3 ms·

Tell me you have Stockholm syndrome in as many words as you can… Being proud of your work because of what you deliver with it is great. Being proud of cancelin

Tell me you have Stockholm syndrome in as many words as you can… Being proud of your work because of what you deliver with it is great. Being proud of canceling holidays because your manager says so is slavery with extra steps.

whymauri 4y ago
Sounds like a cult. They can look back on this work culture with rose colored glasses because Stripe was successful. But for every Stripe there are dozens (hundreds?) of companies with equally demanding cultures that simply fail. I doubt this person would feel the same if Stripe had been a failure. Articles like this encourage companies that don't have product-market fit (no amount of 15 hour days will fix product market fit, sorry), adequate talent, nor adequate resources to imitate this kind of culture. The end result isn't pretty. I might be biased because I could never imagine myself working this hard for an Internet payments platform (noting that in 2015, Stripe was already worth $5B. This is not a seed or Series A/B scenario). Maybe it's because I came from bio- and medical engineering where the people who work this hard save lives and cure diseases.
- ergocoder 4y ago
  OP probably takes in 3-5M a year. It is far from a cult when its benefit is a borderline generational wealth. It is not surprising that OP likes Stripe so much. You would fucking love your company if you were paid $5m USD per year as a regular engineer. Let's not kid ourselves lmao.
  - crooked-v 4y ago
    Of course, there are many other people in exactly the same situation who end up with nothing at all because they guessed on the wrong startup to work for.
    - ergocoder 4y ago
      Are we talking about Stripe? Or you like to vent about startups in general? If this is just about startups in general, I fully agree. I didn't know we have moved on to a new topic but ok. I was responding to the parent thread regarding Stripe being a cult. No other cults pay most of their members in millions of dollars.
      - crooked-v 4y ago
        The point is that getting paid that much is, for the average employee, purely a lucky result of having happened to choose the company that succeeded.
        ergocoder 4y ago
        Sure, so it is not related to stripe. I totally agree with you. Bad luck and/or choosing bad company would get you in a bad situation. Water is also wet.
  - tomnipotent 4y ago
    > OP probably takes in 3-5M a year. I would be surprised if they're bringing in more than $250k pre-tax.
    - kache_ 4y ago
      lol >levels.fyi
      - ergocoder 4y ago
        250k is like base salary for staff level. It is not that high.
        tomnipotent 4y ago
        You're completely out of touch if you think that. Maybe a SWE/PM with 10 years of experience, but OP is a writer/researcher at a company of one. No one is paying mid-level PR/comms that well. At $250k you're in the top 5% of earners.
        ergocoder 4y ago
        OP was at Stripe. And while at Stripe, she likely earned way more than 250k a year. You are the one who is completely out of touch.
        russelldjimmy 4y ago
        I’m reminded of this article when I see a comment like this https://www.riknieu.com/the-gods-on-hackernews/ https://www.riknieu.com/the-gods-on-hackernews/
        RikNieu 4y ago
        You called? XD
        russelldjimmy 4y ago
  - junofan 4y ago
    OP is not an engineer.
dataflow 4y ago
> Being proud of canceling holidays because your manager says so is slavery with extra steps. Stripe pays a little more than slave wages...
- shaky-carrousel 4y ago
  Nice, they will be the richest corpse in the cemetery.

whymauri 4y ago

Sounds like a cult. They can look back on this work culture with rose colored glasses because Stripe was successful. But for every Stripe there are dozens (hundreds?) of companies with equally demanding cultures that simply fail. I doubt this person would feel the same if Stripe had been a failure. Articles like this encourage companies that don't have product-market fit (no amount of 15 hour days will fix product market fit, sorry), adequate talent, nor adequate resources to imitate this kind of culture. The end result isn't pretty. I might be biased because I could never imagine myself working this hard for an Internet payments platform (noting that in 2015, Stripe was already worth $5B. This is not a seed or Series A/B scenario). Maybe it's because I came from bio- and medical engineering where the people who work this hard save lives and cure diseases.

ergocoder 4y ago
OP probably takes in 3-5M a year. It is far from a cult when its benefit is a borderline generational wealth. It is not surprising that OP likes Stripe so much. You would fucking love your company if you were paid $5m USD per year as a regular engineer. Let's not kid ourselves lmao.
- crooked-v 4y ago
  Of course, there are many other people in exactly the same situation who end up with nothing at all because they guessed on the wrong startup to work for.
  - ergocoder 4y ago
    Are we talking about Stripe? Or you like to vent about startups in general? If this is just about startups in general, I fully agree. I didn't know we have moved on to a new topic but ok. I was responding to the parent thread regarding Stripe being a cult. No other cults pay most of their members in millions of dollars.
    - crooked-v 4y ago
      The point is that getting paid that much is, for the average employee, purely a lucky result of having happened to choose the company that succeeded.
      - ergocoder 4y ago
        Sure, so it is not related to stripe. I totally agree with you. Bad luck and/or choosing bad company would get you in a bad situation. Water is also wet.
- tomnipotent 4y ago
  > OP probably takes in 3-5M a year. I would be surprised if they're bringing in more than $250k pre-tax.
  - kache_ 4y ago
    lol >levels.fyi
    - ergocoder 4y ago
      250k is like base salary for staff level. It is not that high.
      - tomnipotent 4y ago
        You're completely out of touch if you think that. Maybe a SWE/PM with 10 years of experience, but OP is a writer/researcher at a company of one. No one is paying mid-level PR/comms that well. At $250k you're in the top 5% of earners.
        ergocoder 4y ago
        OP was at Stripe. And while at Stripe, she likely earned way more than 250k a year. You are the one who is completely out of touch.
      - russelldjimmy 4y ago
        I’m reminded of this article when I see a comment like this https://www.riknieu.com/the-gods-on-hackernews/ https://www.riknieu.com/the-gods-on-hackernews/
        RikNieu 4y ago
        You called? XD
        russelldjimmy 4y ago
- junofan 4y ago
  OP is not an engineer.

dataflow 4y ago

> Being proud of canceling holidays because your manager says so is slavery with extra steps. Stripe pays a little more than slave wages...

shaky-carrousel 4y ago
Nice, they will be the richest corpse in the cemetery.