Netflix: Culture of Fear • Hacker News Board

Re: Netflix: Culture of Fear

#41

Post by yannickt » Tue, Dec 21, 2010, 11:39 PM UTC

ericd wrote: post #11

This review doesn't jive with the apparent performance of the company in the market. They're the front-runner in an extremely tough space with hostile partners, and even more amazingly, they did this while starting as a company that ships physical goods around the country. There aren't too many things that are harder than moving away from a successful business model, but they've done it really well. They don't appear…

Many tech companies perform well despite the (poor) treatment they give their employees. Amazon is not particularly well rated on Glassdoor, and I've heard plenty of horror stories about EA (and other game companies) from people I trust.

Re: Netflix: Culture of Fear

#42

Post by telemachos » Tue, Dec 21, 2010, 11:39 PM UTC

A tangential question: the Netflix culture slidedeck[1] mentions that as of about 2004, there's no vacation policy and tracking. This is supposed to be a good thing (less rules == more better, say the slides), and maybe it is. But I wonder: does anyone have experience in such an environment? My concern would be that everyone takes less and less vacation in a competitive or just fearful spiral.

[1] http://www.slideshare.net/reed2001/culture-1798664 (slides 63-68)

Re: Netflix: Culture of Fear

#43

Post by zhyder » Tue, Dec 21, 2010, 11:40 PM UTC

No health benefits, really? That should be really easy to verify objectively. Can someone here corroborate that?

Re: Netflix: Culture of Fear

#44

Post by billswift » Tue, Dec 21, 2010, 11:41 PM UTC

lukev wrote: post #31

philwelch wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It feels like you didn't critically read the review, and are just trying to impose your own interpretation on top of it. Processes and lack of agility come into place in a mature company as risk-aversion. If the company is scared to fuck up, they introduce processes to prevent fuckups, even though those processes also dampen remarkable innovations. Judging from the Glassdoor review, Netflix's firing strategy has the…

Except that everything I've read about Netflix indicates that they're not risk-averse. They seem to be innovating in just the right areas. And yeah, I may be reading into it, since I have some frustration with large, process ridden organizations right now. I'm just saying, this is only one guy's take.

It's not only just one guys take, but there is nothing there but pretty vague generalities. I didn't see a single specific claim, everything was about "processes" in general. And a 20% annual turnover actually isn't unusual for a large, public facing company.

Re: Netflix: Culture of Fear

#45

Post by c2 » Tue, Dec 21, 2010, 11:41 PM UTC

c2 wrote: post #30

Any company culture is going to have it's controversies. Personally I think too many companies hang on to ineffectual employees for too long. I read the Netflix slide deck and didn't see anything I didn't immediately agree with. I would not hold their culture against them when looking for a job there. The one thing I thought was a bit off was "you should ask your manager if they would fight for you to stay". IMO - if…

Unrelated, but it's also kind of frustrating to put time and thought into a comment and then to be drive by down voted.

If you disagree with my comment (which in and of itself is not really a good reason to down vote), then please reply with words. I am happy to have a discussion and talk about it. We both might learn something.

Re: Netflix: Culture of Fear

#46

Post by jacobmg » Tue, Dec 21, 2010, 11:44 PM UTC

Perhaps this explains one of the most ridiculous posts I've seen from a corporate blog in a long time?

http://blog.netflix.com/2009/06/closed-captions-and-subtitle...

Essentially them complaining it will take a year to implement closed-captioning because silverlight can't process SAMI files automatically (basically glorified text bolding/syncing)

After I read that I guessed there was something wholly wrong with their corporate culture and management.

Re: Netflix: Culture of Fear

#47

Post by treeface » Tue, Dec 21, 2010, 11:44 PM UTC

yannickt wrote: post #37

lukev wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except that everything I've read about Netflix indicates that they're not risk-averse. They seem to be innovating in just the right areas. And yeah, I may be reading into it, since I have some frustration with large, process ridden organizations right now. I'm just saying, this is only one guy's take.

"I'm just saying, this is only one guy's take." There are many other negative reviews of Netflix on Glassdoor. I am sure that some people are happy to work there, but I don't think someone would take the time to write such a lengthy and well-worded review if there was no truth to it.

>I don't think someone would take the time..

Of course they would. There are an infinite number of scenarios that could lead to somebody posting an entirely fabricated review, regardless of its length or well-wordedness.

However, I agree that there is probably at least some truth to this.

Re: Netflix: Culture of Fear

#48

Post by ghshephard » Tue, Dec 21, 2010, 11:47 PM UTC

jamesaguilar wrote: post #32

ghshephard wrote: post #6

Not willing to take risks? Find me another major company making (and apparently succeeding) these types of moves into the Cloud. See: http://www.slideshare.net/adrianco I challenge anyone to walk through Adrian's DevOps slides of what they are up to at Netflix and suggest that they aren't getting shit done this year: http://www.slideshare.net/adrianco/netflix-on-cloud-combined... With that said - yes, Netflix does ch…

> than Radford 50th percentile for the Bay Area Can you give us the value rather than the symbol name, please?

Well - I'm not sure if it means anything to say that I've spoken with network engineers from Netflix who make from $130K - $185K, but there you go. Those numbers, by themselves, don't actually mean anything. $185K is undervalued for a Sr. Network Architect. $130K might be good, bad, great, or average - depending on what your responsibilities are.

A better way of looking at it, is if you have two job opportunities, one at Netflix, and one at a bog-standard Radord 50th percentile silicon valley company, my anecdotes (four) indicate that that you would be looking at about $30K/year more at Netflix.

With that said - Netflix isn't so much interested in 9-5 employees, as it is in entrepreneurs who can navigate the company, show leadership, and get results. It's a challenging environment for an employee that looks for hands-on management.

Re: Netflix: Culture of Fear

#49

Post by aresant » Tue, Dec 21, 2010, 11:49 PM UTC

ardit33 wrote: post #8

aresant wrote: post #3

Cynic in me wonders if this post is tied to the recent frenzy around traders shorting Netflix? Even a few of the supporting comments feel scripted. Say this because Netflix seems to have great luck attracting people that I respect personally and their culture building and HR practices are fairly lauded elsewhere . . .

I did post this (the link of the review) because I have heard from multiple people (in person) about their culture. Netflix seems to have the sports team philosophy "Put the best guy in place for the job", and if that job changes and that person is not the best fit they will fire that person and find somebody else instead of some retraining. The original "Netflix culture slide" were just an attempt to rationalize (an…

Just for the record i'm glad you posted this - if it's legit it really illustrates a stark difference from the PR line and is hugely relevant.

Interesting is the personal differences we have with people that work there. Without naming names I know folks on customer acquisition side and analytics that boast about their jobs and have enough autonomy to kick ass - I actually bought stock when one of them was hired based on my previous interactions with the guy.

I will be curious if the mainstream tech press picks up on this thread - again with Netflix contrarians being the dish du jour.

Re: Netflix: Culture of Fear

#50

Post by okaramian » Tue, Dec 21, 2010, 11:50 PM UTC

brown9-2 wrote: post #13

smysore wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The culture slides on Netflix's job site do make it seem like a scary place to work but at least they are transparent about what it's like to be employed there..

Right, that was the point I was trying to make - how can anyone be surprised at what you find there when they advertise it so well? Personally I wouldn't expect "a culture of fear" going in but I'd at least have a pretty good idea that I need to perform, and produce high quality stuff, to survive there.

Yeah, I don't really see the complaint here. Netflix is pretty transparent about how things work on some level, so if you're let go at some point you should be prepared for the possibility.

I mean, company culture is never really the problem for jobs I've signed up for as long as the company is honest about the situation. If I'm told it's a 9-5 and I find myself pulling 60-70 hour weeks (or the reverse scenario where I'm it's inferred that my Type A personality is going to fit in and I can make a big impact and it turns out to be a boring 9-5) that's when I get upset and start looking for new opportunities.