5 ms·

Any current Facebook employees care to chime in on what makes this company worth your time as an employee in 2019?

by save_ferris 8y ago

pault 8y ago
Being showered with wealth?
- save_ferris 8y ago
  It's depressing how true this probably is for many of them. In a lot of ways, it feels like the new Wall Street: cash large paychecks that distract you from the ethically repulsive work you do destroying privacy, undermining democracy and public discourse, and targeting young children for money that aren't capable of consenting to such financial decisions. Stealing from families by exploiting toddlers. This is what many of the most talented minds in the world are working on. Truly tragic.
  - matz1 8y ago
    It's the reality, you have accept it or be depressed all the time then.
    - save_ferris 8y ago
      > you have to accept it No we don't, we can choose not to accept it and to speak out against it. It's abhorrent behavior and shouldn't be tolerated in a modern society. Many of the world's greatest atrocities began with apathy. It's so easy to look back and wonder how on Earth people accepted the behavior of the powerful that descended to tyranny, but looking into the future is much more difficult, and often, much more uncomfortable.
      - matz1 8y ago
        Accept doesn't imply that you are a against it or support it or tolerate it, but mearly acknowledging the reality that there are always gonna be people who do something that you deemed abhorrent or atrocities.
TwoNineA 8y ago
Green pieces of paper with dead presidents on them.
- jordigh 8y ago
  Imagine actually getting paid with cash. To my deep regrets, I almost never use cash anymore; is it any different in California?
  - nindalf 8y ago
    It's a metaphor.
    - jordigh 8y ago
      Well, I can't tell. Parts of the world still use cash primarily or commonly. I don't know what they do in the US. If the metaphor is prevalent, that must be because cash still is. I honestly would have a hard time identifying some of the currency around here in Canada because I almost never see it.
whatshisface 8y ago
Facebook employees are not all scheming about the best way to target 5-year-olds. Just like any company (including 90s Microsoft!) for every one executive working out how to maximize business value at the expense of everyone else on earth, there are a couple directly complicit engineers, and a hundred engineers that mainly work on improving server uptime so that Joe Schmoe can catch up with his highschool friends, or so Grandma can use a computer (in the case of 90s MS). Any company employing over 1,000 people is almost guaranteed to be involved in something evil because of the corruptibility of mankind, but you can't just assume that every single person is a direct contributor. Another similar example would be how you can't blame every individual American citizen for the various crimes the CIA has been running around the world committing, because there really are only a few Americans who have any connection to those things. This is true despite the fact that Mother, Apple Pie, the CIA World Factbook and the assassination of third world government officials are all technically part of the same institution. You might counter with, if people can claim innocence even though they are part of a guilty organization, what's the motivation to improve? The answer to that is that the moral calling of Americans isn't to all leave America until the CIA gets shut down, it's to stay and stubbornly assert their morals until things improve. Evil leaders would much rather have a slightly smaller but completely obedient workforce than they would a larger, more skilled but unmanageable (in evil directions) one.
- throwaway5752 8y ago
  I mean, and to pull the CIA analogy further... you could easily argue that any country you name has done (or is actively doing) equally or more evil acts, or will. Running away from problems allows bad actors to go unchallenged.
- donaldknuth123 8y ago
  And yet Google had engineers unrelated to the Maven project resigning in protest. Just speaks to how little morality the people at Facebook have.
- rjkennedy98 8y ago
  What a bunch of BS relativism. So every organization over 1000 people is equally evil? As Bill Maher said, working for HBO is not the same as working for Monsanto. And for who have been following, working for Facebook is like much more like working for Philip-Morris than its like working for HBO. And spare the nonsense about our collective guilt for the CIA. Those of us who vote (and vote against the fascists) have no reason to feel guilty.
noxToken 8y ago
I personally don't subscribe to this line of thinking, but a a fair share of people figure that it would happen anyway. So if someone is going to do it, then why not make sure you're the one to profit from it?
- buckminster 8y ago
  If I choose not to do evil then less evil is done in total. The amoral person who takes the Facebook job is not doing whatever evil they would have been doing instead.
  - pier25 8y ago
    I doubt that's the case. If there is a market it will be exploited by someone. The solution is to regulate the market so that Facebook cannot do whatever it is doing.
    - buckminster 8y ago
      I don't see a contradiction. If I avoid doing evil less evil will be done. And if we outlaw a particular kind of evil that will likely reduce the incidence of that kind of evil. Both things are helpful.
      - pier25 8y ago
        > If I avoid doing evil less evil will be done. On short term, maybe. The possibility of doing evil to customers is proportional to the market size, much like in the drug business.
emdowling 8y ago
Yep. I work on Integrity at Facebook. The challenge is massive and a huge proportion of the world uses our services to communicate with friends and family. Personally, this is true for me. I've lived in four cities and three countries in my relatively short life, and my immediate family is often in four countries at any one time. I have friends around the world, who are starting families, getting married and generally living their lives. Facebook's products are the best way for us to stay connected to each other. The world has never dealt with issues we're now facing, on the scale we're now facing. The lessons we learn as a society from Facebook, both its successes and failures, will only make whatever comes next that much better. Every single day, I work alongside incredibly smart people who are empowered to turn the tide. We're making a difference but perception often lags reality. It's also a really, really big ship to turn around. I've been given an opportunity to be part of the solution. I know that I would regret it forever if I didn't give it a try - if not me, who else?
billfruit 8y ago
One could also ask why anyone should be working for military contractors/armaments manufacturers/small arms/weapon manufacturers/industries of adverse environmental impact? I think the ethical hazard in working at these places are more serious, than Facebook, which is after all a non mandatory, non essential service, which most of its users use for idle pastime. I do however why such questions are being asked of Facebook/Google and not of companies like Thales/Lockheed Martin? Perhaps the mainstream media feel more threatened by Facebook/Google, because like all the MSM crave power, and Google /Facebook /other social networks can democratize dissemination of opinions and erode the power of MSMs to act as gatekeepers of Ideas.

Any current Facebook employees care to chime in on what makes this company worth your time as an employee in 2019?

pault 8y ago

Being showered with wealth?

save_ferris 8y ago
It's depressing how true this probably is for many of them. In a lot of ways, it feels like the new Wall Street: cash large paychecks that distract you from the ethically repulsive work you do destroying privacy, undermining democracy and public discourse, and targeting young children for money that aren't capable of consenting to such financial decisions. Stealing from families by exploiting toddlers. This is what many of the most talented minds in the world are working on. Truly tragic.
- matz1 8y ago
  It's the reality, you have accept it or be depressed all the time then.
  - save_ferris 8y ago
    > you have to accept it No we don't, we can choose not to accept it and to speak out against it. It's abhorrent behavior and shouldn't be tolerated in a modern society. Many of the world's greatest atrocities began with apathy. It's so easy to look back and wonder how on Earth people accepted the behavior of the powerful that descended to tyranny, but looking into the future is much more difficult, and often, much more uncomfortable.
    - matz1 8y ago
      Accept doesn't imply that you are a against it or support it or tolerate it, but mearly acknowledging the reality that there are always gonna be people who do something that you deemed abhorrent or atrocities.

TwoNineA 8y ago

Green pieces of paper with dead presidents on them.

jordigh 8y ago
Imagine actually getting paid with cash. To my deep regrets, I almost never use cash anymore; is it any different in California?
- nindalf 8y ago
  It's a metaphor.
  - jordigh 8y ago
    Well, I can't tell. Parts of the world still use cash primarily or commonly. I don't know what they do in the US. If the metaphor is prevalent, that must be because cash still is. I honestly would have a hard time identifying some of the currency around here in Canada because I almost never see it.

whatshisface 8y ago

Facebook employees are not all scheming about the best way to target 5-year-olds. Just like any company (including 90s Microsoft!) for every one executive working out how to maximize business value at the expense of everyone else on earth, there are a couple directly complicit engineers, and a hundred engineers that mainly work on improving server uptime so that Joe Schmoe can catch up with his highschool friends, or so Grandma can use a computer (in the case of 90s MS). Any company employing over 1,000 people is almost guaranteed to be involved in something evil because of the corruptibility of mankind, but you can't just assume that every single person is a direct contributor. Another similar example would be how you can't blame every individual American citizen for the various crimes the CIA has been running around the world committing, because there really are only a few Americans who have any connection to those things. This is true despite the fact that Mother, Apple Pie, the CIA World Factbook and the assassination of third world government officials are all technically part of the same institution. You might counter with, if people can claim innocence even though they are part of a guilty organization, what's the motivation to improve? The answer to that is that the moral calling of Americans isn't to all leave America until the CIA gets shut down, it's to stay and stubbornly assert their morals until things improve. Evil leaders would much rather have a slightly smaller but completely obedient workforce than they would a larger, more skilled but unmanageable (in evil directions) one.

throwaway5752 8y ago
I mean, and to pull the CIA analogy further... you could easily argue that any country you name has done (or is actively doing) equally or more evil acts, or will. Running away from problems allows bad actors to go unchallenged.
donaldknuth123 8y ago
And yet Google had engineers unrelated to the Maven project resigning in protest. Just speaks to how little morality the people at Facebook have.
rjkennedy98 8y ago
What a bunch of BS relativism. So every organization over 1000 people is equally evil? As Bill Maher said, working for HBO is not the same as working for Monsanto. And for who have been following, working for Facebook is like much more like working for Philip-Morris than its like working for HBO. And spare the nonsense about our collective guilt for the CIA. Those of us who vote (and vote against the fascists) have no reason to feel guilty.

noxToken 8y ago

I personally don't subscribe to this line of thinking, but a a fair share of people figure that it would happen anyway. So if someone is going to do it, then why not make sure you're the one to profit from it?

buckminster 8y ago
If I choose not to do evil then less evil is done in total. The amoral person who takes the Facebook job is not doing whatever evil they would have been doing instead.
- pier25 8y ago
  I doubt that's the case. If there is a market it will be exploited by someone. The solution is to regulate the market so that Facebook cannot do whatever it is doing.
  - buckminster 8y ago
    I don't see a contradiction. If I avoid doing evil less evil will be done. And if we outlaw a particular kind of evil that will likely reduce the incidence of that kind of evil. Both things are helpful.
    - pier25 8y ago
      > If I avoid doing evil less evil will be done. On short term, maybe. The possibility of doing evil to customers is proportional to the market size, much like in the drug business.

emdowling 8y ago

Yep. I work on Integrity at Facebook. The challenge is massive and a huge proportion of the world uses our services to communicate with friends and family. Personally, this is true for me. I've lived in four cities and three countries in my relatively short life, and my immediate family is often in four countries at any one time. I have friends around the world, who are starting families, getting married and generally living their lives. Facebook's products are the best way for us to stay connected to each other. The world has never dealt with issues we're now facing, on the scale we're now facing. The lessons we learn as a society from Facebook, both its successes and failures, will only make whatever comes next that much better. Every single day, I work alongside incredibly smart people who are empowered to turn the tide. We're making a difference but perception often lags reality. It's also a really, really big ship to turn around. I've been given an opportunity to be part of the solution. I know that I would regret it forever if I didn't give it a try - if not me, who else?

billfruit 8y ago

One could also ask why anyone should be working for military contractors/armaments manufacturers/small arms/weapon manufacturers/industries of adverse environmental impact? I think the ethical hazard in working at these places are more serious, than Facebook, which is after all a non mandatory, non essential service, which most of its users use for idle pastime. I do however why such questions are being asked of Facebook/Google and not of companies like Thales/Lockheed Martin? Perhaps the mainstream media feel more threatened by Facebook/Google, because like all the MSM crave power, and Google /Facebook /other social networks can democratize dissemination of opinions and erode the power of MSMs to act as gatekeepers of Ideas.