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Silicon Valley layoffs aren’t a cost-cutting measure. They’re a culture reset

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Re: Silicon Valley layoffs aren’t a cost-cutting measure. They’re a culture reset

#61

Post by skyyler »

crazygringo wrote: post #58
skyyler wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>it's not infantilizing because you still pay for lunch I don't buy it, they've still made the decision of where you're getting your food for you. The only way to escape infantilisation is to never be an employee. Why would you let mommy and daddy tell you what projects you're allowed to work on?

No they haven't, because you have the choice to save money and bring lunch from home. That's the whole point. And no, there's nothing inherently infantile about being employed, because you're freely entering into a work contract. But what is adult and mature is exchanging your professional work for money. What isn't adult and mature is your company starting to provide things that aren't related to work or the workpla…

You can decide to bring lunch from home at a company that provides lunch as a perk.

Either way, I'm glad I don't care about appearing adult and mature to my peers.

Re: Silicon Valley layoffs aren’t a cost-cutting measure. They’re a culture reset

#62

Post by [deleted] »

skyyler wrote: post #61
crazygringo wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No they haven't, because you have the choice to save money and bring lunch from home. That's the whole point. And no, there's nothing inherently infantile about being employed, because you're freely entering into a work contract. But what is adult and mature is exchanging your professional work for money. What isn't adult and mature is your company starting to provide things that aren't related to work or the workpla…

You can decide to bring lunch from home at a company that provides lunch as a perk. Either way, I'm glad I don't care about appearing adult and mature to my peers.

[deleted]

Re: Silicon Valley layoffs aren’t a cost-cutting measure. They’re a culture reset

#63

Post by hakfoo »

crazygringo wrote: post #30
skyyler wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Free lunches are childish to you? Paying for food as a captive audience is very mature? I guess I'm glad to be childish :)

Well you could actually very much look at it as childish. The "free" food is obviously paid for by the company with money that could otherwise go to salaries. If everyone got higher salaries and food was charged for, then you could make choices about spending money in the cafeteria or saving money bringing food from home. Adults make choices. By making the decision for you that you'll take the lower salary but get un…

The firm I work for did catered lunches daily before Covid, and seems to be rebooting the process as people returned to office. (I'm remote, so I only experienced it during occasional returns to the mothership)

I suspect part of the percieved value is that by making lunch a communal event, rather than everyone grabbing 30 minutes sometime between 10:45 and 14:30, means it's also a time for face time outside of group lines. If you need to talk to someone on another team, you usually have a chance to make contact at lunch.

Re: Silicon Valley layoffs aren’t a cost-cutting measure. They’re a culture reset

#64

Post by jfim »

crazygringo wrote: post #30
skyyler wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Free lunches are childish to you? Paying for food as a captive audience is very mature? I guess I'm glad to be childish :)

Well you could actually very much look at it as childish. The "free" food is obviously paid for by the company with money that could otherwise go to salaries. If everyone got higher salaries and food was charged for, then you could make choices about spending money in the cafeteria or saving money bringing food from home. Adults make choices. By making the decision for you that you'll take the lower salary but get un…

It's a way to avoid taxes. The company writes it off as a business expense, while it is considered a qualified fringe benefit (non taxable) for the employee.

Furthermore, many of the tech campuses in the south bay don't have enough restaurants nearby to support all of their employees going out to eat lunch.

There's also something to be said for just grabbing lunch at the cafeteria with your colleagues as opposed to figuring out where to go eat, driving there, waiting for the order, eating, then driving back.

Re: Silicon Valley layoffs aren’t a cost-cutting measure. They’re a culture reset

#66

Post by edejong »

crazygringo wrote: post #58
skyyler wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>it's not infantilizing because you still pay for lunch I don't buy it, they've still made the decision of where you're getting your food for you. The only way to escape infantilisation is to never be an employee. Why would you let mommy and daddy tell you what projects you're allowed to work on?

No they haven't, because you have the choice to save money and bring lunch from home. That's the whole point. And no, there's nothing inherently infantile about being employed, because you're freely entering into a work contract. But what is adult and mature is exchanging your professional work for money. What isn't adult and mature is your company starting to provide things that aren't related to work or the workpla…

FTR, I read this thread. You’re 100% right but probably misunderstood because new generations have not known anything else.

To me, when employees took company healthcare insurance in the US as a perk, I think the problems began. It’s worse than infantalising. It is creating servitude. “Work, lest thou looses their primal needs of bodily integrity.”

Re: Silicon Valley layoffs aren’t a cost-cutting measure. They’re a culture reset

#68

Post by Ebree »

rajin444 wrote: post #17

Software is one of the best tools we have for dealing with human communication issues (in a variety of ways). While there might not be many iPhone / fb / twitter size jackpots out there (until the next hardware growth enables new opportunities), there’s still tons of human communication problems to be solved. Software is ultimately about replacing inefficient human communication and we still have a lot of that.

I am of exactly opposite view. Software is about replacing organic direct human communication. Since computers came under roofs streets are empty & local communities died out. Breaking up through electronic channel, creating fake digital public face being examples.

Re: Silicon Valley layoffs aren’t a cost-cutting measure. They’re a culture reset

#69

Post by skyde »

dahdum wrote: post #34
toss1 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup, this is about reasserting the boss-over-worker structures. The workers were getting to uppity, expecting things like actual work-life balance.

> The workers were getting to uppity, expecting things like actual work-life balance. Which of these large companies would you say have a poor work-life balance on average? Google, Facebook, Adobe, Microsoft, and others have reputations as rest-and-vest retirement homes. I've heard Netflix can be challenging, along with some parts of Apple, but nothing like startups, investment banking, or big law. Twitter before Elo…

I worked in Investment banking, at Microsoft and Amazon. I can tell you majority of team at Amazon and facebook have 0 work life balance.

When you work in Investment banking you are not expected to get 3 call at 3am every night including weekend and have to wake up get a coffee and work for 3+ hours to fix the problem the intern or idiot from another team (not your team) caused.

in Investment banking you can take a 2 week vacation without the whole company catching fire.

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