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When Dropbox served food I valued it at 50k, ie: in order fro a company to poach me, given they don't have food, that's 50k they'd have to make up for. While I
by staticassertion 5y ago
When Dropbox served food I valued it at 50k, ie: in order fro a company to poach me, given they don't have food, that's 50k they'd have to make up for. While I don't spend anywhere near 4k a month on food, there were a few things to consider:
a) 3 meals prepared for me saves me time and money. I love to cook but I don't have tons of time anymore and I don't have a a good kitchen. If I want to save time via delivery I end up spending tons more, and I don't think I eat as healthy.
b) The food was ridiculous. I've eaten a lot of good food, I've eaten in numerous countries, and Dropbox's food was god tier.
c) Tons of snacks, little treats, etc. Wine as well. Given the incredible quality of the food I wouldn't be surprised to find that I was eating quite a lot in terms of money.
It was such a quality of life win, especially as someone who loves food, to just have insanely good meals every single day. Even if ultimately it probably saved me closer to 1000 a month than 5000.
- ghaff 5y agoI guess I just can't comprehend a mindset where 3 meals a day at a company is this huge win. On the occasions when I went into an office with a non-free cafeteria, I didn't even always eat lunch. ADDED: This subthread to me is such a bizarre look into a certain bubble of SV. [See also apparent disagreements with the statement that spending $60/day in restaurants is somehow abnormal.]
- analog31 5y agoIndeed, as a Midwesterner, I'm fascinated by the sheer logistics of having to bring a sandwich to every computer programmer in San Francisco, every day. It's one of those features of "how cities work" that you never even think about.
- ghaff 5y agoMany of the comments here would get you literally laughed at interviewing at 99+% of the companies (including tech ones) in the US. "Give me $50K more if you don't offer three high quality free meals a day."
- square_usual 5y agoDefinitely not. Meals and snacks are becoming common perks in tech even outside of SF/the US, and people (especially young grads fresh out of college) are beginning to ask for them. I personally keep a look out for it, too, since I eat a lot healthier when compared to ordering food, and save a lot of time compared to cooking it.
- colinmhayes 5y agoI just can't imagine wanting to eat 3 meals a day at work, no matter how good they are.
- Cookingboy 5y agoYou will be shocked that we even bring friends and family there occasionally! That's how good the food is :) I remember the Japanese cafe at Google was very good at one point. This article has some pictures to give you an idea: https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-free-food-google-cafeteria-2016-9#the-same-cafe-also-serves-seared-monterey-bay-moonfish-with-old-bay-aioli-11 https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-free-food-google-cafe...
- OJFord 5y agoYou will be shocked, apparently, that there are people here saying they don't want that!
- rightbyte 5y agoSounds like when I was a conscript.
- stuaxo 5y agoExactly: I have to get out, and away. Can't stand work canteens... something about the smell of food really puts you off eating. It feels very forced. Prefer an impersonal sandwich shop where I just have a wall to stare at than being in something attached to my workplace.
- minhazm 5y agoMost of the bigger companies have their own cafeterias and kitchens to produce everything in house. They usually contract it out to companies like Bon Appetit who completely manage the logistics and operations.
- staticassertion 5y agoI feel like I justified my point well. Eating extremely well made food is a major win for me. There's the obvious financial and time savings, but there's also a lot to be said for having a fresh made meal three times a day - and Dropbox always had variety, they pretty much never repeated dishes (other than the standards - burgers, pizza, etc). I ate some of the best meals I've ever had while working there. After a certain point that matters more to me than an extra N dollars a year.
- lupire 5y agoIt's just weird to be so ostentatiously luxurious with consumption, to allocate more to food than the median personal income.
- staticassertion 5y agoSorry, but it is what it is. I make a lot of money and there's a point where benefits like food matter more to me than 10s of thousands of dollars.
- stjohnswarts 5y agodepends on if you're giving them 4 hours of work extra a day for them (12 hour workdays)
- swader999 5y agoImagine rarely eating with your kids or wife.
- yoz-y 5y agoThere are a lot of unmarried people too.
- refurb 5y agoSure, but imagine eating all your meals at work. Your existence would be work, eat 3 meals, commute, sleep at home. For me getting home before dinner would be a massive plus to getting a free meal.
- yoz-y 5y agoI did that for a while, but then I was also in midst of a crumbling relationship so it was a way to give each other space. The dinner is also often relatively early, so you still have quite a lot of time after the commute (granted, if your commute is 1+ hour then it's far from a dream routine). What I like is having the option, for example I had a late sports club that was close to work, so it was more interesting to grab a quick bite and stay there to go to the club and return home after.
- OJFord 5y agoCut out the commute and sleeping at home with our latest perk, the sleep pod! (/s)
- staticassertion 5y agoI lived close enough to work that I could go home and then walk back.
- Cookingboy 5y agoFunny, I actually saw lots of people bring their family to work for dinner when I was at Google, it's pretty common actually.
- em500 5y agoSome people simply don't get much value or enjoyment from a good meal at all, in that case it's probably too hard to make them understand. But assuming that you do enjoy dining at a good restaurant once in a while, can you imagine that getting essentially unlimited meal vouchers at good quality restaurants (not cafetarias or fast food joints!) can be quite valuable for a good number of people?
- deergomoo 5y agoAre all these people spending 10-11 hours a day at work or something? I usually eat breakfast (if I have it) around 8am and dinner some time between 6-7pm. I would never want to be at work that long no matter how good the food was.
- scantron4 5y agoWhat you are saying is that it became 50k cheaper to poach you when they let the leases go and gave away all the plants?
- staticassertion 5y agoYes, though I'd already left to start my own company, but we don't have a cafeteria either.
- wikibob 5y agoDoes Dropbox no longer serve food?
- staticassertion 5y agoI haven't worked there since before the pandemic, but that's my understanding.
- fshbbdssbbgdd 5y agoThey went full remote.
- onion2k 5y agoI can see the appeal of this if you're living alone or with some housemates who also live that lifestyle, but I can't see it working if you have a girlfriend or boyfriend unless they also work for a company that caters all their meals too. Otherwise you'd never get a chance to have breakfast or dinner together. That would suck. I wonder, on some deeply dystopian level, if tech companies do this on purpose to keep their a large proportion of their employees single.
- staticassertion 5y agoDropbox allowed guests. I brought a number of people over my time there.
- WJW 5y agoWould you bring in a spouse and kids every single day though?
- staticassertion 5y agoI don't have those, so no.
- fshbbdssbbgdd 5y agoI don’t think they are trying to keep the employees single, but they are definitely trying to get them to spend more time in the office.
- lupire 5y ago8hr 9:30-6:30 (including lunch hr, between breakfast and dinner) day in the office isn't so unusual or dystopian.