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Comment by johan_larson | Hacker News Reader

I have to wonder how many of the top 50 or so tech companies have really sterling reputations for warm-hearted goodness. Powerful organizations usually end up stepping on somebody's toes either in getting to the top or staying there.

And really, where else are you going to work if you are a developer and want to make money? One of the big banks? Plenty of dirt there. A defence contractor? Ditto.

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I'd say Netflix has a pretty good external reputation. They do good by their customers and don't sell them out. They take your money and show your videos and don't share your data. They have hits and misses on their original content, but they don't actually make that stuff, they just compete with all the other big entertainment outlets to distribute what production companies make.

There is of course strong opinions about their internal culture, but as I described it to someone recently, it's an environment where you have to choose what to work on and then make it successful without a lot of help and guidance. If that's the kind of place that you thrive, then you'll love working at Netflix.

Netflix does as a company to consumers, though among workers their cutthroat culture has been infamous even before the recent NYT profile, though so is their high compensation.

I don’t agree with lumping them in with the tech giants though. Why them and not Tesla, Uber, AirBnB, Dropbox, etc.?

He said "top 50" and by most measures Netflix would be "top 50". That's why I chose it (plus familiarity with it personally). All those other ones you mentioned could be "top 50" as well. In which case, I think the general feeling of external perception is negative for all of them except Dropbox.

Op asked "I have to wonder how many of the top 50 or so tech companies have really sterling reputations for warm-hearted goodness." and I threw Netflix out there as a "top 50" that has a warm-hearted (external) reputation.

I’m not so much disagreeing with you or him as I am with the dumb “FAANG” acronym.

Though I think AirBnB has a reputation for being a good work environment and a consumer product, whatever externalities they inflict upon society.

Yeah I personally have no problem with AirBnB, but a lot of people blame them for high rents and removing rental stock.

And yet, even Netflix has a famous history of having a firing culture. Which from the outside looking in, seems toxic and incredibly unethical.

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2018-10-26/netfli...

That's the internal reputation, not external. And as I said, many of us liked that culture. I liked that fact that I didn't have to deal with people who were clearly there just to collect a paycheck. Those folks didn't last long. Like I said, you had to take control of your own destiny with little guidance. If you like that kind of thing, Netflix is a great place.

I have worked in places that refuse to fire anyone and it's not fun. The cruft just builds up.

But, plenty of places are willing to fire people who have given up or completely check out and nobody is really has that aspect of their company culture talked about as much as Netflix's.

I'm not really trying to imply what Netflix does is wrong if it works for them, but it could definitely be interpreted as unethical and sounds like it could be toxic. I'm just trying to play devil's advocate and saying that every company has their skeletons, even respectable companies like Netflix.

I think tech has a reputation for being supposedly enlightened and nicer and making the world a better place. Maybe it’s the original ‘60s Berkeley ancestry (never mind the first electronic computing machines were birthed in the military labs of WWII), maybe it’s naïveté that comes with working in a field where you literally don’t have to get your hands dirty.

I think what’s really stunning is the media blitz in the last few months about the real shady stuff in the major tech firms. Google protecting high level sex abusers and also legal but unprofessional HR violating conduct. Amazon getting sweetheart deals from city governments. Both criticized for military and security state contracts. Google and Mark Zuckerberg both pandering to the Chinese government. Netflix having a cultish abusive work environment. Everything going on at Facebook, which is this year’s Uber in terms of cascading scandals- though last month that was Tesla. Even consumer outrage against Apple’s products for getting increasingly overpriced or less innovative, though that’s more purely subjective. Saudi blood money funding SoftBank and SV startups, alike. It’s almost as if the only leading tech company getting goodwill or at least lack of controversy has been Microsoft.

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