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Silicon Valley Is Sneaking Models into This Year’s Holiday Parties
- ProAm 9y agoKind of sad.
- dyoo1979 9y agoI was really hoping that this article was going to talk about some kind of machine-learned model that had been used to improve holiday parties. My hopes, dashed against the shores of reality.
- rsashwin 9y agohaha, I thought the same when I first read the blurb.
- matte_black 9y agoNothing new, this has been happening for a long time. They are called atmosphere models.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- bdcravens 9y agoA lot of things have been happening for a long time. That doesn't guarantee it should continue.
- matte_black 9y agoI’m commenting more on the article than the practice. It’s clear that someone wrote this with a splashy headline and juicy intro to make it seem like some new phenomenon that perfectly dove tails with current events about sexual harassment or lack of company diversity.
- rsynnott 9y agoI mean, I don't work in Silicon Valley, but it was my impression that this sort of thing _used_ to be common, but had largely gone away now. I'm very surprised that it is (apparently) more common than ever, especially in the current climate.
- musage 9y agoHow is that a splashy headline? Are you referring to "sneaking"? > “The companies don’t want their staff to be talking to someone and think, Oh, this person was hired to socialize with me,” says Kermaani, who’s sending models to seven tech parties in the same weekend. It's just accurate. And where in the article is there any implication that this is an entirely new thing? > say a record number of tech companies are quietly paying [..] it’s part of an older trend. Tech companies have long used models to run their booths at trade shows such as CES in Las Vegas, hype up crowds at product launches, and direct foot traffic at conferences. That said, this year’s record-setting requests for the minglers, known as “ambiance and atmosphere models,” are a step beyond what the industry has seen before, says Chris Hanna, who’s run TSM Agency since 2004 and counts among his clients “one of the largest search engines in the world.” The agencies themselves seem to say it's reaching a new level in both number and now becoming about a generic fun-ness, rather than more specific tasks, like sit in this booth and be pretty. But other than that, the article outright says it's not new. The record numbers are not up for debate anyway I guess, but as for the "type" of engagement, if you imply this has always been so generic and fake, what's your source for making that claim? > that perfectly dove tails with current events about sexual harassment or lack of company diversity. So you are you saying it doesn't? Can you eloborate on how sexism has nothing to do with it, then?
- matte_black 9y agoIt's a splashy headline. "Sneaking" is unnecessary. Replace the word with "Hiring", you don't sneak atmosphere models into a party, you hire them and they show up. There's also no point in calling out this year's parties, this has happened at a bunch of parties for at least the last two decades. It's not even exclusive to Silicon Valley! Tradeshow models, booth models, and atmosphere models are also not the same. Tradeshow models must at least know about the product they are representing to discuss it with a potential customer. Atmosphere models must be very sociable and capable of carrying good conversation with anyone, you cannot just turn a cold shoulder to someone you don't find interesting. Booth models are mostly there to look pretty and maybe help with generic marketing tasks like passing out flyers. Pointing out that the practice isn't new in the article doesn't mean the article itself transforms into something new and becomes a breath of fresh air. It's still a rehash of old ideas made to feed off current events to produce a bit of ad revenue from people looking to keep their outrage up to date. So yes, I'm saying this does perfectly fit into current events. It was designed to.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- ksk 9y agoWhat do you want to change, and what is your rationale?
- radiorental 9y agoWe have atmosphere models that show carbon emissions are warming the planet. Should we continue to just gawk at those models too? Or do something about it? It's 2017, not an episode of Mad Men.
- matte_black 9y agoMaybe 2017 is a future generation’s episode of Mad Men.
- xj9 9y agoya well i'm starting my own company with blackjack and hookers. i (a woman) happen to enjoy pretty men and women, why wouldn't i want to have some atmosphere models at my event?
- ringaroundthetx 9y agoThe strangest thing is going to a city where none of this is controversial Its great
- godzillabrennus 9y agoThis isn’t new. https://www.google.com/amp/s/techcrunch.com/2014/03/04/the-dating-ring-is-raising-money-to-fly-women-from-nyc-to-sf-because-dating/amp/ https://www.google.com/amp/s/techcrunch.com/2014/03/04/the-d... They’ve been flying women to San Francisco for dates.
- bdcravens 9y agoTotally different. The article you're referencing is trying to connect two dating markets (SF and NYC) where both sides are ostensibly interested. Models at parties are actors, pretending to be real people.
- numbsafari 9y agoActually, they're also real people. They're merely pretending to be someone they are not.
- ImSkeptical 9y agoPresumably models are also real people who have an interest in being there (their interest is in being paid). If consenting adults are being treated fairly, I don't see any moral problem here.
- bdcravens 9y agoThe article says they are told to say "I'm (real employee)'s friend". If I go to a party put on by my employer and they are paying people to lie to me, I would say I'm not being treated fairly.
- ImSkeptical 9y agoEdit: Oops. I misread you the first time. Maybe my comment is no longer relevant. But you chose to accept that job. The actor on TV isn't being treated unfairly because he/she has to lie and say they're a detective, or whatever. I don't see why the model is being mistreated because her role is software company employee. If anyone is being mistreated by the lie, it's the person being lied to, who is, you know, being lied to. That said, this is a balance between having a fun party, and possibly feeling dumb when it turns out the girl you thought you were flirting with is actually a model hired to entertain you. I think it's up to those companies, the employees, and the models, to strike the right balance.
- EpicEng 9y agosounds awful /s
- davidu 9y agoPathetic. The whole point is to celebrate with the employees and their families and recognize the hard work everyone has put in over the year. A stranger not connected to an employee would take away from that value. If you want more women at the event, hire more women at the company and create a culture that encourages that.
- bdcravens 9y ago> If you want more women at the event This has nothing to do with equality. They aren't hiring these models as equals, but for the misogynistic dynamic (while removing the organic nature of opposite-sex interaction)
- throwaway0255 9y ago> They aren't hiring these models as equals, but for the misogynistic dynamic Interesting, my mind goes straight to this being incredibly demeaning toward the legitimate male attendees of the party. Didn't even occur to me that somebody would have the opposite interpretation. That'd be my only thought at the party. "They had to pay this good-looking person to pretend to talk to me." I don't see how this is misogynistic? I just see this as an extreme degradation of the males involved.
- jordigh 9y agoIt's misogynistic because it commodifies women. Having a woman to talk to is something that you can just buy, like a car or a nice meal. They're not treated as people, just as consummables.
- GCU-Empiricist 9y agoLike hiring a software engineer to make code for you?
- jordigh 9y ago
- jasode 9y agoYes, this practice of models at parties brings back memories. In 2000, a very well-known enterprise software company (Northeast not Silicon Valley) hosted a conference for customers and had a night party for the attendees. The most memorable thing I remember was the group of extremely pretty women on roller skates mingling with the crowd. E.g. they'd skate up and ask random attendees, "Hey where are you from? Are you enjoying the party?" It's very strange how a logical brain processes what's happening. One the one hand, your rational brain says they're just paid to be there to loosen up the crowd and their smiles and questions to the attendees are fake. On the other hand, your emotional brain doesn't care and you smile and laugh back anyway. It's like the Disney World effect. You know it's a facade but enjoy yourself anyway!
- throwawayjava 9y agoIDK. My logical brain says "it's not 1950 anymore; the PR blow-black has the potential to be truly brutal." My emotional brain says "This is horridly objectifying and super awkward."
- AdeptusAquinas 9y agoBoth ways too. When I see this sort of thing at a conference party or vendor thing, I think 'what do the organisers think we are, just rabid animals?' Its demeaning for all concerned
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- notyourday 9y agoOh you mean booth bunnies? It works all every time it is tried if a booth bunny knows what she is doing. That's why it keeps happening. When my wife shows up as a part of the sales team the company always sells out of the product that they bring.
- User23 9y agoWhy should these women be denied the opportunity to do this job, supposing they want to do it?
- SadWebDeveloper 9y agoIt's been years since i attended my company Christmas party, last time i went C-levels were bragging how much money/things they have, specially to the new employees and everyone else was either discussing work things or the latest gossip on what c-level is going to get fired. SV parties looks like they are trying hard to make wolf-of-wallstreet-level parties.
- jdavis703 9y agoThis is not new for sure, but it deserves discussion in light of the #metoo movement. In SV we're supposed to be innovators, why aren't we leading the way towards a more equal society? If our holiday parties are boring because we've hired a masculine monoculture, then maybe the solution is to hire more diverse people the entire year. It's objectifying to women and minorities if the only time we're hired is to make something more exciting for a few hours.
- Shivetya 9y agono need for more hiring diversity, just keep calling them out. diversity hiring is one way some of these creeps mollify their conscious and excuse themselves for keeping these activities. plus if you can find other people whom you don't agree with you can redirect the guilt. the simplest method is to make known our displeasure and just call them out. it can be stopped. the culture of men will be men and women will be quiet will end in SV but only by going after the problem directly, not indirectly through hiring practices
- throwaway55554 9y agoBecause the honest truth of the matter is that the nerds that got bullied and discriminated against when they were young, only ever wanting to just be like others and fit it, got exactly what they wanted. They are just as bullying and obnoxious and discriminating as the people that bullied them.
- thorell 9y agoWho is being bullied in the article's situation?
- friedButter 9y agoClearly the hot women leveraging their physical qualities to be paid money!
- ardit33 9y agoDo you realize that they are tech companies and need engineers, and only 16% of CS graduates are female? Where will they find the balanced ratio if the supply is so bad? You can't just wave a magical wand and suddenly make more women engineers. Most tech companies genuinely want to have balanced gender ratio in their workforce, but they can't as there are just not enough women that graduate on CS. "By dividing the school's number of female graduates by this overall average, we discovered the average percentage of women in computer science programs; 16%."
- EliRivers 9y agoOh yes, I remember this. It ends up with prostitutes being hired by the company for the evening, sometimes on a banded scale such that the most attractive prostitutes are only for the senior employees. Used to be primarily in the finance industry, but modern Bro-tech companies are following that path. It's nice that some agencies screen out the obvious requests for that, but such customers will just move on to the agencies that don't.
- VeronicaJJ123 9y agoThis is wonderful. I am not sure why Silicon Valley did not do this earlier. When I was in South Korea and Japan these was pretty much a common thing.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- maxk42 9y agoThis has been standard practice for decades -- nothing new. Moreover, it's standard practice in a lot of big industries. Particularly advertising, finance, automobiles, and others.
- bdcravens 9y agoA lot of things have been standard practices in various industries for decades. That doesn't mean they should be, and today's world gives everyone a new voice to challenge these kind of things.
- workthrowaway27 9y agoWhat's the issue with this exactly? The models are getting paid. Presumably no one is compelled to work as a hired model at one of these events.
- bdcravens 9y agoIt's social papier-mâché, and the fakeness is demeaning. However, that aside, the lack of disclosure is unethical.
- ringaroundthetx 9y agoDemeaning to whom exactly? Im trying to figure out what your argument rests upon. lol at lack of disclosure, call the FTC
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- nimbius 9y agoWhen attendance is so important to leadership theyre willing to do anything to insist their holiday parties are somehow different than any other corporations awkward, two drink ticket catered navel gazing event. 'non mandatory employee engagement' is generally how HR describes these sterile lifeless get-togethers. This inevitably gets translated into "i strongly encourage my team to attend" by management, which in turn results in every H1B employee showing up in cringing terror of being fired while every salaried non-exempt engineer and programmer brace for the inevitable "so, i didnt see you at the party last week!" from their manager. Save the time and effort. split the budget for this dumpster fire masquerading as a social event, and add it to my raise.
- r00fus 9y agoI've seen two successful approaches: 1) make it super interesting but excuse the family-types who instead take time off. 2) remove the party bit and make it an extra-curricular commitment perhaps giving-oriented like community service. Mandatory Happiness belongs in one of the circles of hell.
- dbcooper 9y agoNothing like celebrating the year with some community service!
- Yen 9y agoYou joke, but there's some definite advantages to that strategy. From my point of view: * I'm a software engineer. I'm already highly-paid, so the marginal hedonic impact of a nice party is relatively small compared to its monetary cost. * I'm nerdy, and prefer quiet, small, get-togethers centered around an activity, compared to large, loud, alcohol-fueled parties. * Holiday parties are often in the evening, requiring me to schedule time for a work activity in typical non-work time. Community Service is often most reasonably performed in the day, making it an alternative activity during the workday. * As a highly-paid engineer, I'm aware of differences in luck and circumstance that led to my current good fortune - giving back to the community has a relatively notable hedonic impact. * As a software engineer, most of my work is non-tangible and abstract - I basically talk to a non-person, all day. Many types of community service involve physical labor, repairing or constructing a physical thing/place. This taps in to some core desire of humans, and thus also has notable hedonic impact. * Community Service is good PR, for both the company and employee. Holiday parties risk negative PR, either for drunken scandals, visions of gilded-age excess, or both. * The money that _could_ be spent on alcohol, catering, venue, DJs, and apparently modeling talent, I'd rather see spent on more direct benefits for employees - snacks, educational materials/career development, or just plain raises. So, yeah, I would definitely consider the perks of working for a company that advertised that it did _not_ host large holiday parties, spent the budget elsewhere, and organized community service events.
- astrowilliam 9y agoThis has been happening at tech companies for decades. Not only are there models at the parties, but there's entertainment, food, drinks, etc. It's a good time, enjoy yourself and don't take it too seriously. This really isn't the end of the World.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- seanmcdirmid 9y agoIt wouldn’t be so bad if they had male models also. Actually, I’m sure someone could make that into a winning business.
- lebanon_tn 9y agoThe article mentions that they had a few male models. At this company, anyway.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- huac 9y ago> For a typical party, scheduled for the weekend of Dec. 8, Cre8 Agency LLC is sending 25 women and 5 men, all good-looking, to hang out with “pretty much all men” who work for a large gaming company in San Francisco Who is it?
- jsmthrowaway 9y agoEducated guess, based on "large gaming company," "San Francisco," the number of models hired, hand selecting those models and giving them backstories, and the disregard for opinion in doing something like this: Kixeye. Honestly, that smells a hell of a lot like something Kixeye would do. Maybe EA or Zynga, but I doubt it. As soon as I finished the paragraph, Kixeye popped into my head automatically. I will caveat that I'm very possibly wrong, but I'm just sharing my guess.
- RangerScience 9y agoHuh. Seems like a better way to do it would be to just invite / hire a BUNCH of artists. No need to pretend; support an important part of why the Bay is the Bay, and expose your peeps to people they might not otherwise meet.
- 659087 9y agoI doubt very many artists would be interested in spending their night having awkward forced interactions with random brogrammers and Kalanicks at a corporate christmas party. There's a reason these companies have to pay women to show up and pretend to be interested in what their employees have to say.
- RangerScience 9y ago> awkward forced interactions Then you're "doing it wrong". Pay them to bring their art. Include them in the party (whatever degree of free drinks / food / access everyone else gets). Tell them that if someone's being a dick, they can feel free to be a dick right back. Teach your people that no-one else is responsible for their happiness.
- notfromhere 9y agoThe cool underground artists that made the bay what it is can't afford the bay anymore
- ScottBurson 9y agoThat's a brilliant idea!
- ringaroundthetx 9y agoMost models are artists, not sure why you want the convoluted impractical version.
- RangerScience 9y ago> Most models are artists This is fair! > convoluted impractical version. I don't understand.
- chatmasta 9y agoSubmarine for Cre8? I can’t imagine how an article like this crosses a writer’s desk without a tip-off, most likely from the guy quoted in the article, who runs the agency. For all we know he could be totally fabricating the whole claim. This is “journalism” ladies and gentlemen...
- LandR 9y agoI'd feel incredibly akward turning up to a works party and there's models there who were basically being paid to pretend they want to talk to me. It's just awful and sad.
- graphitezepp 9y agoThis would actually freak me out, I would probably need to leave immediately once I understood what was happening.
- MadSudaca 9y agowhy?
- olalonde 9y agoLike joining a soccer game and finding out half the other team was hired to let you score goals -- not a very stimulating experience if you ask me.
- MadSudaca 9y agoWhat would be the analogous of scoring goals in the context of a work party with coworkers? Also, I think it would be a bit exaggerated to freak out and leave. Although maybe I'm imagining the situation differently to how it was.
- olalonde 9y agoSince you didn't get the analogy: I don't find it enjoyable to converse with people who are paid to deceive me, especially if I find out about it after the fact. I wouldn't mind it as much if the models were clearly identified as such so that I could either avoid them or engage with them knowing full well what's going on. I am shocked you find this surprising.
- 9y ago
- heedlessly2 9y agoIts kind of funny. These Silicon Valley types make $150k, but still can't get a girlfriend
- Mountain_Skies 9y agoIt might be different in SV but my experience in IT has been that the vast majority of employees over 25 are in stable marriages and either have or are planning on having kids. Of course the Valley is its own special bubble but doubt singledom is going to be the path most end up on into middle age.
- omegaham 9y agoI'll anecdotally confirm this. As much as people love shitting on the awkwardness of nerds, most people get it together enough to find love by age 25. People learn enough social niceties to get by, even if they never become the life of the party. Women start caring less about how cool the guy is and and start caring more about "Do I actually get along with this person?" Somewhere in the middle of those lowered expectations for coolness and increased social competence, nerds do just fine.
- vanadium 9y agoDuring the dot-com boom in Atlanta back in '99-'00, agencies and, to some extent, startups around the city were known for hitting the strip clubs for client meetings. It was pretty rife out there within the industry. I doubt that would even remotely pass today. Just because some practices were "acceptable" over a prior timeframe doesn't exactly render it acceptable today.
- epalmer 9y agoI was in Atlanta from '78 to 2000. From '80 to '93 I owned several businesses. I had clients come in and ask to go to the strip clubs. I declined. We offered cab money. I suspect some of my employees went with them but I was never in the know.
- meddlepal 9y agoThis is still fairly common in B2B and enterprise sales relationship management from what I see and have been told. Know your customer and their representative(s) tastes.
- ringaroundthetx 9y agoThere's a popular strip club in San Francisco's financial district, it is a prime spot for tech company business meetings. They have a lunch with rave reviews. So much so that local tech company - Yelp's - employee manual says its not an appropriate place for meetings But to act like this is part of days gone by.... well Washington Post chooses to try and shame the tech industry in different ways. You have to realize that these articles are comedy, a trope, a meme, and unhinged from people's actual perspectives, including the model's themselves, many of which are also women with rational opinions and interest in the tech sector. No, this reality isn't inclusive to all people, and many women, who are working hard on a career devoid of these distractions. They are not capable of unilaterally being the voice of the women that are just as thrilled to cater to the tech sector but using just their bodies.
- ixacto 9y agoThis is pathetic. Either don't hire women to be there or just hire a bunch of strippers. I say this as someone who is irritated by both sexism and political correctness run amok.
- thorell 9y agoTheir job isn't just to be attractive. Their job is to help schmooze people who don't seem to be having fun. There are social skills involved, whether or not you value or believe in them.
- zeveb 9y agoThis is honestly the most valuable comment on this page, and ironically it's the very last one that I see. The models in this case really are performing a valuable job.
- nsgi 9y agoPerhaps that's worth doing, no one wants to feel left out at a party. But then why do they need to be models, or focus on talking to the opposite gender?
- 659087 9y agoHow incredibly cringeworthy. Glad to see Silicon Valley companies continuing to meet my expectations.
- pmurT 9y agoWhat's so wrong with enjoying the company of women with better genetics than most?
- Molaxx 9y agoI was once invited to a recruiting event by palantir (it was in Israel) where I noticed a bunch of good looking women talking up other people. The weird thing was they were all dressed practically the same, wearimg a small black dress. Now, this event wasn't formal or anything, so I gathered that they were 'atmosphere models'. That was a very weird experience , to think that someone paid for pretty women to have human interaction with me. I don't get how this passes as a good idea. Later I found out the organizer was a woman, so bizarre. Silicon valley is weird.
- misterHN 9y agoQuite frankly, I think Americans won't tolerate intelligent people in Silicon Valley much longer. American patience with technology is running on fumes. Americans hate Silicon Valley, and they'd rather have models pretending to work than actual people who make things. Americans are sick of it, and they want it to die. Americans will look forward to the day when all employees of Silicon Valley companies are models: people who are incapable of actual work, actual thought, yet pretend to work. Americans will happily turn Silicon Valley into a Hollywood casino. In fact, I think there will be a trend to reward such companies and punish companies that do technology research. Governments exist to protect people from technology. Americans will accept a fake technology industry because they see a real technology industry as a threat. In fact, Americans will give a great sigh of relief when they realize they don't have to worry about the next technology company because it is staffed entirely by bombshell blondes who never studied a technical subject, or beautiful men who know only golf, tennis, big houses, and fast cars. The issue of jealousy will be entirely beside the point; Americans want relief from technology anxiety, and they'll accept a show business version of Silicon Valley if that's what it takes to get a good night's sleep.
- 0xdeadbeefbabe 9y agoIf I were Norvig-like I'd claim I was at the party for my looks.
- bdamm 9y agoWhen I first saw this the headline was shrunk to "Silicon Valley Is Sneaking Models into..." and I assumed "the workplace" to be the logical conclusion of this. People paid to look pretty and sit at a desk and pretend like they work to adjust the workplace ambiance? Seems like a logical direction for this to go in.
- Jach 9y agoSimilar things have already been happening in Asian countries for years... e.g. https://kotaku.com/in-china-women-hired-to-motivate-computer-programmers-1725573574 https://kotaku.com/in-china-women-hired-to-motivate-computer...
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- buserror 9y agoI actually don't see much of a problem. These models are hired to have a chat with nerds, and the nerds are actually paid (directly and indirectly) to talk to them. Everyone is paid to be at that party and look reasonably good for the appearance of a good time. Most 'nerds' there don't enjoy being there either, they do it because they are professionals... like the models they are mingling with...? Any issue there? I mean, I rather enjoy talking to a model (female, or male in fact) -- it's not a business I understand, they are professionals with possibly quite interesting lifestyles and stories. Wildly different from the 'colleague' grade. I used to hang out with ballet dancers in a different lifetime, it was fascinating. Likewise, it's entirely possibly that models will be happy to work on their acting skills and so on to play that game. Perhaps the nerds can take a clue or two... It's not a strip club, it's no more degrading for the models as it is to the employees, who still have to put up and suck up to their managements -sometime abusive, in more subtle ways- for the sake of appearance (just not physical), so how different is it? Oh and remember, some models also like parties. In the wild days of the 90's at computer shows, most 'parties' ended up in 'afters' with a whole bunch of the show models, because if you throw a bunch of (then) young people from different backgrounds together with a corporate credit card, stuff is going to happen, after business hours.
- Nullabillity 9y agoUnder that reasoning, why bother with the party to begin with?
- buserror 9y agoBecause, appearances? I mean, in many companies, you have to appear at socials -- remember, execs have zero clues what you are doing, all they know is what they can see and touch.
- vikasg 9y agoIt would be more honest --- still inappropriate --- for a company to take everyone out to a strip club where the rules of interaction are well-known. It's gross that a company would hire women and have them pretend to be employees solely for the gratification of the men. And no, it doesn't matter if there were a few male models. That's not appropriate either, but it's very clear that this is a practice aimed at men at male-dominated companies. The employer is not in the business of getting you off. Practices that try to do that inherently create an exclusionary environment. And if your defense against the blatant objectification of women described in this article is some variant of "oh but look at both sides" then I suggest that you look at human interaction in the context of history and not as a blank Jupyter notebook that you put numbers into.
- mfe5003 9y agoMaybe they should invite some other company to their party with the other gender ratio if it is such a problem.
- stuffedBelly 9y agoMy thoughts exactly. Or host semi-exclusive parties at larger public venues such as bowling centers, where employees have chance to mingle with outsiders, likely with better gender ratio (most such venues have split sections and people can walk across them. Thirsty Bear in SF is a good one). Not to even mention implication on gender issues, hiring models to interact with employees does not really help them improve their social skills.
- Tade0 9y agoWe tried to host such a thing a few times in college. Apparently female-dominated environments suffer from social awkwardness as much as male-dominated ones.
- mywittyname 9y agoI wouldn't mind this at all. Given the choice between a meaningless conversation with a model, one with what's-his-name-again from Accounting, or a generic work conversation with the coworkers I spend most of my life talking with, I'd choose the model.
- mmanfrin 9y ago"Silicon Valley is" is real lazy and dumb reporting.
- stuffedBelly 9y agothat's why companies in Bay Area need to at least try to be good citizens representing Silicon Valley. Generalization is a tendency in human nature.
- jtmcmc 9y agoHaving hosts at an event is one thing having people pretend to be guests of the party is seriously creepy. I've never heard of this happening at a bay area tech company (as in from someone who went to one) though perhaps they wouldn't have known.
- ryandrake 9y agoThis article and especially the comments here are desperately searching for something to take offense to. FFS it's just a corporate holiday party. These things are usually so bland and sterile I don't even show up. Companies do all sorts of things to drive attendance: Good food, drinks, interesting venue, and entertainment. These guests are hired to further improve the atmosphere. Artificial? Sure. The end of the world? Come on. The article specifically mentions that male models are also employed, so all of the knee-jerk ranting about sexism and misogyny is misplaced.
- danjoc 9y agoWhy would you be upset if the models are not? The models might be really upset if they don't get that job where they make $200 an hour. That might be the difference between presents under a tree and no Christmas for their kids.
- heartbreak 9y agoI, too, frequently forget that there are people in this world besides me and “the models.”
- danjoc 9y agoWell, yeah, that's my not so subtle point here. The only people who seem to be upset are the people who have to have paid actors pretend to be their friends for a few hours. From the outside, it looks silly. I think it would be a shame to see their personal embarrassment and bruised egos ruin an easy job opportunity for a few people who would like to make $200/hr attending a party. That sounds like a pie job. Professional party attender.
- xaedes 9y agoBecause they are ordered to deceive me?
- stillsut 9y agoIsn't the whole point of paying $5000/month to live in SF the access to cultural benefits? If you want a strict monastic environment for your company, rural Idaho would probably get the job done at 1/10 the price. I'm reminded of a story a couple years ago when all incoming Duke freshman had to read Alison Bechdel's Fun House, a graphic novel with slightly gay themes. Yes, a few were offended by this, and one person made the news for publicly refusing to read it. But I don't think it ended up as a PR loss for Duke. They said if you are coming into an elite liberal arts college, these are the type of things that are consumed and debated. Everything makes someone uncomfortable, mine's Karaoke - if they have a machine there people will be like, "stillsut come up and sing Tom Petty with me". But we need to be firm about our desires and not let the heckler's veto erode the culture.