4 ms·

I have a bunch of friends at Facebook - and from what I hear, this article is not very far off from what is happening. And it's all about many of the seniors le

I have a bunch of friends at Facebook - and from what I hear, this article is not very far off from what is happening. And it's all about many of the seniors leading with example. Take Philip Su, who was the site lead for Facebook London. In most organizations, that would translate to "manager of everything happening at Facebook". After 3 years he decided to take another lateral move - to move back to software development (no lead, just a software engineer) https://www.facebook.com/the.philip.su/timeline/story?ut=32&wstart=-2051193600&wend=2147483647&hash=10153933142446458&pagefilter=3&ustart=1 https://www.facebook.com/the.philip.su/timeline/story?ut=32&... When you work at a company where managers demonstrate that it is a lateral move - moving from management to individual contribution - well, then this stuff starts to work. Another thing that this article does not touch on, is the transparency that people at Facebook share what's going on with them professionally. My buddy said a senior person shared on Facebook @work how he had gotten a bad performance review, and how this made him feel... for all other employees to see, and comment on. My buddy was saying that "when I joined, I thought that people were just drinking kool aid about how our culture is different. But now that I'm in - I seriously have not expected it to be this different to anywhere I've worked before" I do think that Facebook is doing something incredible with keeping a very startup like and transparent culture going at this large scale. No other company of this size even comes close.

embiggen 10y ago
With many close friends who work at $FB, I promise you politics are alive and well :)
- argonaut 10y ago
  Yes, but this doesn't add much because any human situation involving more than 2 people involves interpersonal dynamics, AKA politics. It's a question of how much.
- FaOS2qDWbFeRK2h 10y ago
  Is "$FB" the new "Micro$oft"?
  - Gigablah 10y ago
    It's just a reference to their stock ticker symbol.
shekispeaks 10y ago
The Philip Su example is great, but being an early employee and a manager has basically has insurance against getting fired and he can do what he pleases. That IMHO does not reflect the life of an average facebook employee.
- nocarrier 10y ago
  Philip is not unique, FB engineering managers of all levels and tenure move into development roles. It's a relatively common occurrence; I'd guess around 5% of managers switch back to coding each year.

embiggen 10y ago

With many close friends who work at $FB, I promise you politics are alive and well :)

argonaut 10y ago
Yes, but this doesn't add much because any human situation involving more than 2 people involves interpersonal dynamics, AKA politics. It's a question of how much.
FaOS2qDWbFeRK2h 10y ago
Is "$FB" the new "Micro$oft"?
- Gigablah 10y ago
  It's just a reference to their stock ticker symbol.

shekispeaks 10y ago

The Philip Su example is great, but being an early employee and a manager has basically has insurance against getting fired and he can do what he pleases. That IMHO does not reflect the life of an average facebook employee.

nocarrier 10y ago
Philip is not unique, FB engineering managers of all levels and tenure move into development roles. It's a relatively common occurrence; I'd guess around 5% of managers switch back to coding each year.