Meta is bolstering perks like happy hours and company swag as it pushes staff to return to office, despite its ‘year of efficiency’::The company has revived a number of employee perks, according to Bloomberg, including branded t-shirts, laundry services, and free haircuts.

  • Fantomas@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    81
    ·
    2 years ago

    Imagine having to endure a happy hour wearing your Meta t-shirt while zuck monitors your joy level through a huge camera in the corner of the room.

  • Chickenstalker@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    39
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    2 years ago

    Why not simply increase basic pay? The younglings no longer want these “”“”“”“”“”“”““perks””“”“”“”“”“”" because they know it comes with many caveats.

    • Steeve@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      edit-2
      2 years ago

      They have increased the pay, that’s how they attract talent. I know some people from school who went on to work FAANG jobs and they make 3x the median for our industry where we’re all from. Sure we all deserve more money, but it’s not like it isn’t a desirable place to work for most people in the industry.

    • YⓄ乙 @aussie.zone
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      arrow-down
      39
      ·
      edit-2
      2 years ago

      Then Meta won’t be a billion $ company. There’s a reason workers are paid less, let’s say a janitor gets paid $8/hour and the CEO gets paid $10000/hour.

      If you start paying a janitor $10000/hour , tomorrow the janitor may ask the CEO to clean toilets as they both are getting paid equally or won’t show up to work as the janitor has too much money to keep cleaning toilets. That’s why we have hierarchy and front line workers needs to be at the bottom of this. Welcome to Capitalism !

      • nieceandtows@programming.dev
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        24
        ·
        2 years ago

        Interesting how there is no middle ground between $8 an hour and $10000 an hour. What do you think of $20 an hour? That is still 500 times less than a ceo pay so the ceo doesn’t need to clean toilets any time soon.

        • Someonelol@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          12
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          2 years ago

          The janitor works for $8/hour out of desperation. The CEO works for $10k/hr out of greed. The difference in pay rates based on position should be regulated. I think a CEO should only be paid at most 10 times more than the lowest paid job in any organization. That way everyone will have some parity and a shot at a decent life even at the low end.

      • wagoner@infosec.pub
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        11
        ·
        2 years ago

        I don’t hear people arguing for everyone to be paid the top salary of the CEO. Maybe let’s start with, I dunno, 20 dollars an hour minimum.

      • shalafi@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        2 years ago

        Kinda reminds me of a guy I used to hang out with. He had found out that the US shreds old currency, and was utterly appalled. “They could just give that to people!”

        “OK, Mike, the government could easily give every American $1,000,000, tomorrow. You want that?”

        “Hell ya!”

        “OK, you know I mow lawns for a living, $30 a pop? (early 90s!)”

        “Yeah.”

        “Now pretend you have a lawn you want mowed. Fuck I want $30 for? I have a million! I’m going to need $10,000 to even think about it.”

        The whole idea baffled him, never got it.

        But yeah, where we’re at now is fucked up. I get that CEO pay is determined by the market. I get that dropping CEO pay won’t make a dent in line worker pay. But still, the wealth disparity is heinous.

        And the worse it gets, the more influence the rich can buy and the less the rest of us have.

        • archomrade [he/him]@midwest.social
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          2 years ago

          On the flip side, this is a great way to illustrate the coercive nature of capitalism. Most jobs wouldn’t exist if mindless productivity wasn’t a prerequisite to feed your family

  • Zrybew@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    34
    ·
    2 years ago

    I work in tech and my workplace is also getting deeply aware that layoffs and cost cutting policies have a lasting negative impact on the happiness levels. What a fucking aha moment…

    Besides, It seems like, as the economy starts to hit bottom, companies are getting aware that the fight for talent will start again soon.

    • TheDarkKnight@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      15
      ·
      2 years ago

      One thing about tech workers is historically they will crunch themselves hard to minimize downtime and meet deadlines because they care about their code and infrastructure. That totally breaks down when they see a bunch of their friends get shitcanned or sees their company making greedy decisions at the expense of their employees.

    • orca@orcas.enjoying.yachts
      cake
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      2 years ago

      Got laid off a while back for about 3 months, along with a handful of others (some of which were there 5-7 years!). When I talked to an old friend that still works there, he said the morale is basically non-existent. The company is also ranked in the bottom 5% now on Comparably 😬

  • EnderMB@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    27
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    2 years ago

    As someone at a FAANG company, there is one “perk” that these companies offer that few others can match, and that’s freedom of movement. There are few companies where you can join in NYC, work a year, then move fully to London, Berlin, Sydney, Singapore, etc - all sponsored and paid for by the employer. Not only that, but where the employer will pay to find permanent residency and citizenship.

    IMO, these are the true perks of the tech industry, and a reason why so many young people are ditching FAANG companies lately, as they start to cut back on allowing people to move teams internationally.

    My org at Amazon was polled on retention, and over 50% of the team wanted to move teams after the layoffs. Amazon no longer sponsor international visas, and lots of people wanting to move to North America or Europe are jumping to other companies that will allow them to do so.

    Funny enough, for the cost of some of the stupid events that my work have put on for RTO, they could have funded several visas and moves for candidates that wanted to try a new team. Hell, some literally cannot go to their current office, and would love to move somewhere where they could - but no, gotta keep those retention figures low to help the bottom line…

  • Lemmylaugh@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    20
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    2 years ago

    Alright lemmings reality check time. Would you take a job offer from meta if it was in your field and the pay was good?

    • gian @lemmy.grys.it
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      9
      ·
      2 years ago

      Nope. Professionals have standards 😂

      Seriously, Meta is for me in a very short list of companies where I would not work under any circustances, so the pay could be as good as you want but is a no.

    • English Mobster@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      9
      ·
      2 years ago

      Benefits matter, too.

      I’m in the AAA gaming industry. EA laid me off earlier this year, and so I wound up looking for work elsewhere.

      I’ve learned that really - the pay doesn’t matter if you hate your life every day. If I wanted good pay, I would learn COBOL and write software at a bank. What matters the most is the quality of the team you’re working with (primary), and what benefits your employer has (secondary).

      If Meta were to call me up and say “Hey, we want you to be on a team with the greatest coworkers you’ve ever had,” then I’d at least hear them out. What is their culture? Do they believe in crunch? How do they handle sick days? Vacations?

      And yes, WFH is part of that, too. But if they were willing to pay to relocate me, buy me a house near a metro station… yeah, I’d take it.

      But if they were to offer me that exact same deal - except there’s no guarantees about production schedules/timelines, there’s the “bus problem” (where the project couldn’t survive someone important being hit by a bus), there’s a lot of crunch (or just bad experiences from friends who’ve worked there… Blizzard offered me a sweetheart deal and I said no because of that history)… I’m less likely to want to bite.

      And everyone has different preferences. I’ve known some people who love the office. I don’t mind it myself, with the right group. But everyone has to make their own call.

      • Raiderkev@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        2 years ago

        Metro station… oh you sweet summer child. You know what public transit is available near the Meta campus? Maybe, and I mean maybe, a bus stop to get on the homeless express across the bay.

        • English Mobster@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          2 years ago

          I’m a little sad. My last studio was literally next to a Gold Line station here in Los Angeles. I could bike to the Gold Line and make it to work, and the Gold Line ran frequently and late.

          My current job is a mile away from a Metrolink station. On the one hand - at least there’s a nearby station! On the other hand - the Metrolink trains are running the wrong direction for me, I’d need to make a connection at LA Union Station, and the latest one that goes the direction I need it to go (while still allowing me to make my connection) leaves at 5 (which is still considered core working hours for me).

          The schedule is like… impressively bad. I’d use it if they ran it later, but they don’t seem to think anyone could possibly be headed in any other direction other than “towards LA” in the morning and “away from LA” at night.

      • June@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        2 years ago

        That’s a pretty privileged position to be in. Not everyone can say no to a job because the quality of the team isn’t to par because they are more interested in keeping food on the table than being happy at work.

    • llama@midwest.social
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      edit-2
      2 years ago

      Maybe but they’d probably just sunset the project anyway and in ten years it will look more like a stain on my resume than a badge. Plus traffic on Willow Road is a no for me dawg.

      • Raiderkev@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        2 years ago

        Fr. It was so nice during the pandemic when I could actually get onto that stretch of 101/84 with no traffic.

    • Powerpoint@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      2 years ago

      No. Remote is better for the company and for me. There’s tons of better opportunities.

    • Someonelol@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      2 years ago

      Recruiters keep asking me to apply and I must’ve told them to pound sand about 3 times in the past 2 years.

    • cjsolx@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      2 years ago

      It’s just a job, of course I would. I feel like I dislike most companies anyways, including the one I work for so it wouldn’t change much.

    • nickwitha_k (he/him)@lemmy.sdf.org
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      2 years ago

      Negatory. There’s more to life than money and I have too many ethical conflicts with how they’ve operated. They do have some fun tech though.

  • Bruno Finger@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    10
    ·
    2 years ago

    This dude really need to change his haircut lol he looks like he just do it himself at home.

    • XTornado@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      2 years ago

      Verily, one must maintain the utmost reverence when discussing our illustrious Emperor. Criticizing his haircut would be an affront to the grandeur and authority of our magnificent Meta Empire. Let us, instead, extol the virtues of Meta and the remarkable achievements of our Emperor.

    • pixxelkick@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      edit-2
      2 years ago

      Say what you want, but its also an iconic look. You recognize his face the moment you see it, with that sorta disinct (but still kinda shit looking) haircut.

      But also I dunno, I can understand the vibe of wanting super short hair to keep it up and out of the way, some people just prefer their hair cut to stay the hell out of the way, without committing to being full shaved down.

      I try not to judge on such a thing. If he likes that haircut, fuck it, the dude makes more money while sitting down for his haircut then 100 haircuts would cost him to pay for.

      He can do whatever the fuck he wants with his hair.

      I would rather judge him by his actions, like that shit he pulled with buying “private” beaches and whatnot.

      Edit: Actually out of curiosity I looked this up for some updates, and it sounds like he and his wife have been putting in efforts to actually do right by the locals, and that a lot of the bad press was just trying to dunk on him and was largely just stuff going over poorly with locals, so he retracted offers and went back at it again but with the help of local professors to ensure he did it right and in a better way.

      It sounds like over the past few years he and his wife have been pouring money, like a LOT of money, into preserving tonnes of wildlife and donating a bunch of money to save large areas that were going to be privately developed, and instead now have enough money to pretty much stay preserved and managed by the locals forever.

      https://www.kauaitravelblog.com/mark-zuckerberg-kauai-property/

      Not gonna lie, it actually sounds like the dude is trying to put in some real work to do good here, I have to say.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    8
    ·
    2 years ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    Meta is trying to tempt employees to return to the office by bringing back perks such as happy hours and branded t-shirts.

    The company has revived a number of pre-pandemic employee perks, according to Bloomberg, a change that unnamed sources said has boosted morale amongst staff after a year of layoffs and acrimony over Meta’s return-to-the-office policies.

    The perks returning include branded t-shirts, happy hours, laundry services, and free haircuts.

    The tech giant’s drive to cut costs and boost profitability has seen it lay off about 25% of its staff since November 2022, although Meta has recently begun to rehire some of those who lost their jobs.

    The revived perks, which also include a new coffee bar and earlier dinners, are part of Meta’s renewed effort to lure staff back into the office.

    Last month, Meta announced that employees would be required to work in the office at least three days a week, and warned that those who repeatedly refused to comply risked losing their jobs.


    The original article contains 309 words, the summary contains 166 words. Saved 46%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!