3 ms·

> One of the first things I noticed is that almost everyone working for Microsoft had this perfect life???a spouse, kids, nice houses, good cars. I'm continual

> One of the first things I noticed is that almost everyone working for Microsoft had this perfect life???a spouse, kids, nice houses, good cars. I'm continually surprised how often this kind of life is considered 'perfect'. Every item in this list adds more liability and commitment to your life which is something very few 20-somethings (including myself) have enough experience with to handle it let alone know it's what they enjoy. Beyond financial security, investing time in what you actually want to do with your life and your own hobbies is going to be much more rewarding and important than nice cars and houses. Even kids can become just another status symbol intended to virtue signal to your class appropriate 'friends' that years latter downgrade to just peers and colleagues. > Huge campus, nice cafeterias, woods, a pond, overwhelming space. Everything seemed great.... Ugh, this trend to make work environments indistinguishable from a university campus is just the latest trend to warm up new employees until their fully committed to the boiling sewage that is a life that is all work and ass kissing. You only have to remember that FAAMNGS are committed to their shareholders to know that for every dollar invested in their campus, they need two back from you.

rgoulter 7y ago
> You only have to remember that FAAMNGS are committed to their shareholders By committing only to shareholders, they miss out on other stakeholders: employees, suppliers, customers, community. (Jonathan Haidt discusses at 18:50 onwards in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOu_8yoqZoQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOu_8yoqZoQ When the company emphasises only shareholders, they miss out on building cooperative relationships with the other stakeholders).
- KingMachiavelli 7y ago
  I say that meaning their fiduciary responsibility is to their shareholders. Their other stakeholders are by nature secondary. I'll have to check that video out but unless the shareholders themselves vote to prioritize employees and others above profit, the company and, more directly, upper management risks lawsuits and loosing their own lucrative positions.
  - skybrian 7y ago
    Not a lawyer but it seems like in practice, the fiduciary responsibility thing seems like more of an ideology that some people buy into than a legal constraint? Management can choose to do all sorts of crazy things and argue that it's in the company's best interest. (But also read Matt Levine on how everything bad is also securities fraud.) The thing that really aligns employee incentives with shareholders is restricted stock and options. Employees directly benefit when the stock goes up, so of course it creates a culture where most people want it to go up and aren't happy when it goes down.
    - Gibbon1 7y ago
      It's not an ideology it's an excuse for board members and CEO to do what they want without being called on it. Namely loot the company. The guys in the mahogany suite say look the only people we are responsible to are the stockholders. Who most of them it turns out have very little coherent control. That's very convenient.
wanderer2323 7y ago
>> Huge campus, nice cafeterias, woods, a pond, overwhelming space. Everything seemed great.... >Ugh, this trend to make work environments indistinguishable from a university campus is just >the latest trend to warm up new employees until their fully committed to the boiling sewage >that is a life that is all work and ass kissing. Every feature that you are complaining about happens naturally when you have as many employees as MS has in Redmond. It has nothing to do with malicious agents planning to boil employees alive in ass kissing. Well, maybe not the pond. Clearly THAT is the infernal device of campusness that entrances the innocents. Disclosure: walked to that pond from time to time during lunch when I was working in the area, probab ly already brainwashed.

rgoulter 7y ago

> You only have to remember that FAAMNGS are committed to their shareholders By committing only to shareholders, they miss out on other stakeholders: employees, suppliers, customers, community. (Jonathan Haidt discusses at 18:50 onwards in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOu_8yoqZoQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOu_8yoqZoQ When the company emphasises only shareholders, they miss out on building cooperative relationships with the other stakeholders).

KingMachiavelli 7y ago
I say that meaning their fiduciary responsibility is to their shareholders. Their other stakeholders are by nature secondary. I'll have to check that video out but unless the shareholders themselves vote to prioritize employees and others above profit, the company and, more directly, upper management risks lawsuits and loosing their own lucrative positions.
- skybrian 7y ago
  Not a lawyer but it seems like in practice, the fiduciary responsibility thing seems like more of an ideology that some people buy into than a legal constraint? Management can choose to do all sorts of crazy things and argue that it's in the company's best interest. (But also read Matt Levine on how everything bad is also securities fraud.) The thing that really aligns employee incentives with shareholders is restricted stock and options. Employees directly benefit when the stock goes up, so of course it creates a culture where most people want it to go up and aren't happy when it goes down.
  - Gibbon1 7y ago
    It's not an ideology it's an excuse for board members and CEO to do what they want without being called on it. Namely loot the company. The guys in the mahogany suite say look the only people we are responsible to are the stockholders. Who most of them it turns out have very little coherent control. That's very convenient.

wanderer2323 7y ago

>> Huge campus, nice cafeterias, woods, a pond, overwhelming space. Everything seemed great.... >Ugh, this trend to make work environments indistinguishable from a university campus is just >the latest trend to warm up new employees until their fully committed to the boiling sewage >that is a life that is all work and ass kissing. Every feature that you are complaining about happens naturally when you have as many employees as MS has in Redmond. It has nothing to do with malicious agents planning to boil employees alive in ass kissing. Well, maybe not the pond. Clearly THAT is the infernal device of campusness that entrances the innocents. Disclosure: walked to that pond from time to time during lunch when I was working in the area, probab ly already brainwashed.