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Appreciate the scare quotes, but company towns aren’t much fun for many employees to live in either. Lots of people want to be part of a community that feels d
by confounded 9y ago
Appreciate the scare quotes, but company towns aren’t much fun for many employees to live in either.
Lots of people want to be part of a community that feels diverse and functional, rather than be part of some weird polarizing over-class just because they took a job.
- nostrademons 9y agoFor many people at the big companies, the job is the community that feels diverse and functional. It's just a re-drawing of boundaries. In many modern American cities or suburbs, you don't get community anyway; I can tell you (having experience on both the inside and the outside) that Google has a lot more community than Sunnyvale does.
- Nullabillity 9y agoAnd what happens to (your access to) that community when you quit Google?
- eru 9y agoIt's actually not too bad. I quit, and am still friends with them. You can still get a visitor pass to go boardgaming etc. Of course that might be just a best case scenario..
- ryanbrunner 9y agoDoesn't that seem a bit insane to you though? You're essentially saying the company is permitting you to continue your friendships. What about when they stop doing that?
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- eru 9y agoThey are permitting me on the premises. It's their offices after all. They have no say over what people do outside of those offices.
- nostrademons 9y agoI just go over to their houses or invite them over to mine. I've kept up with many of my Google friends, and we usually hang out over homemade pizza every 2 weeks. There are others where I go to their parties or other events or just invite them out for dinner every couple months. Even in the most company-townish scenarios, I can't really see a company forbidding you from leaving the premises. If you wanna stay friends with a Googler, just invite them over.
- heedlessly2 9y agobut realistically, you'll be hanging out less often and you'll fade into feeling like an outsider?
- eru 9y agoSure. Same thing as quitting a hobby you spend considerable time with and made lots of friends in. I moved internationally so often, I'm used to building new circles of friends.
- heedlessly2 9y agoa hobby you can always pick up again whenever. Harder to comeback to a job and much more awkward to hangout around old coworkers.
- 659087 9y agoHaving to get a "visitor pass" to visit friends sounds like something that would happen with high school or college students living in dorms, not something that should be seen as normal or acceptable in the adult world.
- eru 9y agoIt's their offices.. You don't need no pass for visiting people at home or in a pub etc.