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Comment by Aurornis | Hacker News Reader

When I was young I worked at a company that said things like "we are family" and kind of meant it.

It wasn't really a good thing unless you were a low performer. We had some people who were hired into jobs they couldn't do well, but they got to keep those jobs because it was like their role in the family. People basically never got fired, including the couple guys in the corner who barely did any work but had been there forever.

When money was tight, they didn't do layoffs. They just cut everyone's compensation by the same percentages. Including those people who didn't do much work, because we can't fire family.

Modern companies avoid this phrase because it has become so toxic that nobody wants to be associated with it. It's a holdover from old school management who speak in boilerplate platitudes like "fast paced environment" that don't mean anything.

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When I was young, I worked at a company that said things like "we are family" - and knew exactly how to manipulate with it.

I'd had a pretty rough year, my last year there - a recent breakup, a deteriorating domestic situation, and a death march at work. Management was aware of all three. In the end, I decided to leave the company. The attempt to retain me was not more money, or really anything around comp - it was something along the lines of (a rough quote): "You really shouldn't leave. We're your family. In times like yours, people can push the people closest to them away, to their own self detriment." And I was shared some links to psychology sites, talking about how folks in crisis can push close loved ones away from them.

Being young and naive, I gave some profuse thanks for enlightening me, promised to stay, reneged on the offer with the other employer... and a few days later, thought, "what on earth did they just do?!"

Needless to say, I put my notice back in, took the other job, and never looked back. The silver lining is that I now have a pretty good radar for management using the "family" argument in manipulative ways.

sounds like a cult

Take vulnerable people (insecure people who need jobs), add authoritarian influence, have them work for the good of the group, etc

Honestly, I wonder how many (normal?) companies align with cult techniques? Don't most companies create an us-vs-them culture? Didn't steve jobs want all the employees to wear the same uniform at one point? Doesn't Elon Musk talk about the mission to save mankind?

Maybe it is all just part of competing, cooperating and how we create prosperity, but I wonder sometimes.

Wow, I'd consider sharing this on glassdoor or elsewhere just based on what you shared

I’ve left jobs under similar circumstances where later I thought “huh, I didn’t have a problem with the company… I was just emotionally spent and fragile at the time” and wished I didn’t quit when I did.

I contracted at a company once which operated like a family.

Once you got hired, it was really difficult to get fired. So much so, most people there hadn't heard about anyone ever getting fired. Eventually, someone heard through the grapevine what a firing offense was: Getting caught having sex on the company campus with a coworker. But! The first time was a warning.

That company had soooo much money to burn. Lots of people did not like to work, they just kind of screwed around all day. Family members of the founders got to use the private jets (of which there was a fleet of a dozen) to do whatever they liked.

I won't name names, but the company name rhymed with "Spamway".

> what a firing offense was: Getting caught having sex on the company campus with a coworker.

If both/all people are consenting, that might be slightly tacky, but surely shouldn't be a fireable offense.

I never got the full story, but I wager there's more details to the story which would raise your eyebrows.

>> on the company campus

That part seems fireable IMO (or the getting caught part)

but sex with close familly members is illegal here :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Td67kYY9mdQ

I understand OP is beeing cheeky, yes? But I don't know company he is referring to

If anyone could reply to this with the answer I'd appreciate it

my guess is Amway

Let's just say the company campus I was referring to had great fly fishing nearby.

What business vertical were they in? Sounds like a huge moat ready for disruption

It depends on how you choose to cut headcount.

Cutting low performers is something we can all agree on, with exceptions to long-tenured employees who are in a temporary low-performance state (divorce, health issues, etc).

At many modern companies, headcount is cut often to increase the stock price for the next earnings report, so leadership can offload shares. Even if the company performance suffers in the long term, they were able to sell their bags at a high price.

An example of a 'family' style company is Kiewit and it isn't anything like the one you described. They are famously aggressive about low-performers. Every employee has ownership shares in the company. You are expected to pick up and move when the company tells you to move. They've never had a negative earnings quarter in the entire history the company... which is notable.

> "fast paced environment" that don't mean anything.

Oh, it means something; usually date-driven development, get stuff out without any care of quality beyond platitudes. Yell at the devs when they're late, then yell at them when they're not because the code is shite.

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