I would really not like to work there, but out of the FAANG companies, Netflix is definitely the most all-in on its quirks. My sense is that the culture at Google, Apple, MS, and FB are all in a cluster compared with the culture at Netflix, which is a real outlier. It's also an outlier in my unwillingness to go there. But I think they and I are both happier that way.
At Netflix, Radical Transparency and Blunt Firings Unsettle the Ranks
41–50 of 335 posts
Re: At Netflix, Radical Transparency and Blunt Firings Unsettle the Ranks
#42>Many employees say they see the keeper test as a guise for ordinary workplace politics while some managers say they feel pressure to fire people or risk looking soft. I worked for a place like this. Regular firings, sometimes every month. The CEO (who also self-funded the company) believed that regularly letting people go was a way of eliminating bad apples and forcing people to work harder and smarter. Similar to N…
> The CEO ... believed that regularly letting people go was a way of eliminating bad apples and forcing people to work harder and smarter. Microsoft called it Stack Ranking.
Its obviously done Microsoft so much good /s
Re: At Netflix, Radical Transparency and Blunt Firings Unsettle the Ranks
#43> Many employees say they see the keeper test as a guise for ordinary workplace politics while some managers say they feel pressure to fire people or risk looking soft. Postmortem emails and meetings explaining why people got fired are viewed by some employees as awkward and theatrical when the audiences can be dozens or even hundreds of people. So every employee gets to be badmouthed in front of as many as hundreds…
> Netflix employees, why do you accept this?
Money, of course. Plus, people working in tech and making very good money are not known for "spine-straightness".
Re: At Netflix, Radical Transparency and Blunt Firings Unsettle the Ranks
#44> Richard Siklos, a Netflix spokesman, said the company only fires employees for performance reasons, not because managers don’t like them From what I've seen, managers give poor performance reviews or "metrics" when they don't like people. This feels like a distinction without a difference.
I've never seen an employee getting fired "because their manager didn't like them". I've seen plenty of employees getting fired because their manager, who didn't like them, gave them a bad review. In fact, across companies and even industries, being disliked by your manager is the single most reliable way to get fired. Anyone claiming you can be disliked by your superior yet reliably keep your job - is BSing you. Sin…
OTOH your feelings for your reports correlates highly with the quality of work they're putting out
Re: At Netflix, Radical Transparency and Blunt Firings Unsettle the Ranks
#45Wow. I can literally feel my neck and shoulders bunching up just _reading_ this. If I wanted to live in a fear-based culture every day, I'd join the armed forces--at least that way I could shoot back.
Also, I don't think after you get KIA in the armed forces, they hold a special funeral where your commanding officer tells your entire battalion that you were a coward and a poor soldier so justifiably you got shot.
Re: At Netflix, Radical Transparency and Blunt Firings Unsettle the Ranks
#46> Richard Siklos, a Netflix spokesman, said the company only fires employees for performance reasons, not because managers don’t like them That's not true at all. The company fires people all the time because their skills just aren't necessary. I mean I guess technically it's a layoff, but a layoff and getting fired are functionally the same at Netflix as they both come with the same severance. When we moved to AWS,…
> "I mean I guess technically it's a layoff, but a layoff and getting fired are functionally the same at Netflix as they both come with the same severance."
hmm, but unemployment is a concern too, and you wouldn't get that if fired?
Re: At Netflix, Radical Transparency and Blunt Firings Unsettle the Ranks
#47I am glad I cancelled my subscription early this year and never bought its stocks.
Re: At Netflix, Radical Transparency and Blunt Firings Unsettle the Ranks
#48> Richard Siklos, a Netflix spokesman, said the company only fires employees for performance reasons, not because managers don’t like them From what I've seen, managers give poor performance reviews or "metrics" when they don't like people. This feels like a distinction without a difference.
I've never seen an employee getting fired "because their manager didn't like them". I've seen plenty of employees getting fired because their manager, who didn't like them, gave them a bad review. In fact, across companies and even industries, being disliked by your manager is the single most reliable way to get fired. Anyone claiming you can be disliked by your superior yet reliably keep your job - is BSing you. Sin…
No matter how people perform on any side, It sounds a little draining to work with people you don't like, regardless of the reason of dislike. Some people aren't in control of that so they just suck it up, whereas others get a say over their lives. The question is whether they will find sufficient incentive to prioritize company interests where they differ. One thinks of that when one joins a team with a lead that is a center of social activity outside work, and whether one has the energy to participate. When social dynamics are involved things are always a bit more complicated than the performance which strictly happens at work.
If people don't want this, I think it's up to the organization to do this, as opposed to the vigilant wall of an ethic. Presumably the organization doesn't want little cliques, and should structure their incentives properly.
Re: At Netflix, Radical Transparency and Blunt Firings Unsettle the Ranks
#49Reed thought he was creating a high performance culture without accounting for the very nature of humans. The Netflix culture deck became a blunt instrument for managers to fire people in the name of performance and radical candor. I can’t wait for the lone Netflix engineer to write a great article tomorrow about the great Netflix culture he/she is personally experiencing. Kind of become a standard PR response these…
Don't worry, the propaganda machine is already at work. Maybe they will send a CEO-hand-written letter with lemonade mixed with tears.
Re: At Netflix, Radical Transparency and Blunt Firings Unsettle the Ranks
#50> Richard Siklos, a Netflix spokesman, said the company only fires employees for performance reasons, not because managers don’t like them That's not true at all. The company fires people all the time because their skills just aren't necessary. I mean I guess technically it's a layoff, but a layoff and getting fired are functionally the same at Netflix as they both come with the same severance. When we moved to AWS,…
> to make sure that the team was always the right people at the right time.
That is what contractors are for.
Full-time employees are hired because they know/learn the business, get things done, and adapt to changing circumstances. You want them around to help you get through changes. If you are hiring full-time employees to fit a narrow niche need that will change in the future, with the intent of "easy" hiring and firing, you are just setting yourself up to have a bad reputation as an employer.