headaches or a sense of confusion and frustration you can't identify.

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

#529

Post by felix_nagaand »

perfmode wrote: post #525
stcredzero wrote: post #514

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i don’t believe it has to do with position on a dominance hierarchy. i think it has more to do with dignity. Those two are the same thing. Dignity == not being at the absolute bottom end of a dominance hierarchy. Since human society is very complex, there are many somewhat orthogonal dominance hierarchies. That revered old statesman in your esoteric music fandom might be a school janitor somewhere. Those local-star m…

being treated with dignity hasn’t nothing to do with one’s social status. to be treated with dignity would be for the billionaire’s staff to escort the low status individuals with grace and provide food for them in a way that affords them respect while satisfying whatever other constraint which precludes the billionaire from involving these persons in the main event. to risk ruining my point by being petty: sounds li…

Low social status has inherent indignities.

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

#530

Post by candiodari »

CPLX wrote: post #447
adrianN wrote: post #415

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not an inherent problem of public transit. It's just a symptom of failing to take care of poor people in your society. Try taking public transit in a civilized country like Germany or Japan.

We don't have this problem in New York. From an outside perspective at least San Francisco seems to be a uniquely fucked up place in this department.

That's because New York gets cold enough that trying this in New York will kill you through the cold. You'd freeze to death in the first year.
Post reply on HN