News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on What I learned getting acquired by Google. Parent comment

Re:What I learned getting acquired by Google by tick_tock_tick on Thursday November 09, 2023 @07:16PM (#38213234)
I mean classic example are contracting out food service in the corporate cafeteria. You contract the work to some random other company who hire people to do food service or do you want Google or whoever to start hiring cooks themselves? Janitorial staff is also a classic role for this style of employment.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:What I learned getting acquired by Google by whatshisface on Thursday November 09, 2023 @07:20PM (#38213276)
That's quite different - Google contracts for a service to be provided and takes no interest in managing janitors and cooks individually. The red badgers sound like they're being given individual instructions but denied employee protection.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:What I learned getting acquired by Google by chii on Thursday November 09, 2023 @09:40PM (#38214439)
but looking at it from a top down perspective, it does seem like google treats these contractors no better than the janitors and cooks. So i dont think you can say it's different merely because the nature of the work is not the same.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:What I learned getting acquired by Google by whatshisface on Thursday November 09, 2023 @11:03PM (#38214910)
Google doesn't treat janitors any way. They treat the building services company. They do treat the contract programmers a certain way.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:What I learned getting acquired by Google by hef19898 on Friday November 10, 2023 @04:00AM (#38216662)
Two different kind of outsourcing contracts. And red badgers, unless they are freelancers, have employee protection. Just not from Google, or any other company using subcontracting agencies for that matter.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:What I learned getting acquired by Google by bradleyjg on Thursday November 09, 2023 @08:17PM (#38213777)
The difference between a legitimate third party service and these ought-to-be-illegal body shop arrangements is whether Google is paying for a specific service—e.g. clean offices—or people that they boss around.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:What I learned getting acquired by Google by ClumsyPilot on Thursday November 09, 2023 @09:06PM (#38214228)
> or do you want Google or whoever to start hiring cooks themselves?

Yes? Whats wrong with hiring a cook if you need to cook?

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:What I learned getting acquired by Google by lazide on Thursday November 09, 2023 @10:07PM (#38214617)
Because Google has no idea how to manage or hire cooks?
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:What I learned getting acquired by Google by astrange on Friday November 10, 2023 @02:26AM (#38216121)
It's just as easy to hire a chef as it is to hire a catering service.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:What I learned getting acquired by Google by vasco on Friday November 10, 2023 @03:20AM (#38216436)
Google managed to hire their first chef in 1999 and manage them directly, I'm sure they can manage a global team of cooks better than anyone else if they wanted to, because of their specific needs and so many global offices to spread the gains through. It's all just a decision they took.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:What I learned getting acquired by Google by lazide on Friday November 10, 2023 @02:50PM (#38223635)
What they did with Ayer’s was so clearly unsustainable (and disproportionate) it’s a classic story in the business world of giving away the farm.

Anyone doing that at scale is going bankrupt quickly. Which is the point.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:What I learned getting acquired by Google by astrange on Friday November 10, 2023 @03:51PM (#38224359)
Google has infinite money and doesn't have to care about things like that. They can waste money on food just like they waste it hiring 10000 engineers who don't do any work.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:What I learned getting acquired by Google by lazide on Saturday November 11, 2023 @02:32PM (#38233675)
Bwahaha. Good luck with that.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:What I learned getting acquired by Google by ayewo on Friday November 10, 2023 @04:55AM (#38216993)
Google's first chef Charlie Ayers was hired way back in 1999

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Ayers

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:What I learned getting acquired by Google by lazide on Friday November 10, 2023 @02:40PM (#38223511)
And notorious as a bad example of how to hire cooks? They changed shortly afterwards.

They pretty much were giving away the farm, and if they kept that up they’d be bankrupt - not an incredibly valuable company.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:What I learned getting acquired by Google by ClumsyPilot on Friday November 10, 2023 @06:39AM (#38217673)
> no idea how to manage or hire cooks?

Ah yess, cooking food is like deepwater welding, and an average adult has no idea how to manage the risks involved.

Seriously, how can an adult write something like this?

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:What I learned getting acquired by Google by lazide on Friday November 10, 2023 @03:26PM (#38224046)
Have you ever managed a commercial kitchen? Or hired and supervised cooks?

I know people who have, and it is far from an easy or straightforward thing. If you want to stay solvent and out of jail anyway.

Most restaurants go bankrupt within a few years.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:What I learned getting acquired by Google by ClumsyPilot on Friday November 10, 2023 @09:33PM (#38227119)
I have worked in a ghost kitchen, its not rocket science.

We discussing a canteen for employees, not a commercial restaurant. You don't need marketing, you don't need to turn a profit.

[ Parent | on HN ]