and god help you if you ever use any of them, obviously you have time to play games you don’t have enough work to do. It’s all for show.
I remember a Meta recruiter reached out to me. We had a couple of talks, and then on one of them I asked “So how’s the work life balance”
Oh it’s great! We have a 24/7 cafeteria here, so if you ever need a snack it’s always available. We have sleeping pods, so you can easily sleep, and even 24/7 laundry services, so it’s all around a very relaxing place.
Uhhh yeah man. I’m not some kid fresh out of college. I own a home, and I’m very aware of my work time vs my personal time. Hard pass all around. Kids, if the company sounds too good to be true, there’s an ulterior motive. Those things sound super great… but they’re of course all meant to keep you working around the clock, meeting deadlines. The companies aren’t “hip” or “cool”, it’s all to attract you, and then work you to the bone. A strict 40 hour work week is better than foosball anyday.
I know I’m preaching to the choir but for the people interviewing for their first software gig - well maybe one of them will read this.
The companies aren’t “hip” or “cool”
I believe the industry term is “agile”.
Nah that just means they can’t plan for shit and are constantly fighting fires.
fast paced environment
They’re looking for a volume icon ninja-pirate-wizard, who takes no prisoners. They work hard and play hard
so get ready for your boss to be overly demanding and drunk.a rockstar is who they want
Those things sound super great… but they’re of course all meant to keep you working around the clock, meeting deadlines.
This is not going to be universally true at all big tech-companies. There are places with perfectly reasonable WLB on top of huge salaries and fantastic perks.
These places are usually big enough that you’re going to see extremes on both ends within the same company - some departments with huge deadline pressure cultures, and some with highly relaxed work settings. It can be a bit of a gamble.
We’ve got free local artisan coffee, organic fruit, mineral water, and beer. We turn the kitchen table into a ping pong table with a net after lunch for however long people want to use it and people do. At 17:00 everyone’s got a beer on their desk and by 18:00 the doors are locked and the lights are out. One Thursday a month the table is used for beer pong after work and we play card games like Exploding Kittens. Idk I like it here.
Not everywhere sucks. I’ve never worked an hour over my full-time requirements (ever), I get unlimited sick leave and no one shames me for missing a week as long as I call in properly. 31 Vacation days and company parties are nice too, plus paid travel time and nice hotel rooms. Also I’ve never made more money in my life and we’re all getting extra bonuses to cover the unexpected inflation.
Oh and I can work from home four days a week if I want to. Gotta come in that one day, but it’s a fifteen minute walk from my house so that’s just fine for me. I come in on Tuesdays because that’s when the company orders lunch for everyone (just one day a week but still cool).
I envy you a bit. On the other hand, I have conditions that are at least okay, so I probably wouldn’t trade places because that’d be a lot of hassle searching for a nice place like yours and then trying to get into it
Just a little detail, is your company in the USA, in the EU, or elsewhere?
Europe
At 17:00 everyone’s got a beer on their desk and by 18:00 the doors are locked and the lights are out. One Thursday a month the table is used for beer pong after work and we play card games like Exploding Kittens.
I’d rather go home at 17:00 and do all those things with my real friends, or you know, spend some quality time with my partner.
Plenty of my real friends are people I used to work with back before I was married and stopped getting as much out of this sort of culture… There doesn’t need to be some hard line here - just because you work with people doesn’t mean you can’t be friends
Well we gotta get in out 40 hours. Not more. We just start later.
That sounds like a great gig! Great office life, and a ton of PTO (for American standards). Although I will say, I’ve been in small startups. The beer and alcohol is fun - but the startups grow. It’s all fun until someone who doesn’t drink joins, or someone develops a problem. Keep an eye on those two issues, about 3 of the 4 startups I’ve been at one of those has happened.
Exploding Kittens is boring. Secret Hitler is a much better party game
Wow you’re lucky. I’ve always wanted a job like that.
And for a while I had something similar but unfortunately rotten. We had a ping pong table, afterwork parties, no overtime, lunch, even a swimming pool. And we could use all of it.
However we were seriously underpaid, I got an 80% raise just by saying hello in another company. No remote work without any reason at all (most of my team was in other countries). And awful decision making by upper management.
Made me cynical if something like it is even possible. Glad to hear it is.
My wife’s job has all of those amenities, too! Well, it didn’t at first, but she’s been 100% WFH since covid. She’s got an office with a window, cats in the workplace, lunch is brought to her straight from the kitchen, and she can even take breaks to go on walks with her family during the day.
Who does laundry at work?
Implication was that you stayed there overnight, and didn’t have to worry about needing clean clothes
When employers can’t afford pizza parties, they come up with stuff like “dogs at work”
i work for a big multinational and there was this woman who walks around with a little yappy thing. she’s the only one and i haven’t seen any rules about it in the employee handbook. i think she just turned up with it one day.
Until you step on the owners dog.
Then you will be stepped on by the owner probably
This is a metaphor, right? Right?
U just have to profusely apologize to the dog on your knees and we can both move about our day happily. It’s not that hard
I wish I hadn’t needed to learn these lessons about start ups by working in start ups. I just want to be a mailman or something at this point.
That’s crazy to me because I had the exact opposite experience. I went in hoping for a certain amount, and they offered me knowing full well what I was hoping for, 20,000 more. Plus all the other benefits like video games and dogs at work. In fact I don’t think I’ve ever had a bad experience with startups except that your job is essentially temporary cuz they will either close or sell
I’m allergic to dogs and don’t drink, bad recruiter, shoo! Shoo! spray bottle noises
Foosball
Mama says foosball is the devil!
It’s not as dangerous as stick hockey
ice hockey > stick hockey
Air hockey > sex with office dogs
Tbf that right thing is a VERY low bar
Stepping on a Lego brick is more enjoyable
Depends. Chihuahua or mini-pin, yeah, I agree. But a golden-doodle? That’s a tough call.
Diddle a doodle a day, keeps the…
Hold on, someone’s at my door. Brb
How do you know? You’re disgusting!
Unless i forgot how words work (I am very good at forgetting) I meant litteraly anything is better than doing it with a dog
I don’t know. You seem to know a lot about where having dog sex fits on a scale of enjoyment… Hmmm
It’s either Football or the local equivalent to “Foot” and “Ball”.
The sport with the egg is “American Football”. And you US citizens can call our football “European Football” and not *Soccer".
Foosball specifically refers to the tabletop game in America.
Foosball is just an Americanized spelling of “Fußbal” which is German for Football.
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This is foosball.
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The sport with the egg is “gridiron football”, we call it “football” for short for the same reason other countries call association football “football” for short, it’s the most popular variant here.
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We don’t call it “American football” because that’s not what it’s called, you lot say that because of point 2. Nobody is going to say “European football” because that’s not what it’s called either.
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The word “soccer” was imported from the UK (seriously that word is british as hell, you really think we came up with that shit?), and we use it for reasons outlined in points 2 and 3, and also because “european football” is inaccurate, tiresome, and stupid sounding.
5. This is the first and only time I’ve ever heard of rugby union football being referred to as “ruggers”, I never thought I’d read a dumber-sounding word than soccer but you’re just full of surprises today.For some reason i was imagining one of the replies was the same person, this was in error.-
Bean to cup coffee machines legitimately was part of the reason i took a job at my current company.
Then during covid they downsized offices and got rid of them all.
Now all we get is instant coffee…
scumbags…
Wouldn’t you think that the coffee pays for itself when you factor in productivity?
well i have my own coffee machine at home and i only go into the office like once or twice a year so i’m not THAT upset about it. i just dont get why they wouldn’t just move them from the old to the new office
everything except pay me a decent wage and let me have free time.
mobbing-free Fridays!
I’ve run into this a few times. If the culture and benefits are good but we can’t level on pay, I let them know that I can’t accept the offer but I refer them to a colleague with less experience for whom the pay would be appropriate. After over a decade in leadership I’ve had many employees, and I’m always looking out for ways they can step up the ladder. We’ve gotta have each other’s back in this job market.
These jobs are all pushing 6 figures tho. Not sure what kind of job would try to push 36k on a professional position.