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This article is personally very worrisome to me. I think this is pretty much what most start-ups in the tech sector expect, it's similar to the over-optimisati

• lumost 4y ago
  These companies have incredibly anti productive social dynamics. When someone is putting in 80 hours, they do it for a reason, and typically are looking to get promoted fast. What happens when 5 people on a team do this? A lot of disappointment usually. You can't go a different direction on a project, because the project is the persons life. When projects get restructured it almost always results in burnout and attrition.
• imran-iq 4y ago
  > And all of this for what? To make their boss a billionaire at the cost of their own health
  • ergocoder 4y ago
    A senior eng who joined Stripe on 2015 would make 3-5m USD per year. I don't think they would complain that their bosses become billionaires.
    • cwilkes 4y ago
      [ citation needed ]
      • ergocoder 4y ago
        Levels.fyi If you joined Stripe in 2019, Stripe is ~20b. A senior eng gets 200k in cash and 250k in stock per year. Today Stripe valuation is 79b. This eng would earn 1.2m per year. Now imagine you joined Stripe in 2015 where Stripe was worth ~5b. I have a few friends joining stripe at that time, and that's where 3-5m per year comes from.
    • deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
  • charlie0 4y ago
    I completely understand your point and sympathize with employees who are working near minimum wage and don't have much of a choice, but you are way off the mark here. I'm pretty sure Stripe SWEs are, on average, some of the highest paid employees on the planet. It's entirely their prerogative if they choose to sacrifice their health for it. They have options to leave if they wanted to.
  • flakyfilibuster 4y ago
    yeah right, we're not talking about a barista here, these devs were making good money
• thr0wawayf00 4y ago
  > It's difficult because it's very infectious and it's extremely stressful to everyone who doesn't fit in with the expectations. Not only that, but it can breed a culture of toxic behavior towards those that don't meet expectations. I was new at a company that was extremely proud of its culture of support and collaboration, blah blah blah. I get pulled into a meeting with an architect who was not in my chain of command who ambushed me by telling me that he thought I wasn't good enough to work there and I should be concerned about my job status. I was floored. The worst part was that he was universally beloved within the company, he had incredible charm that he could turn on whenever he wanted to, the dude was a straight up narcissist. Long story short, I reported him and nothing really happened. He was on my team so I had to see him every day, and I wound up leaving shortly after. Abusers like that hide in plain sight and writing rah rah pieces how amazing a culture is is what makes it harder to find them.
  • listenallyall 4y ago
    I'm sorry to tell you I don't see what is so toxic about this. Are we just supposed to assume you're some excellent employee? Perhaps he's beloved because he is honest, direct, and puts the company's interests (and those of the employees who built that positive culture) first.
    • flashgordon 4y ago
      Come on there is nothing untoxic about telling a newcomer they don't belong. At best this person may not have ramped up at the same speed. There are much better ways of giving this feedback instead of being hostile no? What you now want this new employee to walk in eggshells from this moment onwards?
      • listenallyall 4y ago
        Yea, no. Been in numerous situations where it was painfully obvious, within a week, that a certain individual was fundamentally a poor fit. It's not that they are bad people or incapable of any good work, just not in the role or company they were hired into. Sometimes it's better to sever ties quickly, than have the employee remain miserable trying to make it work at a company he or she will never sync up with, and the existing team losing steam and getting frustrated as it is dragged down.
• deleted 4y ago
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• neilparikh 4y ago
  > To "increase the internet's GDP"? Might as well just start a war while we're at it, that will for sure increase some countries GDP as well. Do you really think that allowing people to make transactions/trades (that they previously couldn't easily) isn't a very socially valuable thing? And do you really think it's comparable to starting a war? And FWIW, I don't think starting a war will increase the total GDP of the world; it'll probably reduce it...
  • rebelos 4y ago
    It’s now a commodity business with a range of competitors. Do people at Stripe really become this bamboozled? You’re not changing the world anymore, you’re just making money. You’re mercenaries who've been fooled into believing you’re missionaries. The counter-factual of a Stripeless world in 2022 is the market share gets split across the other providers and the world keeps on trucking. Get over yourselves.
    • neilparikh 4y ago
      > The counter-factual of a Stripeless world in 2022 The author worked there from 2015-2019.
      • rebelos 4y ago
        Yes and by that point both Braintree and Square were in competition iirc. Probably others too.
        • dzikimarian 4y ago
          And existence of competition, somehow, disables ability of company to innovate? Yeah, world could exist without them. It also could without any other innovative company - we would just have some slightly worse alternatives. Btw - I'm not involved with Stripe in any way (at best they might be competition in some areas), but they have some things that are objectively better quality than other vendors.
  • 4y ago
• deleted 4y ago
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• dzikimarian 4y ago
  What's worrisome to me is, that so many people believe that, any emotional engagement and passion for something, you're doing for 30% of your adult life is "toxic" and "unhealthy". Then we get posts in the line of "I've very good life, well paid job, but I feel empty" - I believe, there were two of them this week already and it's only Wednesday. To be clear I'm not saying you should suddenly fall in love in pushing CRUDs for your international corp. But maybe next time when choosing a job, try to include into equation: "would I actually want to do this if not for the money?". In SWE we've quite unique opportunity to actually have this choice and yet many try to ignore it on purpose, because apparently it's not "cool".
  • nus07 4y ago
    Yeah a lot of people would rather teach poor kids but teachers can barely make a living in America. When you live in a country with such high inequality and healthcare dependent on your job you are forced to hustle . Not everyone can study Art History at Columbia and have the connections to get a job as a curator. The conundrum you see is exactly because of that inequality. You very rarely see it among Western Europeans. But hey the US pays the highest and you can live a charmed life if it works out . So I will fall for a manager and corporation’s promises .
    • dzikimarian 4y ago
      That's extreme example. You can still program. Original article is about working as developer in Stripe.
      • IvanaSays 4y ago
        The author is not a developer.
• knighthack 4y ago
  For us to come around and examine/judge her as if she was a brainwashed fool in a startup cult makes no sense. First, she chose to work there. She was not forced to. She has agency; she could leave at any time. Secondly, the discussion is about work culture. It's not that she painted the work culture as toxic; she painted the work culture as inviting, meaningful, and something that helped her grow, despite the long hours. Surely something can be gleaned from that. Thirdly, this is a startup culture. You can't choose to work in a high-paced kitchen, and complain about the heat. If you can't take the heat, leave. It is the company's problem to find someone to replace you and your value; just like you can't blame the world to change and fit you (as you must make the change to yourself), you can't blame the company to adjust around your style. Companies are commercial ventures; they have different goals and expectations than the individuals working for them.
  • plywoodtrees 4y ago
    > ... as if she was a brainwashed fool in a startup cult makes no sense. > First, she chose to work there. She was not forced to. She has agency; she could leave at any time. The whole point of the concept of brainwashing is that people can be manipulated or sucked into making nominally free choices that are not really free choices, or at least not what they would say are in their interests if they were out of that situation. Whether this is really true for her, I don't know, it's hard to tell from outside, and it gets into slippery concept of free will if you look too closely. But people can be manipulated.
• ctvo 4y ago
  > It's not okay to cry at work because of how stressful a deadline is. I mean, let's be honest here, this person was working at Stripe she's not a nurse that has someone's literal life in their hands. Crying at work because your boss is harassing you or your coworkers are toxic -- agreed, no one should have to endure that. Crying at work because you're invested and care about the outcome? What's the problem here outside of your belief that these people are ignorant or fooled by capitalism? > It's good to be passionate, but where we put our passion is very important. Thankfully you don't have the right to tell people where their passions should lie. For many of us we like our work. It's a large part of our identity. We like the impact it provides, we like being good at it, we want to be good at it, and we're invested in it. The financial security it provides for us and our family is another strong motivator. Your reply is patronizing and full of judgement. Implicit in it are professions you think are noble, and worthwhile of care, and the rest? Sheeps, wake up! Go find a hobby!