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Working at Netflix Sounds Like Hell

gizmodo.com

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Re: Working at Netflix Sounds Like Hell

#21

Post by SigmundA »

CEO Reed Hastings is described as a dedicated adherent to the culture and several former employees said he is “unencumbered by emotion”—in a good way.

Is this not the definition of a psychopath?

This really does sound like hell to me. Then again a lot of modern corporate culture especially in tech seems to be moving toward this type of hell. Basically a form of social Darwinism.

Life and more specifically happiness is not efficient. Maximizing profit and growth and performance might work better unencumbered by emotions, survival of only the fittest, but does that lead to happiness?

Re: Working at Netflix Sounds Like Hell

#23

Post by addicted »

taneq wrote: post #13
ymlaree wrote: post #3

Netflix is following FB tracks it seems, 1st degrade the user experience, then poor company ethics surface. Soon we'll need food like "humane" labels in tech.. [edit : user not customer]

What did the user experience used to be like, if the current version is 'degraded'? We only just got Netflix but it seems pretty slick and well-thought-out.

Auto play video trailers. Star ratings are almost invisible. The currrnt Betflix percentage ratings have almost no association with reality and once again seem to exist to promote Netflix shows. It’s harder to find an episode that I stopped watching midway the previous night, because Netflix is promoting its own shows. Non Netflix catalog is buried deep. I’m not sure if this is because they simply don’t have much Non Netfkix content anymore. Movies are hard to find. Again, this could be a content issue.

The UI is slick. It’s also simply geared towards making you zombie watch Netfkix branded shows.

Re: Working at Netflix Sounds Like Hell

#26

Post by tluyben2 »

huffmsa wrote: post #8

Sounds like being on a sports team at a high level. It's not for you, then it's not for you. It's business, not personal.

> Sounds like being on a sports team at a high level.

In the sports that doesn't pay too much (for most people working at Netflix) even though you are in the top of the world. With the high level sports you get some kind of satisfaction that you got further than anyone (or some other reason beyond money) and not for the money; most people at Netflix probably work there for the money.

Re: Working at Netflix Sounds Like Hell

#27

Post by mediumdeviation »

taneq wrote: post #13
ymlaree wrote: post #3

Netflix is following FB tracks it seems, 1st degrade the user experience, then poor company ethics surface. Soon we'll need food like "humane" labels in tech.. [edit : user not customer]

What did the user experience used to be like, if the current version is 'degraded'? We only just got Netflix but it seems pretty slick and well-thought-out.

I don't know what it was like before, but when I signed up for it after Netflix went international in 2016, and my first reaction is: this is it?

Using Netflix feels like giving up control, over both the viewing experience and the recommendation system. The recommendation system that Netflix poured millions into developing, with hyperoptimizations down to the thumbnails you see? I can't get it to stop recommending me shows I don't want to see. I can't pick the genres I want to show up on the homepage. The automated genre generation/clustering algorithm occasionally generates hilariously poor results. I can't leave my mouse over any thumbnail for a few seconds to read the synopsis because the trailer will automatically start playing.

Another example: No control over stream quality. I'm fine with waiting 30 seconds for the higher quality version to buffer, but Netflix forces me to watch the first 30 seconds in glorious 360p with sharp edges and features on actor's faces smudged out of existence. There's no way to change this setting, which exists on every video player I've seen since before YouTube existed.

Re: Working at Netflix Sounds Like Hell

#28

Post by erikb »

akras14 wrote: post #22

On one hand this seem crazy. On another, every place I worked at was full of free-loaders who did nothing and never got fired. I wonder if things are different at Netflix.

I always feel that freeloaders are not hurting me personally, so why harm them? And it's not like they bring nothing to the table, it's just less than an ambitious/motivated person would. Last but not least, and why I think most people take on freeloaders and keep them: If they switch to another company and are motivated there, it's better for them personally, but might also mean more competition on the market. Therefore better have all people slack off in your offices than give the competition the edge. Not sure if I would agree with that strategy but it has some logic at least.

Re: Working at Netflix Sounds Like Hell

#30

Post by erikb »

kakaorka wrote: post #6
objektif wrote: post #5

I guess people still stick around because of the stock price performance.

Isn't Netflix's compensation to employees all cash?

Usually in the early stage (when stock has no value) people get more stock. Then in the growth times people get more cash. And then when the growth slows down and one succeeded at becoming another boring behemoth people get stock again because it increases market activity for an otherwise boring stock. So I would assume that most Netflix people currently report a higher amount of cash bonuses, while the internal policy slowly shifts to more stock.
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