3 ms·

Wow, a weekend hackathon where employees worked all night (https://www.airbnb.com/careers/departments/engineering https://www.airbnb.com/careers/departments/eng

Wow, a weekend hackathon where employees worked all night (https://www.airbnb.com/careers/departments/engineering https://www.airbnb.com/careers/departments/engineering). Capital is getting smarter every year! Now you can make workers think that they were the ones who decided to do unpaid overtime. (And if it wasn't "required", don't kid yourself---of course it was required.)

mrdmnd 11y ago
I used to be an engineer at Airbnb. It's not, in fact, the case that people are doing "unpaid overtime". My favorite example of this: there are a great number of people who work there who were MORE than willing to take a free Saturday/Sunday and host their OWN hackathon with their work-friends when the company-supported dates proved inconvienient for a lot of us. While it's true that a lot of the projects were company focused, a great deal were purely "stupid shit nobody needs and general shenanigans" projects. It's not the kind of place where people feel forced into working in a silly way. It's an awesome place full of rather clever people. /endrant
- mtbcoder 11y ago
  > It's not the kind of place where people feel forced into working in a silly way. After reading your post, I'm having a hard time seeing how this is the case. Perhaps people are not directly forced into doing weekend "hackathons", but I'd imagine there is quite a bit of indirect pressure to show up for these things for fear of not being seen as a team player. Although, maybe my own personal experiences have just made me too cynical.
- jonsterling 11y ago
  Do you really not see the power dynamic at play here?
rattray 11y ago
Perhaps it was required, and employees were tricked. But you weren't there and you don't know. I personally love my craft and often throw myself into it over the weekends, and outside of standard working hours. Since I also care a lot about what my company is working on (I am an employee/fellow, not a founder), that can include job-related work. Nobody at the company is asking me to do it, and I'm not doing it out of pressure or guilt. It's simply more fun for me than many other activities. A healthy life outside of work and programming is important too. I don't spend every weekend at the keyboard, and I do try to sleep 8 hours a night. When I don't feel like going into the office, I don't. I'm my own boss and if I choose to the contribute to the world through a company I didn't happen to found, but do believe in, that's my prerogative. I don't know anyone at AirBnB, so I don't know, but I imagine the same may well have been true there too.
throwaway549 11y ago
All-nighters' worth of unpaid overtime and crowded, noisy, privacy-free open office working conditions that would make anyone who isn't a 20-something long for the days of the once-denigrated cube farm. Really shows how little respected we are.

mrdmnd 11y ago

I used to be an engineer at Airbnb. It's not, in fact, the case that people are doing "unpaid overtime". My favorite example of this: there are a great number of people who work there who were MORE than willing to take a free Saturday/Sunday and host their OWN hackathon with their work-friends when the company-supported dates proved inconvienient for a lot of us. While it's true that a lot of the projects were company focused, a great deal were purely "stupid shit nobody needs and general shenanigans" projects. It's not the kind of place where people feel forced into working in a silly way. It's an awesome place full of rather clever people. /endrant

mtbcoder 11y ago
> It's not the kind of place where people feel forced into working in a silly way. After reading your post, I'm having a hard time seeing how this is the case. Perhaps people are not directly forced into doing weekend "hackathons", but I'd imagine there is quite a bit of indirect pressure to show up for these things for fear of not being seen as a team player. Although, maybe my own personal experiences have just made me too cynical.
jonsterling 11y ago
Do you really not see the power dynamic at play here?

rattray 11y ago

Perhaps it was required, and employees were tricked. But you weren't there and you don't know. I personally love my craft and often throw myself into it over the weekends, and outside of standard working hours. Since I also care a lot about what my company is working on (I am an employee/fellow, not a founder), that can include job-related work. Nobody at the company is asking me to do it, and I'm not doing it out of pressure or guilt. It's simply more fun for me than many other activities. A healthy life outside of work and programming is important too. I don't spend every weekend at the keyboard, and I do try to sleep 8 hours a night. When I don't feel like going into the office, I don't. I'm my own boss and if I choose to the contribute to the world through a company I didn't happen to found, but do believe in, that's my prerogative. I don't know anyone at AirBnB, so I don't know, but I imagine the same may well have been true there too.

throwaway549 11y ago

All-nighters' worth of unpaid overtime and crowded, noisy, privacy-free open office working conditions that would make anyone who isn't a 20-something long for the days of the once-denigrated cube farm. Really shows how little respected we are.