7 ms·

The Post article refers to the Netflix memo: https://jobs.netflix.com/culture https://jobs.netflix.com/culture To my mind, this memo is fairly innocuous; comp

The Post article refers to the Netflix memo: https://jobs.netflix.com/culture https://jobs.netflix.com/culture To my mind, this memo is fairly innocuous; compared to a more traditional dry HR employee guidelines document, it's rather inspirational and idealistic. Nothing wrong with that. The one line that seems to have triggered the Post reporter: As employees we support the principle that Netflix offers a diversity of stories, even if we find some titles counter to our own personal values. Depending on your role, you may need to work on titles you perceive to be harmful. If you’d find it hard to support our content breadth, Netflix may not be the best place for you. I'm not sure I would put that into the employee guidelines, if I were running a company. It does seem a bit... I don't know, dismissive or maybe just unnecessary. Obviously if someone's not happy with the content their company produces, they're free to look for a better fit elsewhere. But why spell it out like that? I do like the little passage from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry at the very end. A company that's producing content needs to stay creative and openminded and continually search for inspiration, and Netflix seems to be aspiring to that goal.

EddieDante 4y ago
I don't see the problem with this passage: As employees we support the principle that Netflix offers a diversity of stories, even if we find some titles counter to our own personal values. Depending on your role, you may need to work on titles you perceive to be harmful. If you’d find it hard to support our content breadth, Netflix may not be the best place for you. I've been called upon to code for law enforcement and the military despite being somewhat left-wing in my personal politics. I've been called upon to code for religious organizations despite being a quietly militant atheist. I don't necessarily like it, but if your personal ethics are more stringent than that of your coworkers you might have to put aside your ideals and dirty your hands if you want to make a living. If the work you're asked to do is that egregiously out of line with your ideals, you should remember that "at-will employment" works both ways. You don't need to give notice or justification. If you dislike your employer or their policies, ghost 'em.
- blisterpeanuts 4y ago
  Agreed, at-will means you can leave at any time, though perhaps at a cost to your career. I've just never seen a company explicitly say, effectively, "if you don't like it, you can leave" as part of their employee guidelines. Seems unnecessarily blunt.
  - EddieDante 4y ago
    > Agreed, at-will means you can leave at any time, though perhaps at a cost to your career. This is why I have a job, and not a career. If I'm really unhappy with my job, I can save up, quit and try to get a better one.
  - true_religion 4y ago
    > Agreed, at-will means you can leave at any time, though perhaps at a cost to your career. I'm not sure how quietly leaving a workplace will come at a cost to a career. People need to leave employment for various personal reasons (e.g. death in the family, burnout, pregnancy, health issues), and at least in our sector I've never seen anyone judged poorly for that.
    - Ekaros 4y ago
      Unless you leave comparatively too much more often than your peers and competiting candidates you will probably be fine.
car_analogy 4y ago
> I'm not sure I would put that into the employee guidelines, if I were running a company. It does seem a bit... I don't know, dismissive or maybe just unnecessary. It would be very necessary if one were running a library. Netflix's role is somewhat similar.
- valbaca 4y ago
  And why librarians have a literal Code of Ethics: https://www.ala.org/tools/ethics https://www.ala.org/tools/ethics
true_religion 4y ago
> Obviously if someone's not happy with the content their company produces, they're free to look for a better fit elsewhere. But why spell it out like that? Because people tend to forget that and intend to pressure their employer into changing its values, rather than simply changing their employer. If Netflix views itself as a content library, rather than say, a content publisher then they could rightly say that they will keep certain content that's harmful to the community simply because that falls into the ethos of a library. Libraries (at least good ones in my opinion) keep Mein Kamphf on the shelves, even if no one in the library is a nazi and the only people checking them out are actual nazis (as opposed to college students writing papers). That the book is bad, doesn't mean that it ought to be burned. So if Netflix is a library, then they're okay. However, this gets a bit muddy since not only collects content, but also actually publishes and promotes it themselves. Funding Chappelle, and publicizing it with huge billboards can be interpreted as support and not simply "we publish content that exists" since this harmful content might not exist if not for Netflix. I think the quote above is necessary since Netflix has to clarify where it actually stands on this issue. They see it as a topic of 'personal' value, and not objective harm.

EddieDante 4y ago

I don't see the problem with this passage: As employees we support the principle that Netflix offers a diversity of stories, even if we find some titles counter to our own personal values. Depending on your role, you may need to work on titles you perceive to be harmful. If you’d find it hard to support our content breadth, Netflix may not be the best place for you. I've been called upon to code for law enforcement and the military despite being somewhat left-wing in my personal politics. I've been called upon to code for religious organizations despite being a quietly militant atheist. I don't necessarily like it, but if your personal ethics are more stringent than that of your coworkers you might have to put aside your ideals and dirty your hands if you want to make a living. If the work you're asked to do is that egregiously out of line with your ideals, you should remember that "at-will employment" works both ways. You don't need to give notice or justification. If you dislike your employer or their policies, ghost 'em.

blisterpeanuts 4y ago
Agreed, at-will means you can leave at any time, though perhaps at a cost to your career. I've just never seen a company explicitly say, effectively, "if you don't like it, you can leave" as part of their employee guidelines. Seems unnecessarily blunt.
- EddieDante 4y ago
  > Agreed, at-will means you can leave at any time, though perhaps at a cost to your career. This is why I have a job, and not a career. If I'm really unhappy with my job, I can save up, quit and try to get a better one.
- true_religion 4y ago
  > Agreed, at-will means you can leave at any time, though perhaps at a cost to your career. I'm not sure how quietly leaving a workplace will come at a cost to a career. People need to leave employment for various personal reasons (e.g. death in the family, burnout, pregnancy, health issues), and at least in our sector I've never seen anyone judged poorly for that.
  - Ekaros 4y ago
    Unless you leave comparatively too much more often than your peers and competiting candidates you will probably be fine.

car_analogy 4y ago

> I'm not sure I would put that into the employee guidelines, if I were running a company. It does seem a bit... I don't know, dismissive or maybe just unnecessary. It would be very necessary if one were running a library. Netflix's role is somewhat similar.

valbaca 4y ago
And why librarians have a literal Code of Ethics: https://www.ala.org/tools/ethics https://www.ala.org/tools/ethics

true_religion 4y ago

> Obviously if someone's not happy with the content their company produces, they're free to look for a better fit elsewhere. But why spell it out like that? Because people tend to forget that and intend to pressure their employer into changing its values, rather than simply changing their employer. If Netflix views itself as a content library, rather than say, a content publisher then they could rightly say that they will keep certain content that's harmful to the community simply because that falls into the ethos of a library. Libraries (at least good ones in my opinion) keep Mein Kamphf on the shelves, even if no one in the library is a nazi and the only people checking them out are actual nazis (as opposed to college students writing papers). That the book is bad, doesn't mean that it ought to be burned. So if Netflix is a library, then they're okay. However, this gets a bit muddy since not only collects content, but also actually publishes and promotes it themselves. Funding Chappelle, and publicizing it with huge billboards can be interpreted as support and not simply "we publish content that exists" since this harmful content might not exist if not for Netflix. I think the quote above is necessary since Netflix has to clarify where it actually stands on this issue. They see it as a topic of 'personal' value, and not objective harm.