Re:Why did I leave Google or, why did I stay so long?
by gmadsen on Saturday February 20, 2021 @06:01PM
(#26208859)
I think its a little disingenuous to say that these people are privileged. Make no mistake, there was plenty of cost/benefit analysis done with things like in house lunch. It attracts people to the company, less people leave for lunch and stay around their coworkers and possibly talk about work more, takes less time so they work longer per day.
google is definitely getting a net gain in profits from providing lunch, they are not doing this out of the kindness of their heart.
I worked for a tech company based in the Midwest that was acquired by a company in the valley. I regularly went on visits to HQ. Some of the folks I met complained strongly about things like lunch not being provided... as often. And their lunches were amazing, with drinks, and socialization.
I came from a place that maybe once a quarter someone would order a bunch of cheap-o pizza... maybe, unless they were concerned about the budget (like $300 worth of pizza matters). And what that meant was you went and grabbed a piece of pizza and went back to your desk...
That's not to say one is right or one was wrong (both locations could have certainly used a little of each's culture / traditions), but the privileges of the tech world (particularly some companies) are generally pretty amazing, and I'm not sure folks who have never left those places really get it...
I sometimes feel like I'm talking a to aliens from another tech world when it comes to their complaints, like they're from that space ship in WALL-E.