Hacker News Reader

Comment by giarc | Hacker News Reader

So I guess I understood these dinners wrong. It's not like a social dinner? Or does this mean like company supplied dinner starts at 8:15pm?

I interpreted it as (non mandatory) social dinner's hosted by the company would start at 8:15pm.

View on HN

Your interpretation is wrong, I've been to Uber's office in SF and its dinners are big trays of catered food brought in late in the evening. They're dumped in the kitchens and employees who are still working can come by to get whatever they want.

Apologies if I'm naïve, but why are people still working so late? Are they working overtime or on call?

From what I saw it's part of the company culture. Managers were there late so of course their subordinates didn't want to leave and be seen as not working as hard.

Also there's no concept of overtime with salaried fulltime employees. You might work 100 hours in a week and you're still taking home the same paycheck as if you worked 40 hours. That's just the way corporate America works.

So they can get a free dinner? Or maybe they're just happy to work a bit late, avoid peak-hour traffic, and then head home?

I work 6am-10pm one day a week voluntarily, though I work for myself. I avoid traffic, parking is easier, and I get the office to myself without distractions for about 6 hours.

They're working late so that they'll still be at the office when the free food comes. That's the point of the late free food.

No, this is a dinner they provide every day for people who are still in the office, presumably because they're working.

I interpreted it as the dinner they provide for people working late.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com