↵

Fuck Facebook(daringfireball.net)

6 years ago from Pedro Pinto, Product

  • Joe Blau, 6 years ago

    That's a pretty toxic view and maybe that works for your company but it doesn't seem like a great strategy. Facebook has about 17,000 employees working on all types of projects. There are tons of conditions that could keep someone working there for an extended period of time even though they disagree with the larger direction of the company. Here are some examples:

    1. They have a family that is dependent on income.
    2. They have golden handcuffs (equity that needs to hit a vesting schedule) and an early exit could cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars.
    3. Their specific team is actually not that bad. They may be working on and designing products that you never see and it might be a pretty cool team with cool people. Maybe their projects never see the light of day, but the environment is positive so they've stayed. (This happened to me at Amazon)

    Also consider that if they are trying to leave and get around a better environment, you just prejudicially saying "no" just perpetuates the cycle of them staying at Facebook.

    26 points
    • John PJohn P, 6 years ago

      Plenty of companies in the world doing horrible things have plenty of people working at them.

      I wouldn't hire anyone who worked in blood diamonds or cosmetics animal testing either.

      To counter your points

      They have a family that is dependent on income.

      If they can get hired by Facebook they're good enough to work elsewhere

      They have golden handcuffs ... and an early exit could cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars

      Plenty of people do shitty things that make the world a worse place for money, this is kinda my point. They made that choice and put their ethics aside for that money.

      Their specific team is actually not that bad

      I'm sure there are plenty of "cool" people working there, but they're happy to be a cog in a shitty machine that makes the world a worse place.

      Also consider that if they are trying to leave

      FB hasn't turned shitty over night, it's been shitty for nearly 10 years now. They know what they were signing up for (unlike most of their users).

      4 points
      • John Jackson, 6 years ago

        Based on your unnecessarily toxic stance, I really don't think your FB candidate was losing out on anything.

        33 points
      • Brian A.Brian A., 6 years ago

        Coming back to revise my earlier comment and provide some counterpoints to your counterpoints here.

        If they can get hired by Facebook they're good enough to work elsewhere

        How are they supposed to get hired elsewhere if people like you won't hire them?

        Plenty of people do shitty things that make the world a worse place for money, this is kinda my point. They made that choice and put their ethics aside for that money.

        Do you personally always make the most ethical decision in every scenario? Have you never made a decision that only benefitted you?

        I'm sure there are plenty of "cool" people working there, but they're happy to be a cog in a shitty machine that makes the world a worse place.

        People have different motivations for things; I'm sure that not everyone working at Facebook believes in the mission or is sold on the product. A lot of folks make choices based on what's best for them at the time, and there is nothing wrong with that.

        FB hasn't turned shitty over night, it's been shitty for nearly 10 years now. They know what they were signing up for (unlike most of their users).

        Very true, but I say again: Folks have different motivations, some of which may be what benefits them at the time (e.g., career development, pay, location, etc.). Also, I'm sure that not everyone at Facebook is a long-timer.

        The issue I take with your stance is that it's an extreme, broad generalization for a group of people that you know almost nothing about. You seem to want to shame them for working at a company that you disagree with ethically, and you're punishing them for doing so.

        5 points