this post was submitted on 14 Aug 2025
237 points (98.4% liked)

Technology

74098 readers
2542 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related news or articles.
  3. Be excellent to each other!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
  10. Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.

Approved Bots

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
L3s@lemmy.world
enu@lemmy.world
technopagan@lemmy.world
L4s@lemmy.world
L3s@hackingne.ws
L4s@hackingne.ws
237
So Long to Tech's Dream Job: It’s the shut up and grind era, tech workers said, as Apple, Google, Meta and other giants age into large bureaucracies. (www.nytimes.com)
submitted 2 days ago by FenrirIII@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world
40 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/34411807

While many of them still provide free food and pay well, they have little compunction cutting jobs, ordering mandatory office attendance and clamping down on employee debate. [...] “Tech could still be best in terms of free lunch and a high salary,” Ms. Grey said, but “the level of fear has gone way up.”

Along the way, the companies became less tolerant of employee outspokenness. Bosses reasserted themselves after workers protested issues including sexual harassment in the workplace. With the job market flooded with qualified engineers, it became easier to replace those who criticized. “This is a business, and not a place to act in a way that disrupts co-workers or makes them feel unsafe, to attempt to use the company as a personal platform, or to fight over disruptive issues or debate politics,” Sundar Pichai, Google’s chief executive, said in a blog post last year.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] atticus88th@lemmy.world 36 points 2 days ago (2 children)

I'm kind of LMAO because of course those places have turned into that. Look who runs them and look at the execs running it. These are not college grads literally living there and need to unwind while at work.

A lot of software companies especially the new ones who want young talent are running exactly the same as startups were 20 years ago just a lot more flashy and newer toys.

[–] stoly@lemmy.world 8 points 2 days ago

I worked for one of those 20 year startups. It was awful. Basically there was no drive, no vision. The entire place was a lot of faff and only existed to give bonuses to leadership. All of the interesting and motivated employees moved on long ago leaving only the mediocre types who play political games and favorites. I needed A job and took it when offered, but took the next job as soon as I could get out. I watched many others cycle through, some a lot faster than I did (I was waiting for a specific position to open).

[–] onion_dude@feddit.uk 5 points 2 days ago (3 children)

I wonder if it's inevitable that anywhere with enough humans working together will reach this point eventually?

[–] Devmapall@lemmy.zip 16 points 2 days ago

When money and power are funneled to the few then yes. Something more cooperative or democratic probably wouldn't have the same intensity of the problem.

I think it's only inevitable because of how our society is structured.

[–] stoly@lemmy.world 12 points 2 days ago

No, not really. Where I work now is fantastic and we have great leadership. The moment your original visionary leader leaves and someone with an MBA gets in their place, it all goes to shit. This is LITERALLY what happened to Google and to Apple. Both super dynamic companies with great culture who were then gutted to generate shareholder value.

[–] panda_abyss@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

From what I’ve seen it starts with a few people who abuse the niceties, or the first downturn, or both, and suddenly they’ve got an excuse to strip it all back.

It’s always one or the other that starts it. You have an office game console and someone brings their kids who spill pop on it or they take the games home. You get that guy who takes a box of snacks home and the CEO complains for like 2 years about it. You get someone who orders pay per view on a business trip. Etc.

Once you get to like 300 employees this threshold starts getting reliably exceeded.

[–] DireTech@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Since when is a 300 person company a startup? I feel like you lose any claim to that long before you hit 100.

[–] panda_abyss@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 day ago

Yeah, but that’s the size where things definitely start dying.

50 is probably my ideal company size.