Sometimes things like nerf guns are indicative of a culture at a company that would be more fun and upbeat than working in a corporate cube farm. Now, obviously, cube farms can just as easily buy nerf guns and I'm just picking nerf guns because it's in the link-baity title. Free coke, social gatherings and nerf guns might also just be indications that the company values you and wants to provide whatever they can to make you happy. However juvenile you may or may not find them, at least their trying.
Nerf guns don't matter
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Re: Nerf guns don't matter
#32>I'm seeing it more and more--job descriptions with perks about nerf guns and happy hour, or new grads who joined a startup and are bragging about ping pong tables and free coke. This is apparently something that people see as a fun culture, a sign that this is a place you'd enjoy working at and has people you'd enjoy working with.
Heh. It took me awhile to find these:
>Excellent opportunities with an exciting, fun 6 year old .com company!!! Skills wanted: JAVA, Weblogic, EJB, Solaris, Oracle. Fun atmosphere- pool table, ping pong table, foozball table, and cafeteria. @90-95K plus stock options $$$$$$ Don't miss out!!! This is a hot one, sunny California, in Culver City- very close to Santa Monica and Marina Del Rey!!! Beautiful beaches, blue skies and the ocean! If someone could reply with the correct spelling of foozball, we have a bet going in the office!
>Wednesday, September 27, 2000 19:05
Source: http://www.coderanch.com/t/9714/Jobs-Offered/careers/JAVA-De...
> Free meals when working late; unlimited cold beverages; vacation homes in Lake Tahoe; monthly beer bashes; complimentary use of a Porsche Boxster when designated as "Employee of the Month;" and, additionally, a chance to win a $3000 bonus plus the chance to drive a Porsche Boxster for two years with each participating referral booked in the Employee Referral Program.
> Friday, September 15, 2000 13:40
Source: http://www.coderanch.com/t/9700/Jobs-Offered/careers/jobs-ex...
I agree that these things really don't matter. But to be honest, I'm a little happy to see some of it coming back. The last 10 years has been hard to be a programmer in my area; most of the jobs are large companies, most of the work is boring, and the startups are few and far between.
Re: Nerf guns don't matter
#33Yes! Keep your toys, your sodas and your junk food. Just give me an office with a door, where I can actually focus on work and be productive.
Re: Nerf guns don't matter
#34The reality is we spend most of our waking lives at work. Other than those we had before we started, most of our friends (and even romantic partners) will be made there. Enforced work socializing is counterproductive, but enforced non-socializing is even worse. A good workplace should accept that people are social, that being able to play around for a few minutes in the middle of the day makes you more rather than le…
If professionalism feels joyless to you, you are doing it wrong.
I believe that was the intent of the quotation marks.
Re: Nerf guns don't matter
#35Re: Nerf guns don't matter
#36 It's not going to make you more productive, or make you
happier with the work you have to do, or the people you
have to work with.
And it definitely helps with team-building. You might find that that grumpy annoying colleague is actually a very nice person, he just get's bogged down by work or something.
Re: Nerf guns don't matter
#37There's a bit of an either-or fallacy here, but overall I agree. I think companies would do well to heed your advice and figure out what is and what is not an appropriate perk. Things that I, personally, would find appropriate: - Free cokes and possibly (if you're huge) free food. Just don't provide it and then complain about how much it costs later. Worked at a place like that once, it sent an extremely confusing me…
Send 'em here:
http://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/black-or-white
Re: Nerf guns don't matter
#38I really don't see the appeal of Nerf guns at work at all.
I see recruitment videos from some companies that show people sneaking around with nerf guns and shooting other programmers in the back of the head when they aren't looking.
If someone was firing foam darts at me whilst I was in the middle of a delicate debugging session, my kneejerk reaction would probably be to punch them in the face.
All this stuff strikes me as kinda juvenile and doesn't really help if you want to be taken seriously as a professional.
Re: Nerf guns don't matter
#39We kinda just went through this where I work.
I don't like the foosball and the nerf guns and all of the other distractions, sure it's fun but it's hard to keep a train of thought sometimes.
Honestly I'd rather the company take us out for a picnic or have us all hang out at the amusement park. I would rather mentally know that work is for work, and play is for outside of work. Or for the group of us to go make something physical with habitat for humanity.
At home, computers are not allowed in the bedroom for simular but different reasons. Studies show that once a couple invites a TV or computer into the bedroom, well parts of the relationship suffer.
At the end of the day I won't be building trust with my coworkers over foosball, nurf guns or video games. But if we do something outside of work, well that might be a different story.
In the end I think this is the result of young founders trying to keep the work place like college. For some of us College is a chapter long closed on life and we have other things that are more current in our lives.
One of my friends who owns a company has set it as a perk to do company wide vacations three or four times a year. I think this is awesome. When I worked at Unity, they would try to get every employee to Unite no mater where it was in the world. There were plenty of times to bond over that experience and I think it goes further to my point.
Re: Nerf guns don't matter
#40I totally agree with OP. My work sometimes has happy hours, and despite them being obviously optional I feel pressured to go to at least half of them so that I'm not judged. Sure you can say the events and outings are optional but what happens to people who routinely don't go. They become less close with coworkers and this could hurt them career wise. I have no interest in eating lunch with my team every day. I see t…
Absolutely all of this. I don't want to work at a company that pretends it's a family. I don't want them to make me be friends.
Work is a necessary evil in peoples lives. We all like to eat and have a place to live and this takes money, hence work, but it is still an evil. It takes the majority of your day and the majority of your life away from doing things you want to do and people you want to do them with. I would much rather be at a company that realizes this and doesn't try to force itself on you pretending that it is some great thing that it is not.