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Silicon Valley is evolving and focusing on employees
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- bsenftner 8y ago"Silicon Valley has empathy" propaganda. The only empathy SV has is how to masquerade empathy for dollars.
- bilbo0s 8y agoThat's not unique to Silicon Valley, the entire economy works like that. Which is why so many working class people are falling further and further behind. At it's root, this economy is basically the capital class doing the minimum they have to do to protect capital investments. It's just that the minimum the capital class has to do in Silicon Valley is more than the minimum they have to do outside Silicon Valley.
- FakeComments 8y agoMy experience of $bigcorp2 is much better than $bigcorp1, and I completely believe it has to do with the second not being a tech company — but instead a traditional company that moved into tech. So, I think tech companies have a kind of pathological treatment of their workers we don’t see broadly. (You’re also greatly simplifying why working class people are falling behind, to the point of misrepresenting it.)
- jungler 8y agoI would hazard a guess that there is an evolutionary lineage type of thing going on here: SV companies have borrowed both workforces and managerial skills from each from the Fairchild days, and as that became increasingly VC-driven it became almost systematic for newer companies to get extremely large in record time. Doing that puts the company on foundations that are fundamentally weak - there's no legacy to follow, just empty air. Hence the default model became a PT Barnum style hokum story, something that stirs up hearts and minds but will show them the egress once their wallets have been emptied.
- amyjess 8y agoMy company takes care of their employees much better than pretty much any other tech company I've ever heard of, and while it _is_ a tech company, I can only conclude that it's for the following reasons: - It was founded and is still headquartered in the suburbs of Dallas and has nothing to do with SF/SV. We technically have a sales office in SF, but that's just a place for our account managers on the West Coast to meet with clients (we also have similar sales offices in NYC, London, and Amsterdam... though I think the London office has been expanded into a real office with a handful of non-sales people regularly present). - We're an enterprise B2B telecom, not some web/social/mobile-driven B2C company. B2B has a number of different cultural mores from B2C, and that's reflected in our internal values. And telecom in general is a whole 'nother ballgame entirely. It's a much more conservative industry than the rest of tech. When I tell random people what kind of company I work at, I usually say "we're kind of an enterprise ISP", which is about as far from SV-typical tech companies as you can imagine (though I stress the kind of, because we're more than just an ISP). Working here doesn't feel like working at a tech company at all. It feels like working for a traditional enterprise, and I like it that way. And that's not just me talking: we regularly win awards on Glassdoor because lots of other people think that way. We also have a TV screen in the office that shows our latest Glassdoor reviews. One day, I noticed a particular line scroll by, and it was interesting enough that I hopped on Glassdoor to ctrl-F for it so I could look at it in its entirety. Here's the Pros section from this person's review: > Good work/life balance. Management has Texas values rather than imposing a Silicon Valley-style groupthink. Growing and profitable. It looks like I'm not the only one who's realized that the reason this company is so good to their employees is because they're not from Silicon Valley.
- dominotw 8y agohttps://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Employee-Review-Masergy-RVW21604548.htm https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Employee-Review-Masergy-RV... link for the lazy
- bradleyjg 8y agoSV tech companies aren’t outliers in terms of being money driven, but they are outliers in sanctimony. The only major sector I can think of that competes on that axis is health care.
- walshemj 8y agoJournalist's or Architects would beat SV for that hands down
- lwf 8y agoIndividual journos or architects, sure. Firms? Fat chance. https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704317704574503480514474764 https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704317704574503... > The Wall Street Journal plans to close its news operation in Boston, eliminating nine positions, amid a historic decline in newspaper revenue. > > The affected journalists can apply for other positions at the newspaper, said Robert Thomson, managing editor of The Journal and editor-in-chief of the paper's parent company, Dow Jones & Co., in a memo to staff on Thursday. The Boston Bureau was home to, among other things, the hard-hitting investigative healthcare reporter, Keith Winstein, the author of Mosh.
- bradleyjg 8y agoEh. I don't know anything about architects and architecture, but neither most news outlets nor most journalists are doing all that well financially. The saving the world shtick is easier to take when there are actual sacrifices being made.
- xkcd-sucks 8y agoArchitecture is low pay and looooong hours unless partner at a hot/top firm. Apparently the thrill of "building cool stuff" and "changing the world" makes up for the low pay. Typically architects age into consulting or management. Thinking about it, not too different from the tech industry.
- drb91 8y agoYea but most industries don’t pretend to make the world a better place. SV does with a bullet; see Steven Pinker’s bullshit that Gates ate up with a spoon.
- EduardoBautista 8y agoThis is why I always tell people when they are young with no responsibilities...milk as much money from your employer as you can. If you don’t have a significant amount of equity (5%>), you are not in it “together”. Your employer went into to startups to make money, not to “make the world a better place”.
- warp_factor 8y agoexactly. Startups//Employers in Silicon Valley forces that narrative of making the world a better place in order for people to accept being paid less and getting less equity. Also, with all the revelation of the last couple years, I'm not convinced at all that Silicon Valley makes the world a better place.
- passerby2019 8y agoDays of Facebook millionairs are gone. With all the VC stock options scheeming they better ramp up other benefits.
- skilled 8y agoIs there any substantial argument on the idea of silicon valley being an absolutely pointless concoction of a few clever minds? Meaning, would there really be any adverse effect if that earthquake did wipe SV out in the near future? I feel sorry for people who sell their creative energy for the sake of money and popularity. At the end of the day, you only become popular amongst pricks and clowns who pay your bills. This emphasis that we are saving the world with tech is so far-fetched and dumb it grinds my gears to hear anything about it. We have learned so eloquently so as to avoid looking at ourselves, and instead hope that tech is going to solve all of our problems. Funny how that works -- solving problems with the same mindset that created the problem. I think Einstein had something to say on this.
- beardedwizard 8y agoDo you believe changing the world is a real goal, or a convenient phrase used to convince the naive to work hard and cheaply? Let's not give too much credit, it's a sales pitch and almost everyone knows that.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- sbov 8y agoI have never worked at a company that used that phrase in a straight faced fashion. Silicon Valley encompasses a lot more than consumer driven tech startups. It includes old standard companies like National Semiconductor, Nvidia, AMD, Intel, and so on. I think you've wrapped yourself in an echo chamber that you don't care to be inside.
- azernik 8y agoAnd, in fact, those "boring" companies account for most of the employment. Cisco alone probably employs more people in the Bay than the entire cryptocurrency ecosystem. (Disclaimer - I have looked up precisely zero actual numbers on this.)
- ecshafer 8y agoThe start ups that talk about saving/changing the world are typically the ones that seem to be doing the least to change the world out of pure empathy. I see that the most in digital media, or the companies that are in a really traditional area but are being hip about it, something like point of sale systems.
- sixdimensional 8y agoI am, by accident, a small part of a "culture transformation" at a large, well established corporation. The group doing this has the same intention (to improve the employee's experience), but I have observed this is consistently at odds with the leadership's desire to keep employees at arm's length, and maintain the strategic control over employees. For example, you can't be nice to employees and then lay them off at the same time- such an act instantly violates trust, therefore leaders say they want things to be better for employees but are often not willing to make the sacrifices necessary to follow through. So then you get stuck in a conundrum, and the leaders look and often act like hypocrites. Employees do that too. It's been an interesting time in this role, like I said, for me it was somewhat accidental and I can clearly see the arguments from both sides. Still working on it but, I'm not sure how you resolve some of these issues without the right attitude - that maybe we are not "leaders and employees", but that we are all "professional colleagues" - and then following through with the proper organizational supports and programs to help such an organization survive and operate, and still be able to compete.
- Waterluvian 8y ago"you can't be nice to employees and then lay them off at the same time" You absolutely can and you must. Being professional and being nice are not exclusive. Quite the opposite. A professional manager understands that being nice doesn't mean protecting someone from reality just because reality sucks. It means showing them respect during the process.
- sixdimensional 8y agoI quite agree with you. I think this is more the perception of the leadership I'm working with than my own opinion. However, convincing them of your point has been the difficult part. Their fear of undermining their position is high.
- conover 8y agoCompletely agree. This reminds of the scene from Moneyball where trading players is discussed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTjhHrcyiQI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTjhHrcyiQI.
- golemotron 8y agoMy advice for anyone starting the world of work is become debt-free as quick as possible, invest, and save. Smile and say yes to any company that tries to tickle your feels. No matter who you are, you are expendable. Don't ever forget it.
- tuckfrump 8y agoI live by this mantra. If you are lucky enough to be hired be a FAANG or a startup/company that compensates you well, live and save like it’s not going to last forever.
- techntoke 8y agoThis is why we have so many tech companies doing unethical things.
- drdeadringer 8y agoI'm currently thinking that both of you are correct. I'd like to hear more and/or otherwise.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- reidjs 8y agoI disagree. If your employees are desperate to work for you, exhausted, and utterly dependent that’s when unethical products are built. Employees with more mobility and freedom are less likely to get their hands dirty unless their sick perversions align with their manager’s.
- burger_moon 8y agoI'm guessing SpaceX isn't part of this given they share the front page with a story about laying people off.
- almost_usual 8y agoSpaceX also isn’t headquartered in SV
- drb91 8y agoWho cares what’s actually in the valley, it’s just a shorthand for the tech industry.
- IggleSniggle 8y agoI have never read it that way, but rather as a shorthand for VC dominated tech-startup culture. I’m a developer that’s never worked on the west coast though; it may have different regional connotations.
- warp_factor 8y agoThere is still something special about the Silicon Valley location vibe that you only see while living there. Everyone in tech around you making a LOT of money but pretending it is not their goal. That they want to make the world a "better place". Then going to SF and seeing so many homeless and poor people being down looked by tech hipsters.
- walshemj 8y agoDo you think the majority of tech SV workers look down on the homeless and poor at a greater rate than say traditional blue collar workers do?
- warp_factor 8y agoProbably on the same levels as traditional blue collars. What I find shocking is the dystopia with that morale high ground of "making the world a better place". It all feels very fake and hypocritical.
- tuckfrump 8y agoThe reality: Silicon Valley has had a lot of bad press lately and like Michael Bluth’s family on Arrested Development they want you to know that “we’re nice now”.
- williesleg 8y agoHow about employing the homeless Mexican migrants? Directly. Like write some code. What are they afraid of? Racists.
- imh 8y ago>Stanford students Larry Page and Sergey Brin invent Google in their dorm rooms. This is such a ridiculous version of "Stanford PhD candidates Larry Page and Sergey Brin invent Google as part of their doctoral research."
- orcdork 8y agoAlmost as ridiculous as "Silicon Valley is evolving and focusing on employees" I'd say.