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Comment by snlacks | Hacker News Reader

They are kept in Bull Pens because they treat their employees as sterile commodities to be herded around.

You don't become WalMart/Facebook/Twitter by treating your employees well. You become big and profitable by cutting as many corners as you can and keeping revenue up. Publicly traded companies generally get into this-quarter frenzy that never leaves and kills any sort of long term viability as being a company of and for people.

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>You become big and profitable by cutting as many corners as you can and keeping revenue up.

Then why would they be spending millions of dollars on the office perks and architecture? You're contradicting yourself, they're obviously spending a huge amount of money on the office.

Perhaps for the visiting VCs, investors, and Executives?

Your assertion -- "they're obviously spending a huge amount of money on the office" -- is compatible with the previous assertion. They're spending it on the office, while employees are still treated as fungible cogs to be plugged into said expensive office.

The point of this post is that they spend money making the office look pretty (to get people to accept offers), but they spend almost nothing making it functional. The office has become a marketing ploy; the workers aren't actually treated very well, it just looks like they are because every surface is shiny.

>You don't become WalMart/Facebook/Twitter by treating your employees well.

Today's tech company employees are some of the most pampered in history. The list of perks Facebook and Twitter offer is huge (http://www.glassdoor.com/Benefits/Facebook-US-Benefits-EI_IE...). Comparing them to WalMart is ridiculous.

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