4 ms·

Color me dubious on this fella's assertions after his tirade against remote work.

dvfjsdhgfv 6y ago
I have the same feeling. After he said he sees no any benefit of remote work, I stopped being interested in anything he has to say.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- C1sc0cat 6y ago
  That's not exactly what he said was it, he was talking about the interplay you get with every one in the same room. Ill give you an example I did a RAD (agile) project with one other developer back in the early web days two of us flew up to Edinburgh and given a clean room and with a co located team produced some thing that another group had quoted two years. Netflix are not paying some one 500k to half arse JIRA tickets here.
  - dvfjsdhgfv 6y ago
    I understand your example and there are definitely cases when working as a team in person makes you (much) more productive. However, Hastings went to the extreme. Especially for people who read headlines and article summaries, he sends a very clear message: * Netflix’s Reed Hastings Deems Remote Work ‘a Pure Negative’ (https://www.wsj.com/articles/netflixs-reed-hastings-deems-remote-work-a-pure-negative-11599487219 https://www.wsj.com/articles/netflixs-reed-hastings-deems-re...) * Netflix CEO Reed Hastings on Working From Home: ‘I Don’t See Any Positives’ (https://finance.yahoo.com/video/netflix-ceo-no-positives-working-171141657.html https://finance.yahoo.com/video/netflix-ceo-no-positives-wor...) His opinions are in stark contract with those of other CEOs in charge of the health and lives of their employees across the country.
    - C1sc0cat 6y ago
      Not sure he went to an extreme the head line implied it and those other CEO's pure presentism in a lot of cases
ghaff 6y ago
Whether or not one agrees with him... It's not really inconsistent to pay people at the top range but that comes with an expectation of being shown the door if they don't perform at the top levels and coming into an office to work because that's better for the company (in Hastings' view).
- ohyes 6y ago
  For 500k a year I'd be more than willing to show up at an office. I assume they're spending money on testing and whatever protocols they need to enforce to ensure they don't kill / incapacitate their golden legion of software engineers. And when you're making that much money, it becomes much easier to (for example) have someone else do your grocery shopping.
  - hanniabu 6y ago
    > I assume they're spending money on testing and whatever protocols they need to enforce to ensure they don't kill / incapacitate their golden legion of software engineers. If it's anything like my experience and anecdotal experiences from my friends, then they're just giving you the illusion of safety and not actually providing a safe working space.
    - ohyes 6y ago
      At Netflix specifically or at other places? It's expensive to actually implement useful COVID measures (but not impossible and not necessarily illusory), but if you already have such huge employee expenses and are serious about in person work, I can't imagine you wouldn't spend the money and put the work in. I agree with you that shops with less luxurious budgets would have a difficult time doing anything that meaningfully reduces the risk to their employees and should probably stay home.
  - ghaff 6y ago
    There are certainly mitigations like lots of retail stores are doing. They're obviously not as effective as people just staying home. It's a matter of tradeoffs.
api 6y ago
Well hey, if he's willing to pay a solid working class salary of over $300k to live in the Bay Area (is that where the poverty line is these days or it is higher?) maybe he can demand in person work.
triceratops 6y ago
Why? He's putting his money where his mouth is by paying people as much as it takes to work in the office.

I have the same feeling. After he said he sees no any benefit of remote work, I stopped being interested in anything he has to say.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
C1sc0cat 6y ago
That's not exactly what he said was it, he was talking about the interplay you get with every one in the same room. Ill give you an example I did a RAD (agile) project with one other developer back in the early web days two of us flew up to Edinburgh and given a clean room and with a co located team produced some thing that another group had quoted two years. Netflix are not paying some one 500k to half arse JIRA tickets here.
- dvfjsdhgfv 6y ago
  I understand your example and there are definitely cases when working as a team in person makes you (much) more productive. However, Hastings went to the extreme. Especially for people who read headlines and article summaries, he sends a very clear message: * Netflix’s Reed Hastings Deems Remote Work ‘a Pure Negative’ (https://www.wsj.com/articles/netflixs-reed-hastings-deems-remote-work-a-pure-negative-11599487219 https://www.wsj.com/articles/netflixs-reed-hastings-deems-re...) * Netflix CEO Reed Hastings on Working From Home: ‘I Don’t See Any Positives’ (https://finance.yahoo.com/video/netflix-ceo-no-positives-working-171141657.html https://finance.yahoo.com/video/netflix-ceo-no-positives-wor...) His opinions are in stark contract with those of other CEOs in charge of the health and lives of their employees across the country.
  - C1sc0cat 6y ago
    Not sure he went to an extreme the head line implied it and those other CEO's pure presentism in a lot of cases

ghaff 6y ago

Whether or not one agrees with him... It's not really inconsistent to pay people at the top range but that comes with an expectation of being shown the door if they don't perform at the top levels and coming into an office to work because that's better for the company (in Hastings' view).

ohyes 6y ago
For 500k a year I'd be more than willing to show up at an office. I assume they're spending money on testing and whatever protocols they need to enforce to ensure they don't kill / incapacitate their golden legion of software engineers. And when you're making that much money, it becomes much easier to (for example) have someone else do your grocery shopping.
- hanniabu 6y ago
  > I assume they're spending money on testing and whatever protocols they need to enforce to ensure they don't kill / incapacitate their golden legion of software engineers. If it's anything like my experience and anecdotal experiences from my friends, then they're just giving you the illusion of safety and not actually providing a safe working space.
  - ohyes 6y ago
    At Netflix specifically or at other places? It's expensive to actually implement useful COVID measures (but not impossible and not necessarily illusory), but if you already have such huge employee expenses and are serious about in person work, I can't imagine you wouldn't spend the money and put the work in. I agree with you that shops with less luxurious budgets would have a difficult time doing anything that meaningfully reduces the risk to their employees and should probably stay home.
- ghaff 6y ago
  There are certainly mitigations like lots of retail stores are doing. They're obviously not as effective as people just staying home. It's a matter of tradeoffs.

api 6y ago

Well hey, if he's willing to pay a solid working class salary of over $300k to live in the Bay Area (is that where the poverty line is these days or it is higher?) maybe he can demand in person work.

triceratops 6y ago

Why? He's putting his money where his mouth is by paying people as much as it takes to work in the office.