The Perk-Cession Is Under Way at Some Companies | Hacker News Reader

The Perk-Cession Is Under Way at Some Companies

wsj.com

13 pointsgnicholas13 comments

> Meta said it shifted its bus shuttle times to leave by 6 p.m. and pushed back its dinner service to later. The move discourages workers from staying just long enough to eat a free meal. To-go containers also vanished from the cafeteria.

I believe it. The original idea was to have food available for employees who were working past dinner, not for folks leaving just at dinnertime. It morphed into a perk that was very handy, and some employees would bring home dinner for themselves or even their families. But when jobs are being cut, it makes sense to pull back on some of these perks that evolved from their original intent.

My first startup did something like this. They got rid of 6pm dinner because people were staying until dinner and then just leaving. After the company got rid of dinner, people just left at 5pm instead.

The net result was that the company saved about $150/day, and lost about 25 hours worth of work. Not sure if was a good deal or not.

were people really working till 6, or were they just bumming around for an hour?

I’m my experience people were there working. There is a strong tradition in Silicon Valley of arriving late and working into the evening.

So by arriving late, they weren’t actually working a high number of productive hours, but just time shifting and taking advantage of paid dinner — so a break for both lunch and dinner after late arrival?

Has that late arrival changed as millenials gotten older and had families to see for dinner?

People were generally working.

Did you get rid of dinner for everyone, or just the people who were eating-and-running?

The meals were stopped entirely. I also wasn't in charge of anything, so I was just as annoyed as everyone else.

Sounds like a good deal for the workers.

If one of the primary justifications for ending remote work is team-building and serendipitous water-cooler discussions, shared dinnertime seems like the optimal place to encourage that.

I guess when they're all doing it, where else are the elves going to go?

https://steveblank.com/2009/12/21/the-elves-leave-middle-ear...

They'll cram into the companies with better perks, retire, cash out on their options, take up hobbies, do more mediocre work, or start their own companies.

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