7 ms·

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 co

by 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.
      - dragonwriter 11y ago
        There is a difference between "do more than show up for 8 hours" and "show up for more than 8 hours". You usually have to do the former to move up, it may or may not involve the latter.
  - 11y ago

by rifung 11y ago

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.
    - dragonwriter 11y ago
      There is a difference between "do more than show up for 8 hours" and "show up for more than 8 hours". You usually have to do the former to move up, it may or may not involve the latter.
- 11y ago