Most people have jobs without those perks. Does the fact that you do work for a company "in tech" make it worse that you're not showered with benefits? The margins aren't high and the work they are doing can be done by almost anyone.
If the article only talked about conditions like what you're describing, it would be 1/8th as long and I wouldn't have complained.
"still possible to find bins of old VHS tapes"
"the soccer pitch, which is also off-limits"
"employees apologizing profusely if they left even 15 minutes early."
"being fired if they missed three days of work"
"Contractors are excluded from ... the company holiday party"
"feel unwelcome ... staying too long in Cafe Mario"
"the internal webpage we were encouraged to look at that showed ... benefits (like a sizable Christmas bonus)"
"march with Nintendo of America in the annual Pride parade"
...
1/2 are examples of an outdated workplace (and is meant to be an example of how bad the job is), 3 is an example of how different contractors are treated (and is rather silly), 4/5/6/7 are examples of an awful workplace, 8 is a further example of how they are treated as second class employees and 8 is similar to 3.
A lot of people deal with toxic workplaces, yes. That doesn't mean a crab in a pot mentality is a good one to have because it just ends up dragging everyone down to the most toxic workplace. Instead people should work on calling out and improving their workplaces, which was the intent of this article.
The mistake I see my fellow engineers make is assuming they're not disposable because they're full time, or that the axe won't eventually turn on them.
Contractor output is frequently technically shoddy or lazy; their reports are riddled with grammatical mistakes and frequently difficult to understand; and there is no way that they could take point when interfacing with a customer as their English skills simply aren't good enough.
But the quality of the contractors is ultimately irrelevant because we're talking about workplace protections and benefits. You SHOULD be blaming your company instead for taking cost saving measures that impact the rest of your organization. If your company is working with contractors that are core to your business then they should be treated the same as your employees. And we should be eliminating the middle area where companies want to treat contractors as lesser employees so they can pay them less for the same work.
Protections at the interface of two companies, where the employee is not technically an employee of the main company, are thin on the ground and legally complicated. And whether intentional or not, this has the consequence of making a fertile ground for all manner of quasi-legal employee abuse.
I worked at a company where a contracted employee was sexually harassed by a full-time engineer, and the "support" she got from her boss was clear adavice to keep silent because if the main company felt the situation was too problematic she could cost everyone their job when the main company decided to contract out to another provider. Because that'd be easier for them than even confronting the full-timer responsible.
(... the videogame industry brings its own flavor of sickness to the table above and beyond these general concerns. While my friend was humiliated and depressed as hell about the situation, the reason the threat from her boss even held weight is because they would be there months down the road. A lot of game studios cut their contractors loose when the game is out the door; there's no job security to be had).
- weekly lunch
- get drunk on the company a handful of times a year
- dogfooding our product for free
- certs + professional development
A company offering substantially less than that I’d consider stingy or too up tight. Not appreciative of the workers. Look at low margin industries like the warehouse.
A company offering more, Id feel good about.
A company offering bean bags, video games, excessive alcohol, I’d definitely feel suspicious about. Who are you trying to buy with these trinkets?
Some people are so disconnected they think our company is stingy because our world class chef only oversees lunch service and dinner meals are only comped after 6....
Tech in general has a crazy entitlement problem when it comes to perks.
Nintendo’s margins are almost 30%.