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From Belonging to Burnout, Five Years at Airbnb

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Re: From Belonging to Burnout, Five Years at Airbnb

#121

Post by goodpoint »

mindwok wrote: post #3

Am I crazy to think there’s something wrong with the amount of engineering effort going into these startups? When you have engineers working into the wee hours of the morning because you don’t want a cursor to blink on a text field, I can’t help but feel that’s an enormous waste of energy and effort. Since I first used Airbnb 7 years ago, the only real change I can think of is when they added experiences (which is aw…

> there’s something wrong with the amount of engineering effort going into these startups

As a company hires more and more people, modern development and devops can create as much unnecessary complexity as needed.

Re: From Belonging to Burnout, Five Years at Airbnb

#122

Post by fullshark »

Ultimately employees want to be seduced, they want to believe they are doing more than helping a company's owners' capital accrue + gain value in how it's implemented. They don't want to just punch the clock, they want to be part of a larger mission (and get rich doing it). A lot of this is because the traditional ways people have found value in their time on earth: religion, family, and friends are disappearing and being replaced with careerism.

This guy's story is not a rare one, and it points to a larger spiritual crisis in modern life I think.

Re: From Belonging to Burnout, Five Years at Airbnb

#123

Post by dvtrn »

abledon wrote: post #29

> As burnt out as I was, I worked even more, clinging to this promise of acceptance, hoping that I could somehow work myself into being enough. The perfect worker for them oh god lol. The term "airfam" is such a weird thing, people saying 'Thanks fam!" these days... I am not your family, I will not lend you 20,000$ if you in a rough spot, I will not take care of your kids if you die. Maybe I just take the word 'famil…

My friend I’ve got certain members of my own actual blood family that I wouldn’t lend $20,000 to.

“Families” can be wonderful.

But blood families can be just as abusive, as manipulative, aggrandizing and as toxic as the “work” family.

Re: From Belonging to Burnout, Five Years at Airbnb

#124

Post by Ocerge »

abledon wrote: post #29

> As burnt out as I was, I worked even more, clinging to this promise of acceptance, hoping that I could somehow work myself into being enough. The perfect worker for them oh god lol. The term "airfam" is such a weird thing, people saying 'Thanks fam!" these days... I am not your family, I will not lend you 20,000$ if you in a rough spot, I will not take care of your kids if you die. Maybe I just take the word 'famil…

I don't think you're taking it too literally, you're absolutely right. Always keep your professional boundaries and recognize the transaction of money-for-time for what it is: a transaction.

Re: From Belonging to Burnout, Five Years at Airbnb

#125

Post by AndrewThrowaway »

langsoul-com wrote: post #28

Never treat a company as family or believe in any of that bullshit. Businesses are a business. At the end of the day, you have to prioritise your own well being.

What is funny about families is that a lot of them are dysfunctional.

As one anecdote goes:

Patient says that he recently made it up with his mother.

Psychiatrist ask what happened.

"She died" answers patient.

And we all know a lot of those families who meet once a year because of the need. And companies then want to call themselves "families".

Re: From Belonging to Burnout, Five Years at Airbnb

#126

Post by oceanplexian »

spaetzleesser wrote: post #94
thundergolfer wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dan Luu also elsewhere makes the argument that most of the impactful engineering work done in large companies is performed by a small percentage of the engineering group.

“most of the impactful engineering work done in large companies is performed by a small percentage of the engineering group.” That is probably true. But we shouldn’t forget that these people can do these things often because they are supported by a large number of people who do the mundane tasks that need to be done.

I’m a cynic but I wish that were true. In my past experience it has usually been the opposite, the bulk of engineers are making unnecessary tools, re-inventing wheels, and designing systems that shouldn’t exist and serve as roadblocks to the minority of engineers who are miraculously getting things done in spite of all that.

Re: From Belonging to Burnout, Five Years at Airbnb

#127

Post by germinalphrase »

refurb wrote: post #58
ta3411 wrote: post #39

I am going to be voted down into oblivion but it's okay. This is my throwaway account anyway. Here are my 3 pragmatic takes regarding this situation: - If you are an engineer, your total comp is easily north of $200,000. At that pay scale compared to other careers, I expect (and I did) to burn through the night as needed. That's a lot of money for anyone to expect to have a comfortable work/life balance. I always com…

That's a lot of money ($200k) for anyone to expect to have a comfortable work/life balance. This isn't true at all. In my last job (not tech) a "brutal" week might be 50 hrs and people were making double that, albeit in more senior roles (10+ years of experience).

What industry?

Re: From Belonging to Burnout, Five Years at Airbnb

#128

Post by ecshafer »

fullshark wrote: post #122

Ultimately employees want to be seduced, they want to believe they are doing more than helping a company's owners' capital accrue + gain value in how it's implemented. They don't want to just punch the clock, they want to be part of a larger mission (and get rich doing it). A lot of this is because the traditional ways people have found value in their time on earth: religion, family, and friends are disappearing and…

"God is Dead" wasn't an aspirational statement by Nietzsche, it was an observational one. Jung further called the move on to "spirituality" in light of the "death" of god as people move on to politics or new age religions to find meaning. This is natural evolution of that.

Re: From Belonging to Burnout, Five Years at Airbnb

#129

Post by cvhashim »

fullshark wrote: post #122

Ultimately employees want to be seduced, they want to believe they are doing more than helping a company's owners' capital accrue + gain value in how it's implemented. They don't want to just punch the clock, they want to be part of a larger mission (and get rich doing it). A lot of this is because the traditional ways people have found value in their time on earth: religion, family, and friends are disappearing and…

You hit the nail on the head
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