Facebook is giving $1k to every employee • Hacker News Board

Re: Facebook is giving $1k to every employee

#61

Post by shawabawa3 » Tue, Mar 17, 2020, 5:10 PM UTC

gonehome wrote: post #46

regnerba wrote: post #4

But why? Aren't most of their employees going to still be making their salary anyways? What do they need the extra money for? The people in the economy that really need the money are not the people working at Facebook. I mean, congrats to Facebook employees, I just don't understand why.

Shopify did it too, mostly it was to help with buying monitor, desk, chair, etc. to set up a home office. Not sure if that’s the intent here, but makes sense.

1. That was shopify

2. It's an expenses budget for home working equipment, not just cash in their paychecks, and not with max performance rating for max bonus

Re: Facebook is giving $1k to every employee

#62

Post by MegaButts » Tue, Mar 17, 2020, 5:15 PM UTC

kiba wrote: post #51

MegaButts wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm cynical because I still don't see how this is helpful. It's giving more money to people that already have money, instead of spreading it around to people that don't have money. Facebook employees are about the least economically vulnerable population you can find, apart from people who inherited their wealth. Why not actually do something useful with the money, like donate it to a charity in need that's trying to…

Not everybody at the company is a six figure software engineer.

Sure, but the vast majority are. This is basically targeting the group that includes mostly engineers to give them more money, instead of giving the money to content moderators or other lowly paid employees.

Again, this is basically the worst use of the money Facebook could have considered for anything with a remotely philanthropic angle. It reeks of a PR grab to me, and even if not it's just a horrible decision if their goal is to help those in need.

Re: Facebook is giving $1k to every employee

#63

Post by MegaButts » Tue, Mar 17, 2020, 5:16 PM UTC

kjakm wrote: post #22

MegaButts wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? It's a fraction of a percent of most employees' annual pay, which presumably they are still receiving. If anything, it's like giving everyone a tiny bonus for some PR. At least that's how I read it. If they gave that money to contractors, that would actually be a gesture of good will. Honestly I feel like they'd be better off only giving it to contractors and ignoring their employees, who are already extremely w…

If you read the article you will see they are also giving every essentially a full bonus irrespective of performance. Depending on individual agreements that could be a significant sum so it's definitely not a fraction of a percent of anybody's annual pay.

Facebook has always given out bonuses, that's not news. The news is giving every employee $1000, and I'm saying that's a horrible decision on Facebook's part and they should be shamed for it. They should use that money to help those in need, or just not do anything at all.

Facebook has always been known for its unethical decisions, but this is just dumb - unless their goal is to get some incredibly superficial PR for what is a very small amount of money to them (tens of millions is a rounding error compared to their quarterly revenue).

Re: Facebook is giving $1k to every employee

#64

Post by eipipuz » Tue, Mar 17, 2020, 5:18 PM UTC

outside1234 wrote: post #39

dalore wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trickle down of course. Those Facebook employees are expected to donate their bonuses to the others in society that aren't getting any help. Isn't that what other companies are asking? People to donate their sick days?

But if that's the goal, why doesn't Facebook just donate the money to an organization that can actually help these people?

Because then you would be taking away the employee's bonus? Not every employee might be charitable. Probably giving everyone 1k is keeping them within budget.

Re: Facebook is giving $1k to every employee

#65

Post by Retric » Tue, Mar 17, 2020, 5:29 PM UTC

tudelo wrote: post #48

Retric wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Not sure why there are so many negative comments It’s seen as rearranging deck chairs on the titanic. the median compensation for a Facebook employee is $228,651 That’s not a group facing huge financial issues which 1k is going to do much about. I am not saying it is a poor use of 45 million dollars, but I can see people viewing this as meaningless.

Eh, imagine Facebook hired remote workers. I bet they would be fine giving them 1k upfront for tech setup

I suspect it was to offset the costs of setting up a home office. And in that context it seems like a completely reasonable thing to do.

Re: Facebook is giving $1k to every employee

#66

Post by Hamuko » Tue, Mar 17, 2020, 5:34 PM UTC

andygcook wrote: post #24

Hamuko wrote: post #3

> It’s not clear if Facebook will also give a bonus to contractors who are content moderators. Let me guess: it doesn't. Have Facebook contractors been given the right to work from home yet?

By definition, don't all contractors have to generally not work from an office? Otherwise it's very easy to deem them full-time employees and they are entitled to benefits. Not sure of Facebook's specific situation or what roles they are contracting, but I'd imagine most of them aren't at HQ.

https://theintercept.com/2020/03/12/coronavirus-facebook-con...

This was in the news last week. Pretty sure I picked it up from Hacker News.

Re: Facebook is giving $1k to every employee

#67

Post by sciurus » Tue, Mar 17, 2020, 5:37 PM UTC

My employer, Mozilla, is reimbursing employees up to $1,000 towards equipment for working from home [0], childcare, etc. The guidance has been for employees to be reasonable and for those approving expenses to be flexible.

[0] The roughly half of the company that works from home already got to expense setting up their home office when they were hired, so this mainly helps the people who were working from a company office.

Re: Facebook is giving $1k to every employee

#68

Post by gonehome » Tue, Mar 17, 2020, 5:38 PM UTC

shawabawa3 wrote: post #61

gonehome wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shopify did it too, mostly it was to help with buying monitor, desk, chair, etc. to set up a home office. Not sure if that’s the intent here, but makes sense.

1. That was shopify 2. It's an expenses budget for home working equipment, not just cash in their paychecks, and not with max performance rating for max bonus

1. My bad, fixed in edit (originally said Spotify).

2. Does that matter? Paycheck stipend is easier to process for everyone and just makes it the same amount for everyone so policy is easier.

Seems like a nice thing to do for employees that might have extra expenses during the lockdown (higher grocery cost, etc.)

Re: Facebook is giving $1k to every employee

#69

Post by WrtCdEvrydy » Tue, Mar 17, 2020, 5:38 PM UTC

briffle wrote: post #43

regnerba wrote: post #4

But why? Aren't most of their employees going to still be making their salary anyways? What do they need the extra money for? The people in the economy that really need the money are not the people working at Facebook. I mean, congrats to Facebook employees, I just don't understand why.

Facebook should be doing this for their contractors. (not the software development ones).. the guys who clean the office, maintain the landscape, cook the food, clean the dishes in their cafeterias, etc.

Yeah, but those guys unfortunately, have a pre-existing condition (poor-itis)

Re: Facebook is giving $1k to every employee

#70

Post by gonehome » Tue, Mar 17, 2020, 5:41 PM UTC

briffle wrote: post #43

regnerba wrote: post #4

But why? Aren't most of their employees going to still be making their salary anyways? What do they need the extra money for? The people in the economy that really need the money are not the people working at Facebook. I mean, congrats to Facebook employees, I just don't understand why.

Facebook should be doing this for their contractors. (not the software development ones).. the guys who clean the office, maintain the landscape, cook the food, clean the dishes in their cafeterias, etc.

I don't work at FB, but I think they're continuing to pay contractors and hourly workers while shut down. It sounds like they're generally doing the right thing for their people?