Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Netflix: Culture of Fear

glassdoor.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 107 posts

Re: Netflix: Culture of Fear

#31

Post by lukev »

philwelch wrote: post #21
lukev wrote: post #16

It feels like the author of this is an corporate lifer who isn't comfortable with being actually responsible for product performance, or without being able to shelter behind hide-bound processes. Some process is needed, sure, but large companies are far more likely to be held back by overly rigid processes and lack of agility than lack of process. If anything, this makes me more impressed with Netflix, that they've m…

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.

Re: Netflix: Culture of Fear

#32

Post by jamesaguilar »

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?

Re: Netflix: Culture of Fear

#33

Post by alnayyir »

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.

This isn't the right place for you to project your frustrations and prejudices.

Re: Netflix: Culture of Fear

#34

Post by mccutchen »

d2viant wrote: post #28
ardit33 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry, but this comment is a bit of an ad hominem. I am an old member of the HN community, and pretty in tune with the startup community (been to one before my current job) Lets just say that my day to day job has nothing to do with me posting this. At the end of the day I am just an engineer as most people in here.

Then perhaps I'm missing something. Clarify for me, were you ever an employee there? The reason I ask is because it's on a website for employees to review their own company -- which is how most people interpret those reviews. Moreover, the review says it's from a Netflix employee -- specifically a Netflix Manager. I guess it's fine if you have an opinion and want to post it, but if none of the above is true, why not…

I don't think he's making any claims that this comes from first person experience.

Re: Netflix: Culture of Fear

#35

Post by jrockway »

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 think some people have different "career goals" than other people. Some people want to show up and keep their chair warm from 9-5 every day for 4 years, to get their small pay increase and title bump.

Others want to come into the company with the title "Awesome Excellent Programmer", work on something cool, and leave the company after they've done something interesting with the title "Awesome Excellent Programmer". These people do not get upset when they are not promoted for doing nothing, and do not tend to write bad reviews. They also tend to be the better programmers.

(I realized this recently. To get a bump up in my title and salary at my current job, I basically have to "serve my time". The fact that I'm much better at programming than other people does not accelerate the process; promoting me now would make the "time" that others have put in less meaningful. If I was promoted, then they would all quit and write bitter reviews like the one linked in this thread. "This company sucks, all they do is hire long-haired hippies that tell me to write tests! I have 20 years of experience, why would they let this nobody have a minimally meaningful title!?", it would read. Now, if it was my company, I would want highly-paid people that can't program to leave. But I am not a highly-paid person that can't program, and they make the rules. Oh well, at least I get a good laugh.)

Re: Netflix: Culture of Fear

#37

Post by yannickt »

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.

"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.

Re: Netflix: Culture of Fear

#38

Post by male_salmon »

I work at Netflix and I cannot say that my experience reflects this particular review. I like working here because my coworkers are intelligent and I get to work on exciting projects. The slides we have on the jobs page are fairly accurate.

That said, I can't completely discount other people's experience since I only have my own experience to go on. It would seem that folks are let go because their skills are no longer relevant or they don't perform to par. This does not necessarily indicate that the person is a poor employee, but that he/she was not able to deliver given a particular context.

Post reply on HN