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At Facebook, Boss Is a Dirty Word

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Re: At Facebook, Boss Is a Dirty Word

#21

Earlier today, someone told me that I've "drunk the kool-aid" of my employers, Pivotal Labs. Well, it happens that I decided to work for Labs after visiting the Facebook campus. Literally while I was driving back to SF from Palo Alto. At Labs I work for 40 hours per week. Not an on-paper 40 hours -- actually 40 hours . When I was new to the company I found myself one night on a train to Philadelphia for a personal tr…

I'm an engineer at FB and I work 6-8 hours most days. Most people with families don't work crazy hours. Most people that do choose to because they love their work.

"I love my cigar, too, but I take it out of my mouth once in a while."

Re: At Facebook, Boss Is a Dirty Word

#22

Earlier today, someone told me that I've "drunk the kool-aid" of my employers, Pivotal Labs. Well, it happens that I decided to work for Labs after visiting the Facebook campus. Literally while I was driving back to SF from Palo Alto. At Labs I work for 40 hours per week. Not an on-paper 40 hours -- actually 40 hours . When I was new to the company I found myself one night on a train to Philadelphia for a personal tr…

so I opened my laptop and answered some emails from a client. The following week I got a mild dressing down from my colleagues for working after-hours and I was told by my manager not to do it again.

That happened to me at my old non-tech job. By answering a client's emails, you train them to expect you to be on call, which hurts the whole team.

Re: At Facebook, Boss Is a Dirty Word

#23
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have to agree. Why waste space on the front page with paywalled content? I have no inclination to ever subscribe to this. I appreciate that others may have different sentiment, but this feels wasted on the majority of us.

Just Google the title and click the link to the story. Goes right around the paywall.

That works, but it misses the point. The point is to penalize sites that employ paywalls by taking your pageviews elsewhere.

Re: At Facebook, Boss Is a Dirty Word

#24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm an engineer at FB and I work 6-8 hours most days. Most people with families don't work crazy hours. Most people that do choose to because they love their work.

We love our work too. We just think it should stay at work, during sustainable working hours.

[deleted]

Re: At Facebook, Boss Is a Dirty Word

#26

Earlier today, someone told me that I've "drunk the kool-aid" of my employers, Pivotal Labs. Well, it happens that I decided to work for Labs after visiting the Facebook campus. Literally while I was driving back to SF from Palo Alto. At Labs I work for 40 hours per week. Not an on-paper 40 hours -- actually 40 hours . When I was new to the company I found myself one night on a train to Philadelphia for a personal tr…

I was a Software Engineering intern on an ads product team at Facebook last summer. My experience was almost exactly the opposite of what you assume here. Most people worked 7-8 hour days. I stayed plenty of late nights because I was dead-set on getting a full-time offer, but I was literally the only one on my entire floor most nights (including interns). On the off chance someone stopped in late and saw me, they were honestly shocked and insisted I go home.

The team working next to mine had a major product launch during the time I was there. A few of them (2 or 3) stayed in until 8 PM for the two nights immediate proceeding launch. That's it.

One of the biggest surprises to me coming from undergrad was just how little the engineers worked at a company like FB. There is a pride in efficiency in the Facebook culture, and an working effectively is more valued than putting in long hours.

Of course, that was my experience on one team. I'm sure some teams work longer hours than others. That said, I think you'd be hard pressed to find an engineering shop that had a healthier work-life balance than Facebook. The idea that its a 'meat grinder' is laughable. I saw another comment suggesting that FB employees leaving after 8-10 years is a sign of burn-out. Are you kidding? In this business 8-10 years is lifetimes.

Re: At Facebook, Boss Is a Dirty Word

#27
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just Google the title and click the link to the story. Goes right around the paywall.

That works, but it misses the point. The point is to penalize sites that employ paywalls by taking your pageviews elsewhere.

Because it's wrong for companies to charge for their product or service?

Re: At Facebook, Boss Is a Dirty Word

#28

Earlier today, someone told me that I've "drunk the kool-aid" of my employers, Pivotal Labs. Well, it happens that I decided to work for Labs after visiting the Facebook campus. Literally while I was driving back to SF from Palo Alto. At Labs I work for 40 hours per week. Not an on-paper 40 hours -- actually 40 hours . When I was new to the company I found myself one night on a train to Philadelphia for a personal tr…

Every product goes through design-development-testing-launch-maintenance cycle (with occasional major bug fixing between launch and maintenance).

It's natural to work in overdrive during the launch phase, but is just not that productive during any of the other phases.

With Facebook's breadth of products someone somewhere is always launching, so it's reasonable to assume that some employees are putting in 50-hour weeks for a short period of time.

Re: At Facebook, Boss Is a Dirty Word

#29
Facebook can be disorienting for some older employees, who feel their past experience and accomplishments aren’t valued.

Maybe I'm in the minority but I agree wholeheartedly with this sentiment. Past experience and accomplishments get you in the door but beyond that those things don't matter, the question should be: what are you doing now to bring value?

Re: At Facebook, Boss Is a Dirty Word

#30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That works, but it misses the point. The point is to penalize sites that employ paywalls by taking your pageviews elsewhere.

Because it's wrong for companies to charge for their product or service?

I don't think anyone claimed it is wrong?
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