Hacker News Reader

Comment by gdulli | Hacker News Reader

> Amazon's boss Jeff Bezos wrote in a memo to staff that the "article doesn't describe the Amazon I know".

I'm not surprised he feels this way, being solely unaccountable in the way that his employees are and primarily responsible for both denying and preserving the culture.

> Mr Ciubotariu invoked the company's culture of fun in his LinkedIn post. "We have Nerf wars, almost daily, that often get a bit out of hand," he wrote.

Did this make anyone else cringe? You couldn't pick an example that better demonstrated an awkward, forced element of corporate "fun."

I have to wonder, though, what he means by them getting "a bit out of hand":

- "fun" exhaustion?

- loss of place in stack ranking system?

- injuries? deaths?

- productivity lost to spontaneous bouts of letter-writing from employees to their friends about how much fun it is to work at Amazon?

View on HN

Yep. After spending 10 years in a medium-sized marketing agency, I wrote a recap post called "A beer fridge does not make a culture," which included this bit that the "nerf war" comment made me think of:

"About that beer fridge...It’s pretty cool. So is the pop-a-shot table, the happy hours, the lax dress code, the summer outings (i.e. Drunk Hook-Up Fest), and the staff lunches. But those aren’t culture. Those are nice-to-haves, things that make the good days great and the great days awesome. But they don’t make the bad days good. Please, please, please don’t rely on those kinds of things."

I had pretty similar thoughts to the "free food" bullet point at the bottom. That's so far into "nice to have" territory that I can only see such comments as whinging about how green the neighbor's yard is. (Except, there's actually a chance for you to go live in the neighbor's house, if you really wanted to.)

The Nerf thing made me cringe too. Sometimes I feel like I'm the only software developer out there that does not want to be treated like I am some sort of over-sized elementary school kid.

Maybe I am just getting old... Work can be fun without resorting to gimmicks. What's next snack time and mandatory naps?

What about voluntary naps? Where do I sign up for that?

Anytime: Find an empty conference room with no windows and lie down with your feet touching the door and spread a bunch of paper clips out around your body. Then when someone tries to open the door they'll wake you up and you can claim you were just picking up some fallen paper clips...

I simply must know for sure whether or not this is a tactic you've actually employed.

I worked in a corporate setting for about a year that handed out Nerf guns on day one (if you wanted one). At the time I was 35 years old. Let me tell you how I felt.

I grabbed that gun and started a war. People that were face deep in code picked up their guns and started smiling and shooting each other, running around, diving under desks. It was fun!

I made friends immediately and are some of my best friends to this day, 4 yeas later. People that are friends have fun. It wasn't forced. If you didn't want to play, you didn't have to play. The morale picked up 100% after the game.

We were NEVER treated like children. Ever. We never had "nap time" or "snack time", that's ridiculous. We were treated as professionals that like to take breaks and mess around while creating great products.

I did great work while I was there and so did the other people at that company. I met some amazingly talented people that are still at that company. They stay there because they enjoy the work and they enjoy the environment.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CMnBTFZUAAIs5UA.jpg:large

Ha! I had the urge to comment on the Nerf wars, and you beat me to it. I cringed because, in my adult mind, having "daily Nerf wars" at work means they really don't know what the word "fun" is supposed to mean. I think it kind of proves the point?

> I cringed because, in my adult mind, having "daily Nerf wars" at work means they really don't know what the word "fun" is supposed to mean.

This brought to my mind some scenes of the film Inside Job (those that included among other things a psychologist). :)

> "We have Nerf wars, almost daily, that often get a bit out of hand"

This really bugged me too, but reflects a trend that I've notice in tech circles of infantilizing engineers (vs treating them as working professionals). But maybe this really is attractive to some employees who might be eager to extend their HS/college environment a few more years.

I just wondered how you can have Nerf wars in offices full of electronic equipment. Do you go outside then? Seattle is known for being rainy... And how are you getting people out, all in one go? Doesn't sound very spontaneous.

Dunno, it just sounds awkward.

The nerf war comment was definitely cringe-worthy, if a nerf war is the best example you got, that is telling in itself.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com