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Working at Netflix Sounds Like Hell

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Re: Working at Netflix Sounds Like Hell

#51

Post by akras14 »

Someone1234 wrote: post #34
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.

Are they firing "free-loaders" or people who are just worse at playing politics/self-promoting? We have extremely quiet people at work, few know what they do, but they're actually extremely productive, rarely make waves (good or bad), and help keep longer term goals. The "Rockstar" types join, get all excitable, make a handful of rapid (often good) changes, burn out, and leave. Likely to start again at their next wor…

The quiet people like that are the best people in my book and definitely not who I am referring to.

Re: Working at Netflix Sounds Like Hell

#52

Post by strangerlands »

akras14 wrote: post #45
strangerlands wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is very common at Netflix.

That’s more than double average salary. Seems like worth going for it, even knowing that they will fire you eventually. Hold on for 6 months, make a yearly salary, take 6 months off :)

Most of the time they do not hire average people – in the sense that they are not considered average, then some of them are actually pretty bad, but it is part of the business of false positives.

Re: Working at Netflix Sounds Like Hell

#54

Post by prolikewh0a »

Someone1234 wrote: post #34
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.

Are they firing "free-loaders" or people who are just worse at playing politics/self-promoting? We have extremely quiet people at work, few know what they do, but they're actually extremely productive, rarely make waves (good or bad), and help keep longer term goals. The "Rockstar" types join, get all excitable, make a handful of rapid (often good) changes, burn out, and leave. Likely to start again at their next wor…

I'm extremely quiet at work and don't really have any work friends at least in my department (helps stifle drama), yet am consistent with my productivity, have clear ticket queues every day or they're in a status where I'm waiting for a response from another engineer. I've had my manager tell me in 1:1's that people report me for doing nothing all day except listening to music. I've been here 3 years.

I'm content with just sitting here and doing this job for now and get paid enough to live at my means, so I make no attempts to get a promotion where I'll have much more work and stress, and make little attempts to go above and beyond. I just stay consistent and I'm seen as a free loader by some. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Re: Working at Netflix Sounds Like Hell

#55

Post by clarle »

I'm an ex-Netflix engineer (voluntarily left in March to work on my own company, worked there just under 3 years).

I don't know what it's like from the executive or middle management side of things, but from the engineering side of things, I liked the fact that people were transparent about their mistakes and there were always detailed write-ups about any technical incidents.

Incident post-mortems were always incredibly good for that reason, and I never felt like my job was on the line if I admitted to messing up somewhere.

I liked it a lot there, good work/life balance and never really felt stressed. If anything, I didn't think there was enough interesting work to go around as the company was growing a lot bigger.

But as an engineer, I wouldn't mind going back.

Re: Working at Netflix Sounds Like Hell

#56

Post by BeetleB »

erikb wrote: post #28
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. There…

>I always feel that freeloaders are not hurting me personally, so why harm them?

In my experience, over time, freeloaders tend to become vocal and lobby for policy changes (within the team, not corporatewise) that helps keep them there. I've seen them oppose technically sound decisions because they're not sure they can handle the complexity, or (and more commonly) because it involves skills they don't want to learn. Skills well within their reach if they just tried - some of them had those skills in school and they merely need to get a book and review what they once knew.

Generally, if you're a motivated person, but in a team with a significant number of "freeloaders", your ability to raise the bar of the team will be limited. I left my last team because of it.

Re: Working at Netflix Sounds Like Hell

#57

Post by smrtinsert »

strangerlands wrote: post #40
claydavisss wrote: post #7

I had a Netflix offer this year I declined (yes, people decline Netflix now and then) The salary was eye-popping...$400k. That's just to be a senior developer. There were RSUs on top of this so total comp was probably $500k. That's crazy! I knew if I joined I would be terminated but that didn't bother me...the salary was crazy and apparently the goodbye package is also generous. I suppose it's sort of nuts to know yo…

There are no RSUs at Netflix, just for everyone 5% each year of annual salary in free stock options at 40% of current value, vesting every month. You can also use up to 100% of your salary for buying stock options at 40% of current value. The policy made rich many people who invested heavily in the stock options program years back. The severance package is 4 months of salary. I doubt you got an offer from there, beca…

Rsu vs vesting options, really not that different.

Re: Working at Netflix Sounds Like Hell

#58

Post by BeetleB »

tluyben2 wrote: post #26
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.

>In the sports that doesn't pay too much (for most people working at Netflix)

Can most people who work at Netflix join another company for comparable pay? From what I've heard: No. Netflix often justifies their culture by pointing out they pay the highest. If you look at a thread below (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18316176) you'll see that $400K guaranteed as a senior developer is normal.

They also used to have a generous severance pay - well above industry average. That again was used to justify their policy: Hire the best, and give them a generous token of appreciation when we replace them. The claim was they don't want people to be worried about being fired, because whether they stay or leave, they'll get good money.

(Not sure if the severance package is good these days - my information is quite dated).

Re: Working at Netflix Sounds Like Hell

#60

Post by hn_throwaway_99 »

SigmundA wrote: post #21

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 i…

Perhaps one counter argument to this is that, at the end of the day, pretty much all profit-driven enterprises will do what is necessary to maximize profits (without regards to emotion).

So, if anything, I give it to Netflix that at least they're being honest about it, as opposed to lots of other "we're changing the world", cultish organizations that talk a lot about how "we're all a big family", but then when the going gets tough all that goes out the window in the interests of "maximizing shareholder value".

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