5 ms·

> All I'd say is; Netflix have a pretty extreme culture[1] > 1. https://jobs.netflix.com/culture Scary. From some extracts, it seems more a cult than a compa

> All I'd say is; Netflix have a pretty extreme culture[1] > 1. https://jobs.netflix.com/culture Scary. From some extracts, it seems more a cult than a company: > You question actions inconsistent with our values > You seek what is best for Netflix, rather than what is best for yourself or your group > You accomplish amazing amounts of important work They're taken out of context, but could be interpreted as hints to how the company really works.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
anoncareer0212 6y ago
If it is, I'm leaving my FAANG role for Netflix - it's very refreshing to hear people might be motivated by larger causes. Most of my last week was spent trying to avoid fallout from our team's massively skewed performance reviews: our first promotion case in 2 years is the colleague who performatively did no work for months while the manager was out, bullied me for continuing to schedule and work with our partner teams, and encouraged another co-worker to have a meltdown about it that cost them significantly.
- verticalflight 6y ago
  FAANG = Netflix
  - anoncareer0212 6y ago
    Dropping the N seemed both potentially confusing and offensive - you can rest assured I'm not pining for Netflix from Netflix :p
- pizza234 6y ago
  > If it is, I'm leaving my FAANG role for Netflix - it's very refreshing to hear people might be motivated by larger causes. I don't get it. What's the larger cause here? Netflix is not doing anything special for the society. If you talk about engineering, they certainly have an excellent engineering culture, but I don't think they're implicitly more talented than many other companies. I actually see it (but obviously, it's my opionion) as a very skilfull marketing targeted at outstanding but naive engineers (that is, people who sacrifice their work/life balance for the company). In a cynical way, it's like the nigerian scam, but oriented at intelligent people. > Most of my last week was spent trying to avoid fallout from our team's massively skewed performance reviews A company like Alphabet is more than 10x the size of Netflix. Politics and inefficiency is pretty much inevitable at those magnitudes.
  - andreilys 6y ago
    “If you talk about engineering, they certainly have an excellent engineering culture, but I don't think they're implicitly more talented than many other companies.” If we took a random sample of Netflix engineers and compared them to a company with weak engineering cultures, like Blockbuster, I’m sure we could agree that Netflix engineers are more talented.
    - gaadd33 6y ago
      But we aren't comparing them to a random company, we are comparing them to the rest of FAANG. Do they have a much stronger engineering culture than Google/etc?
      - jpgvm 6y ago
        Pound for pound I would probably say yes. Netflix is often where the best of the best aspire to be even if they have already done rotations at FB/Google. At least in my field (infrastructure, big data, etc) this mostly holds true.
  - biztos 6y ago
    > What's the larger cause here? Delivering high-quality entertainment people enjoy watching, and doing it in a way that "just works?" I don't know if that's the larger cause as they pitch it to engineers but as a Netflix subscriber, it sure seems like they care a lot about that cause; and as a cinephile I think it's definitely doing something special for society. Not unique, but special: these production-and-streaming companies are revolutionizing film art, and happen to also employ a lot of my friends. But... I probably wouldn't work there as a techie.
    - pizza234 6y ago
      I strongly disagree. It doesn't "just work"; it has a very specific target, for whom I don't doubt it works, but it costs a lot to the rest. Until a short time ago, you couldn't even directly remove entries from the "Continue watching" row, unless you used the sledgehammer approach of marking a series as never watched (which, conceptually, doesn't make sense - I may want to stop watching a movie, but still retain the information that I've watched it). Row categories don't have a fixed position; sometimes I have to scroll to find the "Continue Watching". It's impossible to remove movies/series already seen from the interface. Not only that, but the interface has a row with movies already watched. There's no management concept, I mean, even very basic functionality (the only concept is starring). Searching movies requires navigating through undesirable entries (in particular, already watched ones), rather than helping the user finding new content. This is a intentional design, and a clever one. However, it's shoved-in-the-throat fast-food rather than slow food. It's not random that they've introduced the speedup functionality. I believe that Netflix is meaningful to society as much as McDonald is; it's fast and cheap, but I wouldn't classify this as a benefit to the food culture. Even if all the above was false, the movies catalogue is relatively small. I can tolerate the above (although I don't, really), but as a cinema lover, I need a very large catalogue.
- drewg123 6y ago
  I have worked for Netflix for over 5 years, and its the best place I've ever worked. It has the no-bullshit feel of a small company combined with the advantages (pay, benefits) of a big company. Almost everybody I've worked with is amazing. I admit that the culture was daunting, and even after going through an L5 -> L6 promo at Google, I was worried about not being able to cut it at Netflix. I was very nervous about this the first year, until the first performance cycle, after which time nobody I knew had been let go. There is honestly much less turn over around me than at Google, for example. To me, this means most people are pretty happy here. I'm not aware of any stack ranking. If there was, then 95% of my group must have been above average for the last 5 years since almost nobody has been let go. To be clear, yes, people in my group have been let go. However, I was seldom surprised when somebody was let go.
  - nomel 6y ago
    You might not be able to answer this, but what’s the QA culture there? How do project timelines work there? Are there project managers for all projects? I ask because I can’t remember the last bug, visual artifact, or non-intuitive UI design from anything Netflix related, even in my awful Roku TV. What I don’t understand is how it’s possible for management to exist that understands how much of an achievement that is, and how much man time that takes (assuming here).
  - stareatgoats 6y ago
    > seldom If only you had said "never" ...
    - arcticbull 6y ago
      Not everyone's a good fit for their job, and dealing well with low performers is critical to building and maintaining a well-oiled organization. I've worked at a company that consistently failed to "deal well with poor performers" and man, it took a village to get poor or toxic folks walked. All the meanwhile they were crapping up the place.
    - drewg123 6y ago
      The only surprises I have had is for people that have run into socially, but are in other groups that I don't work with, and hence have no personal knowledge of their performance.
- Google234 6y ago
  If you are Google, one bad peer review can probably end that promotion.
BeetleB 6y ago
These sound like things most companies claim to have. Most companies have a set of values. Some, like Amazon, actively encourage questioning things that go against those values. In my company, we haven't as deeply enshrined the notion of questioning things that go against the claimed company values. As a result, no one cares for the values, and people tend to ignore any org/department leader espousing any value (company or otherwise). The common refrain is "That's just talk, and few follow it." A company where you can actively question people's actions when they are inconsistent with the claimed values would be quite refreshing. > You seek what is best for Netflix, rather than what is best for yourself or your group First, to clarify different interpretations: They're likely saying to avoid decisions that will benefit you/your team/your department at the expense of the company as a whole. If that's the case, I understand the sentiment, and most companies claim the same. Mine definitely does. However, again, it's rarely practiced and the company is full of folks who do things to benefit themselves while hurting their team/department/company. If Netflix's culture solves this, then this is great! In any case, even if they fail at this, the statement is in line with most companies. > You accomplish amazing amounts of important work Well, a lot of companies want that. Probably few actually follow through like Netflix. I agree I probably wouldn't want to work there because of this, but I also don't think there is anything wrong with it. They're up front about it, pay a lot, and from what I hear they pay generous severance pay - the idea being that you're getting fired is not meant to be a statement about your abilities.
srtjstjsj 6y ago
What's the difference between culture and cult? Is it a cult to say that everyone is responsible for holding each other accountable to do the job they are paid to do?
- krapp 6y ago
  A cult is built from the top down, culture is built from the bottom up. Cult is a hierarchy, culture exists among equals. If you have to conform to it, but can't contribute to it, question it or change it, it's a cult.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

anoncareer0212 6y ago

If it is, I'm leaving my FAANG role for Netflix - it's very refreshing to hear people might be motivated by larger causes. Most of my last week was spent trying to avoid fallout from our team's massively skewed performance reviews: our first promotion case in 2 years is the colleague who performatively did no work for months while the manager was out, bullied me for continuing to schedule and work with our partner teams, and encouraged another co-worker to have a meltdown about it that cost them significantly.

verticalflight 6y ago
FAANG = Netflix
- anoncareer0212 6y ago
  Dropping the N seemed both potentially confusing and offensive - you can rest assured I'm not pining for Netflix from Netflix :p
pizza234 6y ago
> If it is, I'm leaving my FAANG role for Netflix - it's very refreshing to hear people might be motivated by larger causes. I don't get it. What's the larger cause here? Netflix is not doing anything special for the society. If you talk about engineering, they certainly have an excellent engineering culture, but I don't think they're implicitly more talented than many other companies. I actually see it (but obviously, it's my opionion) as a very skilfull marketing targeted at outstanding but naive engineers (that is, people who sacrifice their work/life balance for the company). In a cynical way, it's like the nigerian scam, but oriented at intelligent people. > Most of my last week was spent trying to avoid fallout from our team's massively skewed performance reviews A company like Alphabet is more than 10x the size of Netflix. Politics and inefficiency is pretty much inevitable at those magnitudes.
- andreilys 6y ago
  “If you talk about engineering, they certainly have an excellent engineering culture, but I don't think they're implicitly more talented than many other companies.” If we took a random sample of Netflix engineers and compared them to a company with weak engineering cultures, like Blockbuster, I’m sure we could agree that Netflix engineers are more talented.
  - gaadd33 6y ago
    But we aren't comparing them to a random company, we are comparing them to the rest of FAANG. Do they have a much stronger engineering culture than Google/etc?
    - jpgvm 6y ago
      Pound for pound I would probably say yes. Netflix is often where the best of the best aspire to be even if they have already done rotations at FB/Google. At least in my field (infrastructure, big data, etc) this mostly holds true.
- biztos 6y ago
  > What's the larger cause here? Delivering high-quality entertainment people enjoy watching, and doing it in a way that "just works?" I don't know if that's the larger cause as they pitch it to engineers but as a Netflix subscriber, it sure seems like they care a lot about that cause; and as a cinephile I think it's definitely doing something special for society. Not unique, but special: these production-and-streaming companies are revolutionizing film art, and happen to also employ a lot of my friends. But... I probably wouldn't work there as a techie.
  - pizza234 6y ago
    I strongly disagree. It doesn't "just work"; it has a very specific target, for whom I don't doubt it works, but it costs a lot to the rest. Until a short time ago, you couldn't even directly remove entries from the "Continue watching" row, unless you used the sledgehammer approach of marking a series as never watched (which, conceptually, doesn't make sense - I may want to stop watching a movie, but still retain the information that I've watched it). Row categories don't have a fixed position; sometimes I have to scroll to find the "Continue Watching". It's impossible to remove movies/series already seen from the interface. Not only that, but the interface has a row with movies already watched. There's no management concept, I mean, even very basic functionality (the only concept is starring). Searching movies requires navigating through undesirable entries (in particular, already watched ones), rather than helping the user finding new content. This is a intentional design, and a clever one. However, it's shoved-in-the-throat fast-food rather than slow food. It's not random that they've introduced the speedup functionality. I believe that Netflix is meaningful to society as much as McDonald is; it's fast and cheap, but I wouldn't classify this as a benefit to the food culture. Even if all the above was false, the movies catalogue is relatively small. I can tolerate the above (although I don't, really), but as a cinema lover, I need a very large catalogue.
drewg123 6y ago
I have worked for Netflix for over 5 years, and its the best place I've ever worked. It has the no-bullshit feel of a small company combined with the advantages (pay, benefits) of a big company. Almost everybody I've worked with is amazing. I admit that the culture was daunting, and even after going through an L5 -> L6 promo at Google, I was worried about not being able to cut it at Netflix. I was very nervous about this the first year, until the first performance cycle, after which time nobody I knew had been let go. There is honestly much less turn over around me than at Google, for example. To me, this means most people are pretty happy here. I'm not aware of any stack ranking. If there was, then 95% of my group must have been above average for the last 5 years since almost nobody has been let go. To be clear, yes, people in my group have been let go. However, I was seldom surprised when somebody was let go.
- nomel 6y ago
  You might not be able to answer this, but what’s the QA culture there? How do project timelines work there? Are there project managers for all projects? I ask because I can’t remember the last bug, visual artifact, or non-intuitive UI design from anything Netflix related, even in my awful Roku TV. What I don’t understand is how it’s possible for management to exist that understands how much of an achievement that is, and how much man time that takes (assuming here).
- stareatgoats 6y ago
  > seldom If only you had said "never" ...
  - arcticbull 6y ago
    Not everyone's a good fit for their job, and dealing well with low performers is critical to building and maintaining a well-oiled organization. I've worked at a company that consistently failed to "deal well with poor performers" and man, it took a village to get poor or toxic folks walked. All the meanwhile they were crapping up the place.
  - drewg123 6y ago
    The only surprises I have had is for people that have run into socially, but are in other groups that I don't work with, and hence have no personal knowledge of their performance.
Google234 6y ago
If you are Google, one bad peer review can probably end that promotion.

BeetleB 6y ago

These sound like things most companies claim to have. Most companies have a set of values. Some, like Amazon, actively encourage questioning things that go against those values. In my company, we haven't as deeply enshrined the notion of questioning things that go against the claimed company values. As a result, no one cares for the values, and people tend to ignore any org/department leader espousing any value (company or otherwise). The common refrain is "That's just talk, and few follow it." A company where you can actively question people's actions when they are inconsistent with the claimed values would be quite refreshing. > You seek what is best for Netflix, rather than what is best for yourself or your group First, to clarify different interpretations: They're likely saying to avoid decisions that will benefit you/your team/your department at the expense of the company as a whole. If that's the case, I understand the sentiment, and most companies claim the same. Mine definitely does. However, again, it's rarely practiced and the company is full of folks who do things to benefit themselves while hurting their team/department/company. If Netflix's culture solves this, then this is great! In any case, even if they fail at this, the statement is in line with most companies. > You accomplish amazing amounts of important work Well, a lot of companies want that. Probably few actually follow through like Netflix. I agree I probably wouldn't want to work there because of this, but I also don't think there is anything wrong with it. They're up front about it, pay a lot, and from what I hear they pay generous severance pay - the idea being that you're getting fired is not meant to be a statement about your abilities.

srtjstjsj 6y ago

What's the difference between culture and cult? Is it a cult to say that everyone is responsible for holding each other accountable to do the job they are paid to do?

krapp 6y ago
A cult is built from the top down, culture is built from the bottom up. Cult is a hierarchy, culture exists among equals. If you have to conform to it, but can't contribute to it, question it or change it, it's a cult.