6 ms·

The problem is that Airbnb has about two thousand employees, all of whom for the most part, are on the cusp of getting a very nice payout from an IPO. So I woul

The problem is that Airbnb has about two thousand employees, all of whom for the most part, are on the cusp of getting a very nice payout from an IPO. So I would say company vigor and enthusiasm is at peak levels. Google on the other hand has like 60,000 employees and IPO'd over a decade ago. It almost goes without saying that, as a large, more mature company it's a lot harder to keep employees happy. So... not really a fair comparison IMO.

mrdrozdov 11y ago
Probably could have made the same argument with Google and other large companies before Google IPO'd?
- npalli 11y ago
  Well, Google was the No. 1 employer last year.
rifung 11y ago
I'm not sure it's true that a larger, more mature company has a harder time keeping employees happy. I get that pre IPO companies have that advantage, but a company like Google which makes absurd amounts of money also has its advantages, like being able to afford giving their employees high salaries and also better work life balance. I am not sure that Google gives its employees that though, at least not the latter. Plus, a more mature company should have its processes already ironed out and no more growing pains.
- spaceflunky 11y ago
  This is a good point, I think the better point to make is that when you have a big company that's been around a while there have been a lot more opportunities for things to go wrong, which leads to unhappy current or former employees, and then bad reviews on sites like glassdoor. A company like Airbnb hasn't gone through like 1/100000 of the pains that Google has gone through. Think of all the products Google has built (some successful and some not), think of all the economic environments Google has had to go through (2000 meltdown, 2008 meltdown), think of all the employees who have worked there (there's 60k now, but google has probable cycled through 5x that amount). Airbnb has made like, one product? Through a relatively small stretch of time, while probably still using most of their original employees. It's an electric time to be at Airbnb no doubt, but I wouldn't trumpeted them as the best place to work just yet.
- asuffield 11y ago
  > I am not sure that Google gives its employees that though, at least not the latter. I've been at Google for over a year, and I'd say that you get as much "work-life balance" as you can be bothered to make for yourself. As far as I can tell there's no penalty for choosing to do that, but not everybody does.
  - skj 11y ago
    My experience as well.
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
    - rezistik 11y ago
      Is there any job at any company in any industry where "putting in your 8 hours" pushes you to the top? There are anecdotes about amazing contractors who can work 8 hours a week showing up pointing out problems and offering smart solutions but almost all of them can do that because at some point they were putting in 100 hours a week. If you care about moving upward yes you will need to do more than show up for 8 hours.
      - deleted 11y ago
        [deleted]
      - taurath 11y ago
        What's the top? Sr. Management sometimes has to work that long. You can definitely move up with 8 hours a day. You need to do more than just show up though.
      - krisdol 11y ago
        >Is there any job at any company in any industry where "putting in your 8 hours" pushes you to the top? Upward, yes. The top, no >If you care about moving upward yes you will need to do more than show up for 8 hours. This is not true. If you need to show up for more than 8 hours at the bottom to move up, then you are working at a place where it is expected you will show up for more than 8 hours once you move upward. In my experience, there are companies where almost everyone does 8 hours or less, and there are companies where the work never stops. It's an office culture and it doesn't change with titles, from my experience.
s73v3r 11y ago
I'd say the opposite. While Airbnb is on the cusp of a payout, Google's an established and quite profitable company. They have plenty of money that they can use to make people happy. Airbnb has the promise of money, which will almost certainly be diluted to hell and back when all is said and done.
- GCA10 11y ago
  It's the promise of something better -- just about to arrive -- that has the biggest impact on happiness. Seriously. "We're going to have a baby!" "I just got engaged." "We just hired this great engineer." "We're going to Hawaii for Christmas." I could go on, but you get the point. Once you've had Google's free food and other perks for a while, they become baseline. They're just part of what's normal.
  - avn2109 11y ago
    Beats me why you're getting downvoted. Hedonic adaptation is totally a thing. [0] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedonic_treadmill https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedonic_treadmill
  - hkmurakami 11y ago
    This is absolutely true. The promise of a big purchase (the anticipation) makes people way more happy than the purchase itself and even being able to enjoy the fruits of the purchase.
mahyarm 11y ago
Airbnb engineering is also relatively tiny. About %10 of it is engineers as far as I remember.
baudehlo 11y ago
At 2000 employees, 95% of them aren't getting anything worth talking about. That's within the margin of error for glassdoor.
- hkmurakami 11y ago
  at a $25B valuation, you need 0.004% ownership of the company for your shares to be worth $1M. Even discounting for strike price, it's reasonable that 10~15% of the employees would have a basis point ownership or more.

mrdrozdov 11y ago

Probably could have made the same argument with Google and other large companies before Google IPO'd?

npalli 11y ago
Well, Google was the No. 1 employer last year.

rifung 11y ago

I'm not sure it's true that a larger, more mature company has a harder time keeping employees happy. I get that pre IPO companies have that advantage, but a company like Google which makes absurd amounts of money also has its advantages, like being able to afford giving their employees high salaries and also better work life balance. I am not sure that Google gives its employees that though, at least not the latter. Plus, a more mature company should have its processes already ironed out and no more growing pains.

spaceflunky 11y ago
This is a good point, I think the better point to make is that when you have a big company that's been around a while there have been a lot more opportunities for things to go wrong, which leads to unhappy current or former employees, and then bad reviews on sites like glassdoor. A company like Airbnb hasn't gone through like 1/100000 of the pains that Google has gone through. Think of all the products Google has built (some successful and some not), think of all the economic environments Google has had to go through (2000 meltdown, 2008 meltdown), think of all the employees who have worked there (there's 60k now, but google has probable cycled through 5x that amount). Airbnb has made like, one product? Through a relatively small stretch of time, while probably still using most of their original employees. It's an electric time to be at Airbnb no doubt, but I wouldn't trumpeted them as the best place to work just yet.
asuffield 11y ago
> I am not sure that Google gives its employees that though, at least not the latter. I've been at Google for over a year, and I'd say that you get as much "work-life balance" as you can be bothered to make for yourself. As far as I can tell there's no penalty for choosing to do that, but not everybody does.
- skj 11y ago
  My experience as well.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
  - rezistik 11y ago
    Is there any job at any company in any industry where "putting in your 8 hours" pushes you to the top? There are anecdotes about amazing contractors who can work 8 hours a week showing up pointing out problems and offering smart solutions but almost all of them can do that because at some point they were putting in 100 hours a week. If you care about moving upward yes you will need to do more than show up for 8 hours.
    - deleted 11y ago
      [deleted]
    - taurath 11y ago
      What's the top? Sr. Management sometimes has to work that long. You can definitely move up with 8 hours a day. You need to do more than just show up though.
    - krisdol 11y ago
      >Is there any job at any company in any industry where "putting in your 8 hours" pushes you to the top? Upward, yes. The top, no >If you care about moving upward yes you will need to do more than show up for 8 hours. This is not true. If you need to show up for more than 8 hours at the bottom to move up, then you are working at a place where it is expected you will show up for more than 8 hours once you move upward. In my experience, there are companies where almost everyone does 8 hours or less, and there are companies where the work never stops. It's an office culture and it doesn't change with titles, from my experience.

s73v3r 11y ago

I'd say the opposite. While Airbnb is on the cusp of a payout, Google's an established and quite profitable company. They have plenty of money that they can use to make people happy. Airbnb has the promise of money, which will almost certainly be diluted to hell and back when all is said and done.

GCA10 11y ago
It's the promise of something better -- just about to arrive -- that has the biggest impact on happiness. Seriously. "We're going to have a baby!" "I just got engaged." "We just hired this great engineer." "We're going to Hawaii for Christmas." I could go on, but you get the point. Once you've had Google's free food and other perks for a while, they become baseline. They're just part of what's normal.
- avn2109 11y ago
  Beats me why you're getting downvoted. Hedonic adaptation is totally a thing. [0] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedonic_treadmill https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedonic_treadmill
- hkmurakami 11y ago
  This is absolutely true. The promise of a big purchase (the anticipation) makes people way more happy than the purchase itself and even being able to enjoy the fruits of the purchase.

mahyarm 11y ago

Airbnb engineering is also relatively tiny. About %10 of it is engineers as far as I remember.

baudehlo 11y ago

At 2000 employees, 95% of them aren't getting anything worth talking about. That's within the margin of error for glassdoor.

hkmurakami 11y ago
at a $25B valuation, you need 0.004% ownership of the company for your shares to be worth $1M. Even discounting for strike price, it's reasonable that 10~15% of the employees would have a basis point ownership or more.