Comment by SketchySeaBeast
6 years ago
> I am glad that open offices let companies give nice perks to employees even in extremely expensive real-estate markets like the valley. I would rather have a well-equipped onsite gym and a roomy cafeteria and a free ice-cream shop than that space being filled with 100 'offices'.
You're saying companies trade out having open offices for perks. I'm saying I don't care about those perks, and would rather have less perks and 4 walls.
It feels like we're being astroturfed by SV recruiters. It blows my mind when I see people playing ping pong, pool, and arcade games at work. Why would anyone spend an hour or more playing games in the office rather than just getting their work done and leaving to spend time with family, friends, pets, or hobbies?
> Why would anyone spend an hour or more playing games in the office rather than just getting their work done and leaving to spend time with family, friends, pets, or hobbies?
I worked for a SV company with a ping pong table, video games, board games etc.
If you don't participate you're seen as "not a team player"... It's the same with lunches etc. They want you at the office as much as they can get/keep you there, and now they're doing their best to create "inclusive social environments".
It creates an "in" and an "out" crowd, and if someone decides you haven't hit your monthly Go Karting/drinking event/fancy dinner quotas you're the office outcast. Managers love this because it's all under the guise of "family" or "team building" etc. and it gives them a totally arbitrary metric to nickle and dime someone on.
> If you don't participate you're seen as "not a team player"
In other words, it turns what should be a recreational activity into a job requirement? While I haven't experienced that myself (but then, I don't work in SV), if I did, it would make me actively angry to have a job requirement that did nothing but take away from accomplishing what I was hired to accomplish.
Silicon valley (especially to start up ecosystem) is a meat grinder, and the meat it runs on is single new grads who are willing to work for peanuts, while only being able to afford to live in a one-bedroom flat with three roommates.
Family does not play into this picture.
Different strokes for different folks? If you want inclusivity for people with kids, can you not offer the same courtesy to people without families?
Our team has some middle-aged people who do a strict a 9 to 5 and that is perfectly fine. We never expect them to stay around for board games or whatever.
But that doesn't mean the rest of us can't hang out with our colleagues.