
Netflix Employees Are Happier with Their Job Than Facebook or Google Employees - dsr12
https://www.inc.com/business-insider/tech-employees-anonymously-rate-companies-work-facebook-google-netflix-twitter.html
======
Bahamut
That Glassdoor reference on Netflix software engineer salaries is
wrong/outdated from my understanding - I don’t know a single Netflixer making
less than $300k.

Netflix seems to have an unusually open culture in general, including topics
such as salary - they put their money where their mouth is and basically egg
everyone on to beat them. Gotta respect that a company is willing to do that
(I don’t work for them, but I do work for one of the big public tech companies
listed in those charts)

~~~
brailsafe
If this is true, as someone who is unemployed and doesn't watch Netflix, I
can't even wrap my head around that number. On the other hand, I'm kind of
happy to see that they're making real money by charging real money (unlike
others where your information is the only product) and passing that on to the
people who make it good.

~~~
briga
What's even harder to wrap my head around is that according to this survey
around 15% of people at Netflix think they're not compensated fairly. What do
they want? 400k? 500k? Would a salary of a million dollars a year be enough?

~~~
sambe
If you worked at Netflix and everyone around you made a million whilst you
made half a million, you might give such an answer on a survey, and it
probably wouldn't change with the absolute amounts.

~~~
briga
That's something that worries me about moving down to Silicon Valley. It seems
like everyone there is envious of how much their neighbors and co-workers
make, regardless of how much they happen to be making. I want to avoid falling
into that trap--it seems like a recipe for unhappiness.

~~~
chickenbane
Another perspective: Netflix is notoriously interested in only hiring top
talent. Top talent is ambitious and always seeking to advance. I don't think
it's a matter of envy, it's the unending beat of progress.

~~~
meric
And,or: they hire the people most likely to feel unfairly paid, and it’s when
we feel we are unfairly paid we are more motivated to negotiate higher
salaries, and the more a company’s employees ask for higher salaries the more
likely they are paid higher. And if the root cause of the feeling of being
unfairly paid isn’t the absolute amount of money being received, then the
higher salaries won’t reduce the feeling.

------
Flenser
The graph for compensation/leaving is more revealing if you right align the
red bars: [https://i.imgur.com/WeJD8na.png](https://i.imgur.com/WeJD8na.png)

note how with Lyft, Uber and Apple there's no overlap between the percentage
that feel compensated fairly and the percentage that would leave (yes I
realise the two aren't orthogonal, but it's still indicative).

 _Edit:_

and linkedIn only overlap slightly.

Looking at it another way:
[https://i.imgur.com/vnMtd3r.png](https://i.imgur.com/vnMtd3r.png)

If you want to reduce the percentage of your employees that want to leave
there's two ways to do it: increase compensation, or do whatever Lyft, Uber,
Apple and linkedIn are doing.

~~~
kfriede
I'd be curious to see how the data changes if the question is changed to "Do
you think you are compensated _enough_ ". I personally know people who think
they make _too much_ , and may actually answer "No" to the question "Do you
think you are compensated fairly?"

------
fusiongyro
Without even looking at the article, I would guess so simply because what
Netflix purports to do is what they actually do and how they make money, so
there's no ethical shell game being played against starry-eyed junior
developers.

~~~
shmerl
_> so there's no ethical shell game being played_

Netflix has some shady stuff like DRM going on, while pretending it's not
their fault it was pushed into HTML standard.

~~~
imustbeevil
How can Netflix survive if you're able to pay $15 and download every video
they have?

~~~
will_hughes
Someone who's going to pirate can readily get all of that content from various
sources already.

I highly doubt that anyone has been persuaded to buy a Netflix subscription
because of Netflix's use of DRM.

As for 'shady' \-- well, not a word I'd necessarily use, but there's plenty of
examples where DRM has blocked access to legitimately purchased content.

~~~
kerbalspacepro
Netflix isn't using DRM for the customers, its using DRM for the content
providers. It isn't there job to fix the rest of the Internet

~~~
shmerl
_> Netflix isn't using DRM for the customers, its using DRM for the content
providers._

That doesn't for their own video. Whom are they using it for in that case?

 _> It isn't there job to fix the rest of the Internet _

Apparently it's their job to break it though, by pushing this garbage into he
standard.

------
azuriten
There was an episode NPR Planet Money where they had a former hiring manager
explain Netflix's work culture. I recommend giving it a listen; it's only 20
mins.

npr.org/sections/money/2017/09/13/550793717/episode-647-hard-work-is-
irrelevant

There was a story where a woman who worked herself sick for the company and
was on sick leave. Netflix essentially said don't worry, take as much time off
as you want but really it was about making her post redundant and moving on
without her.

~~~
tome
Did she get paid for her sick leave?

~~~
azuriten
It isn't mentioned in the podcast.

------
thisisit
The article seems oddly gushy about Blind or "the anonymous employee chat app
for employees" -> There must be a better way to write that.

It "ask them the kinds of sensitive questions that you normally can't ask: Do
you think you are paid fairly? Are you interested in leaving your job?"

The sample size is 4174 people across ~40+ companies. So I am not really sure
this can be trusted, looks more like a click bait article.

~~~
Xorlev
Not to mention the folks on this app aren't exactly drawn from a random
distribution. I wouldn't be surprised if there are extreme biases at play.

------
ucaetano
"When asked to rate the statement, "I'm compensated fairly," 4174 people
responded, Blind says."

Funny how they don't mention how many people answered the other questions.

The survey, as well as the article, is bullshit clickbait.

~~~
zackelan
> The survey, as well as the article, is bullshit clickbait.

To me it reads like barely-disguised native advertising, with every single
chart having both the company's logo embedded in it and a direct link to their
homepage right below it.

It's sad to see such content appear so prominently on HN.

------
gautamnarula
Netflix has a lower rating (3.6) than Google (4.4) and Facebook (4.6) on
Glassdoor.

Obviously Glassdoor isn't completely reliable since anyone can write a review,
but Blind is also subject to selection bias.

------
romanovcode
Since Netflix fires employees who are unhappy I would like to hear the story
from the other side as well, that is - from the unhappy fired employees.

~~~
luckydude
That's not the sense I get, I believe (and I'm just going from what I've read
so salt a bit) that they let go people that aren't producing at the level they
want. So they could easily let go someone who was happy but not producing
enough.

------
pfarnsworth
Duh. The ones that survive are making ~400k/yr pure cash and very very happy.
I've heard they will fire very quickly though but those that fit into the
culture must be extremely happy.

~~~
brailsafe
Do they fire quickly based on culture fit or some performance measure?

~~~
canttestthis
Their culture is singularly focused on performance... so both.

~~~
jlesk
Netflix employee here. We have a high performance culture, certainly, but it's
not the singular focus. I have probably seen just as many people let go for
their inability to work well with others as anything performance-related.

From our culture page:

"...there are no “brilliant jerks.” The cost to teamwork is just too high. Our
view is that brilliant people are also capable of decent human interactions,
and we insist upon that."

[https://jobs.netflix.com/culture](https://jobs.netflix.com/culture)

~~~
byebyetech
When you say High performance culture, does it mean you have to work more than
8 hours a day? Is it butt-in-the-seat culture? if not, how do you measure
performance? Would be great to know.

~~~
brailsafe
Was about to ask the same question. Performance measures vary between
companies, sector, and management structures.

~~~
pfarnsworth
Netflix doesn't reward hard workers. They reward smart workers. If you get
your job done in 5 mins, and take the rest of the day off, they will reward
you with a 20% raise every year. If you work your ass off 16 hrs a day but
don't get your work done, you will get laid off.

Keep in mind that "the job" I'm referring to is more complex that regular
jobs, but they hire people that can do the job that they need them to.

------
kelukelugames
One thing to keep in mind it the number of employees.

Netflix - 3.5k Facebook - 17k Google - 60k

------
brianzelip
The most recent Front End Happy Hour podcast[0] featured a Netflix recruiter
who described their culture a bit. I found it interesting and encouraging.

[0][http://frontendhappyhour.com/episodes/getting-the-
bartenders...](http://frontendhappyhour.com/episodes/getting-the-bartenders-
attention/).

------
sadikkapadia1
Netflix is no different to any other company. Your happiness depends on your
boss. And even single teams go through bad patches.

Some background. I wrote Netflix's recommendation system. Netflix later went
on to take part in fraud against USPTO which now led to Netflix with no
ownership of it's "most important technology". Xavier Amatrain
[https://www.linkedin.com/in/xamatriain/](https://www.linkedin.com/in/xamatriain/)
was my boss. Xavier went on to hire lots of staff to try and replace my system
and was unable to do so. In the end he started claiming credit for systems I
had written without understanding the technology. He still presents his
incorrect knowledge in public conferences. The result is that for 5 years
Netflix has been running my alpha system without improving the technology
(various techniques that Xavier tried and k-means, LDA and deep-learning).
Netflix never did push a version I had written with 40% greater "click-
through" rate, 3 times greater speed and order of magnitude less memory.

One example conversation I had with Xavier after he left Netflix (para-
phrasing of course): Me: How is my system doing? Xavier: We don't use it
anymore. We stopped using your system 1 week after you left. Me: Really what
do you use? Xavier: I cannot tell you it is secret. Me: Who wrote it? Xavier:
You don't know him. We hired him after you and he wrote and pushed the new
algorithm. Me: So that new person, wrote a new recommendation system; pushed
it into A/B test; got test results and then pushed it into production in 1
week. Xavier: Yes - he is better than you. All was this is a lie (and not out
of character), because I have been in touch with other engineers post-Netflix
and in fact I've talked with Justin on a number of occasions on the phone
about how to keep my system running. Later Xavier invited me to work for him
at Quora. He offered in his own words "an unbelievable salary". I of course
refused. I met Xavier sometime later and tried to talk to him about a
particular bad presentation of his. He got upset and shouted "Fuck Off, I'm
not interested in listening to anything you have to say" multiple times. We
were on the Facebook campus at the time. He left at that point.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. Always remember
[https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/65213-briefly-stated-the-
ge...](https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/65213-briefly-stated-the-gell-mann-
amnesia-effect-is-as-follows-you)

------
kevinr
The hed is a little misleading---what is meant by happiness in the article
itself is that Netflix employees more likely feel they're compensated fairly
and aren't looking for other jobs.

That is, however, really nice confirmation that Netflix does in fact live what
I was told when I interviewed there, that Netflix prides itself on offering
the best comp package in industry. (They followed that by casually offering to
more than triple my salary, so I had some inkling they weren't just making
that up, but it's easy to write off one data point in a high-demand field as
an anomaly.)

I'm most impressed that Amazon is doing as well as it is in those rankings,
given how much shit they've gotten in the press over the last few years.

------
heroprotagonist
It's too bad their happiness can't translate into ultrawide video being
displayed properly on an ultrawide monitor in my browser. I have tried a few
times to inform them but I guess it either gets lost before it ever reaches
the people who can fix it, or they just don't care to fix it.

Black bars surrounding all four sides of the video (only with ultrawide
content on ultrawide browser) because their app can't properly apply video
dimension to the user screen dimension is kind of sad.

It's a little hard to believe they don't know about it, because I'm not the
only one affected. There are even some compromise-options users contribute
through use of Chrome extensions like this one:

[https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ultrawide-
display-...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ultrawide-display-
aspect/ohipjogbepngmhlggljgiibpfmmnohgc?hl=en)

Even this is not a good solution, because Chrome is limited to 720p (Edge goes
to 4k).

So.. users can either get a smaller video in a box centered on their screen,
but with higher resolution, or they can get actual fullscreen with a poorly
supported browser at penalty of a lower resolution.

I know, not the best place for bug reports, but customer support, Twitter,
other social media all have failed to solve this for a good year and a half..
Hopefully one of their engineers can read this and think "I feel empowered
enough at my job to be able to pursue a solution to this."

------
snvzz
They chose BSD (freebsd) over Linux.

~~~
lscotte
Actually, both Linux and BSD are used - BSD on OpenConnect cache appliances,
but Linux for the entire backend running in AWS.

~~~
luckydude
They are actively working on the FreeBSD kernel, see Drew's post that I linked
to (they did enough work to fill 100Gbit/sec pipe with 100,000 TCP
connections. Impressive stuff).

FreeBSD is used because they can get their work into the kernel, Linux is
harder to change.

The Linux use appears to me to just be VMs in AWS, it's just a service.

------
CodeWriter23
Probably has to do with Netflix being TV for people to watch, and Facebook,
Google being the equivalent of Orwell’s TV that watches you.

------
trhway
among my friends/acquaintances Netflix has higher or comparable totals (much
north of $400K) with significantly, like on the order of 2x, higher base than
FB/Google - makes for much happier existence :)

------
WhiteSource1
Probably the free movies!

------
sjg007
Because they get paid a lot!!

------
nodesocket
I attribute and applaud the strong leadership of Reed Hastings. Apple and Tim
Cook is another example. Both companies keep their products and secrets close
to their chest, and don't put-up with employees who think their political
views or personal agendas are more important than the company. Leadership by
committee (Google is notorious) in my view is not the answer. Large public
companies should be dictatorships. The quote; and I'll be sure to get it right
(oops Texans owner) "the inmates are running the asylum" holds true for Google
and Facebook.

~~~
lovich
Why should they be dictatorships?

~~~
ksk
I guess because there is no established successful business model of having
100 people giving management direction to a company. Would be easy to disprove
though.

------
0xbear
Seems like selection bias. Netflix fires you if you’re not happy.

~~~
bborud
Is it bad that Netflix fires people who are not happy working for them?

~~~
atulatul
I think the parent comment meant that since unhappy people are fired,
remaining people are happy ones and these happy ones participated in the
survey thus resulting into the survey result... selection bias. It is not
about whether it is good for netflix or not.

~~~
bborud
Fair comment.

But I wasn’t really thinking about what’s good for Netflix. I was actually
thinking about the employees. If you are unhappy at an employer : is it bad if
you are fired for not being happy?

------
sdee21
I have no clue how netflix can survive with the price and being able to
virtually download everything they have in their library.

~~~
romanovcode
Convenience.

~~~
MystK
Exactly. I've pirated a ton of movies in my time, but it's so much easier to
sit down on the coach from a long day of work, fire up the Apple TV and scroll
through and watch all the good originals that Netflix has.

