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>What kind of office was this person working in? An office on the property of an international airport. Our maintenance hanger happens to be behind our parking

>What kind of office was this person working in? An office on the property of an international airport. Our maintenance hanger happens to be behind our parking lot and immediately on the other side of it is an active runway. If you work at an airport, not in the terminals, you get used to smelling aviation fuel/jet exhaust. As far as the indoor temperatures, it's a leased building and the HVAC is just inadequate (my guess is when the HVAC was designed, the building probably wasn't largely an open office). The front of the building the HVAC works great, but it still has walls and doors blocking it from where the bulk of the staff is. The algae in the pex tubing coming off of the water filter is because, for some reason, there's a random tube coming off that just terminates which allows some water to not get circulated. The chalky white of the water is just pure hard water, if you put some water in a dark coffee mug and let it sit for a few hours then dump it out and let it dry the inside will have a noticeable white film. This will rapidly build up day after day and actually start to flake off from thermal shock. >Some of them are even health and safety violations. They aren't. You might think they are, but they aren't. If they were, any hanger or warehouse at any significantly sized airport would have long since been shut down. Yes, I'm sure there is some unacceptable level that once measured can have legal action taken but I'd bet my kidney that we aren't anywhere near those exposure levels. It's not like a turbine is backed up 3 feet from our door, with the doors wide open, spewing exhaust. That doesn't mean you can't smell it though, you can smell jet exhaust at considerable distances not unlike diesel exhaust from larger vehicles. Many on HN are accustomed to nice offices with a bunch of perks or remote work, but for a lot of us we work in conditions like this (or far worse) and it's just life. We have it much better than our people working at our sort facilities, they're exposed to the elements with minimal HVAC for example. When I was 18 I worked at a cemetary, I had to wear a "backpack" full of diesel for a weed eater/whacker and trim weeds for hours at a time with no shade, then dig graves and cut grass with no shade. I'd go home sunburnt and smelling like diesel frequently, even getting sun poisoning at one point. My current job is so much better than that job 18 years ago, but it's also a far cry from what I saw a Y Combinator and Open AI a couple of years ago when I was visiting someone and I imagine that's how a lot of tech offices are like give or take some perks and creature comforts.

PragmaticPulp 6y ago
> Many on HN are accustomed to nice offices with a bunch of perks or remote work, but for a lot of us we work in conditions like this (or far worse) and it's just life. I don’t know where you live, but I can assure you that what you’re describing is not “just life” in most developed countries. You’re not describing a normal office. Offices like you describe continue to exist because employees put up with it. The tech job market is very hot right now. I would strongly encourage you to explore your options. What you’re describing is not normal or acceptable. You don’t need to move to a Google type company with unlimited office budgets. Most companies are smart enough to know they need to address things like broken HVAC or not enough microwaves or unclean bathrooms by spending the relatively tiny amount of money to address the problem. It’s literally cheaper to address these issues than to lose good talent over such easily addressable frustrations. When you move to a company that treats employees decently, you’ll find that you also get along with coworkers better because everyone is not already miserable and dreading their jobs.
- Aloha 6y ago
  I've worked in offices like that, its way more common than you think. It is 'just life' the world that we get in tech is significantly different than what most people experience in a workplace.
- greedo 6y ago
  Had to address the unclean bathroom comment. My company is a large insurance provider. Billions of dollars under management so money really isn't a big deal. You know how bad our cleaning us? They have one guy per floor responsible for cleaning four large restrooms, vacuuming, dumping trash cans. The one who does my floor is a lazy idiot. The cleaning company tolerates this because they pay crap wages; they save their best employee for the 4th floor where the VPs and higher work. Everyone else gets a shitty bathroom. Once, a dude had explosive diarrhea in a stall. A year later, there were still shit stains on the wall... Don't be surprised at how cheap even big successful business can be.
- ryandrake 6y ago
  That’s funny.. when I read OP’s post, I was pretty underwhelmed by the complaints. He describes a pretty typical office environment, in my experience. The HVAC problems and disgusting facilities rang the most true to me. I remember a spider infestation in a break room that did not get addresses until an employee threatened to complain. (The place ended up spider-free but smelling of insecticide, and the complainer was fired for “poor performance”.) I agree that a lot of HN readers seem to have only been exposed to idyllic FAANG workspaces, and have no idea the conditions most office workers have to put up with.

PragmaticPulp 6y ago

> Many on HN are accustomed to nice offices with a bunch of perks or remote work, but for a lot of us we work in conditions like this (or far worse) and it's just life. I don’t know where you live, but I can assure you that what you’re describing is not “just life” in most developed countries. You’re not describing a normal office. Offices like you describe continue to exist because employees put up with it. The tech job market is very hot right now. I would strongly encourage you to explore your options. What you’re describing is not normal or acceptable. You don’t need to move to a Google type company with unlimited office budgets. Most companies are smart enough to know they need to address things like broken HVAC or not enough microwaves or unclean bathrooms by spending the relatively tiny amount of money to address the problem. It’s literally cheaper to address these issues than to lose good talent over such easily addressable frustrations. When you move to a company that treats employees decently, you’ll find that you also get along with coworkers better because everyone is not already miserable and dreading their jobs.

Aloha 6y ago
I've worked in offices like that, its way more common than you think. It is 'just life' the world that we get in tech is significantly different than what most people experience in a workplace.
greedo 6y ago
Had to address the unclean bathroom comment. My company is a large insurance provider. Billions of dollars under management so money really isn't a big deal. You know how bad our cleaning us? They have one guy per floor responsible for cleaning four large restrooms, vacuuming, dumping trash cans. The one who does my floor is a lazy idiot. The cleaning company tolerates this because they pay crap wages; they save their best employee for the 4th floor where the VPs and higher work. Everyone else gets a shitty bathroom. Once, a dude had explosive diarrhea in a stall. A year later, there were still shit stains on the wall... Don't be surprised at how cheap even big successful business can be.
ryandrake 6y ago
That’s funny.. when I read OP’s post, I was pretty underwhelmed by the complaints. He describes a pretty typical office environment, in my experience. The HVAC problems and disgusting facilities rang the most true to me. I remember a spider infestation in a break room that did not get addresses until an employee threatened to complain. (The place ended up spider-free but smelling of insecticide, and the complainer was fired for “poor performance”.) I agree that a lot of HN readers seem to have only been exposed to idyllic FAANG workspaces, and have no idea the conditions most office workers have to put up with.