
The Elves Leave Middle Earth – Sodas Are No Longer Free - icey
http://steveblank.com/2009/12/21/the-elves-leave-middle-earth-%E2%80%93-soda%E2%80%99s-are-no-longer-free/
======
snorkel
I never expected employers to provide snacks and beverages but it is
demoralizing when executives take away such perks but continue to fly first-
class for the same cost as buying a month of snacks for everyone.

~~~
iuytgfghjmk
So for you there is a different breaking point.

Like when you have to clock in and out at lunch time, but work unpaid overtime
and weekends.

Or when you lose admin rights on your own PC

Or you have to start wearing a tie.

For me it was when we had to start signing in and out with a time. Supposedly
this was for fire safety, but never seemed to apply to VPs.

We worked on banking systems and often had to work all nighters while the bank
was offline. The time tracking system couldn't cope with the concept of being
on shift for >24hours - the HR people treated us like it was our fault. Their
solution was that we all went out at 23:59 and signed back in at 00:01 and
that would solve the problem WE had created.

~~~
gridspy
For me it was :

Generally working unpaid overtime for a long time and then during a quiet
patch coming in early and leaving early (5-10 minutes early). I got personally
told off by the team lead.

Having a virus checker on my machine that I could not remove on pain of huge
financial penalties. It scanned every input, intermediate and output of my
compiler and turned the computer into a sloth. Didn't help that the final
output was 230mb in size (and had a translation step into another 230mb
executable). I tried in vain to get exceptions added but to no avail.

These little things slowly chip away at you and you later realise that you
left for the wrong reasons - but it is too late.

~~~
iron_ball
Those sound like great reasons to me, as long as you have another job waiting.
What was the rest of the story?

~~~
gridspy
It forced me to confront my unquestioning love for creating computer games and
made me realise that making games can be fun, but can also be as much as a
drag and grind as programming anything else. There is always plenty of meat
for the grinder (read shiny-eyed students) coming into the industry to justify
low wages and many of my co-workers were burnt out.

So I listened to my wife and moved backed home to New Zealand. I worked in a
variety of other positions and decided that I'm not going to be satisfied in
any particular 9-5 job for long. The next chapter is being written right now
as I continue in my current 9-5 while spending all my free time working on
Gridspy (<http://gridspy.co.nz>) which is the startup that will eventually set
me free.

When I say free, I mean it will still be a lot of work, but I will be in
control of my destiny. I'll decide what features to work on when, which
technology to use and if we will have free lunches and soda. Hopefully I'll
manage to democratise the process enough that everyone can enjoy themselves
just as much as we grow.

~~~
netcan
I'm getting a malware warning with Chrome.

 _The website at www.gridspy.co.nz contains elements from the site uimserv-
net.dell.com.examiner-com.simpleworldhouse.ru, which appears to host malwar_

~~~
staunch
So, his previous employer was well justified in forcing him to have an anti-
virus program installed on his machine!

~~~
gridspy
Thanks for the warning guys.

There is a first time for everything I guess - somehow my FTP account was
compromised and a script added to the end of the page that injected code into
the page.

The script has been removed and the FTP account blocked. The logs indicate
that the work was done by a botnet, quite interesting. One IP logs in and gets
a file, another (different IP) logs in and replaces that file.

The static content that was compromised is stored on a separate server with
separate passwords from the machine that hosts my actual application and
associated data.

What really concerns me is how that password got into the open (the logs do
not indicate brute forcing). Virus checking here we come!

~~~
khafra
Perhaps some machine on the wire between the two servers is a member of the
botnet? You might want to switch to SCP, HTTPS upload, ipsec tunnel, or
something else that'll at least be a speedbump to attackers.

~~~
gridspy
Further info for those interested: My developer machine was infected with the
Kryptik trojan. Using WireShark I could see that I had become the proud member
of a botnet, it probably found a saved password for FTP on my machine and
compromised my server that way. Makes me feel all dirty inside watching my
computer send viagra emails and receive "sorry, you are blacklisted"
responses.

All the passwords have been changed and the relevant computer quarantined. I'm
still working on removing the virus, seems to be using drivers to mask its
presence from the virus checkers I am using. I've got some ideas based on
using a scanner on a live-cd.

What is really fun is that the virus definition for the trojan was added to
NOD32 after I was infected, so I don't know how much help a virus checker
would have been, if it was installed.

That will learn me for leaving saved passwords on an otherwise secure machine.

~~~
netcan
Thanks for coming back with that.

~~~
gridspy
I used an external hard disk drive caddy to mount the infected HDD on another
machine. I then used Malware bytes to scan the HDD. It found Trojan.Agent on
the hdd (in a dll inside windows/system), which it hadn't found when
malwarebytes was run directly on the infected system.

The infected computer has ceased sending suspicious packets. I don't know how
I am going to trust this machine again.

------
gaius
Absolutely. Another symptom is machine naming. When people _who will never
themselves log into them_ tell you to dump whatever whimsical themes you had
and call your boxes according to an official convention, you gotta wonder what
value they're adding to the organization.

~~~
ramanujan
Hmmm. It's a lot easier to automatically manage boxes named "server001" than a
list of random names that constantly has to be maintained.

Your own personal laptop is a different matter.

Moreover, if you want personality, just set up your ~/.ssh/config to retain
the legacy name for yourself, e.g. "ssh middleearthname" to connect to
server001.foo.com

~~~
gaius
The names aren't random, tho'. The people using the machines every day know
that (for example) all the database servers are named after planets, all the
web servers are elements of the periodic table, all the development boxes are
Muppets characters, etc. It costs nothing and makes your engineers happy. Plus
it is intuitive, mistakes of the kind of being logged into the wrong box never
happen.

I personally have very nearly experienced a disaster because the official
naming convention had only one character difference between production and
UAT...

Anyway, you've missed my point a bit. It doesn't matter much in the grand
scheme of things what the boxes are called. It DOES matter than your company
is employing people to impose pointless, trivial changes and policies on
people with real work to do.

~~~
kscaldef
> The people using the machines every day know that (for example) all the
> database servers are named after planets, all the web servers are elements
> of the periodic table

So, what type of machine is "mercury"?

I've never seen a theme-based naming scheme that didn't eventually run into
ambiguities like this.

~~~
houseabsolute
The way it should be is hybrid. For machine management purposes, each machine
should be named for the datacenter and rack it's in. For example, dcaa11 is
the eleventh machine in rack aa in datacenter dc. But there's also the issue
of how to know which machine is running what. For that, we need to remember
there can be more than one name for the same thing. The mysql machine should
register itself with DNS when it starts up as
0.mysql.datacenter_name.prod.yourdomain.com. The second one should be 1.mysql,
etc. Now you have a system where memnonic names and manageable names can
coexist.

~~~
donw
I don't know why this has been downmodded.

It's not hard to have DNS CNAME and TXT records for machines, so that you can
have both a naming theme for certain classes of servers, as well as
descriptive names that indicate function, location, etc.

The way I handle the problem is pretty simple. Functionality gets a subnet
'name' under the root, and there are TXT records and aliases within that to
handle description. So, if you have a datacenter in Sacramento, your DB and
web machines would be named and alised:

johnny.sac.mycorp.com => db1.sac.mycorp.com TXT Rack 1, Slot 1-4

devi.sac.mycorp.com => db2.sac.mycorp.com TXT Rack 1, Slot 5-8

spooky.sac.mycorp.com => db3.sac.mycorp.com TXT Rack 1, Slot 9-12

tenna.sac.mycorp.com => db4.sac.mycorp.com TXT Rack 1, Slot 13-16

zim.sac.mycorp.com => web1.sac.mycorp.com TXT Rack 2, Slot 1

gir.sac.mycorp.com => web2.sac.mycorp.com TXT Rack 2, Slot 2

For ambiguous names (like 'mercury' existing in both { planets } and {
elements }), only one copy of that name can exist on the network. The people
who work with that machine will know it's theirs, and for everybody else,
there's CNAME and TXT records for when they're not sure.

------
elblanco
>Some had already been irritated when “professional” managers had been hired
over their teams with reportedly more stock than the early engineers had.

I'd say this was the main reason. The original employees had already proven
they could manage and grow the organization from 0->even, and hadn't slowed
down expecting to move the company from even->profit.

Now they have "supervisors" who don't know anything about the business or
technology, shoved in on top of them, who's only role is to act as liaison
between them and the corporate officers.

Bristling at the lack of corporate loyalty shown to the people that made the
company happen, those people leave. The calculus is really very simple.

I've seen this pattern happen a number of times, and the usual result is that
these new managers show up, make poor decisions (because they don't understand
the business) cycle out (taking their stock with them), repeat 4-5 times until
a manager shows up who is so inoffensive that the remaining engineers simply
end up running the show in the end anyways and the manager just shows up to
weekly meetings so she/he can liaise with corporate.

In the meantime, the company stock has diluted as it fled out the door to the
past managers, the company lost most of its senior engineering staff, forcing
them to promote lower level, less capable staff to senior positions or to hire
externally (again people who don't understand the business further
exacerbating the vicious cycle).

~~~
BerislavLopac
Agreed. It is my understanding that the best companies are led by their
original founders (cf. Apple, Google, Oracle) or by people nurtured for years
to become their leaders (Microsoft, IBM).

~~~
jimbokun
I would put Microsoft in the former group. It was one of the best companies
when led by its original founder. Now, not so much.

~~~
xcombinator
It was one of the best companies when led by its original founders.

Fixed it for you.:-)

That Paul Allen didn't liked to show up on newspapers doesn't mean he did
nothing.

~~~
swolchok
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Allen> says he didn't return to the company
after being diagnosed with Hodgkin's in 1983. Surely you and gp didn't mean
that MS stopped being one of the best companies in 1983?

~~~
xcombinator
I mean it is not only one man who makes the company, specially after 1983.

------
xel02
I think the main issue at heart is the desire that every human being has in
controlling their environment.

I say this because I just read in a book (A Drunkards Walk) how seniors in a
home who could arrange their rooms the way they liked and could choose a plant
to take care of were measurably happier and lived longer.

Restricting machine names, removing snacks, clocking in and out these all
contribute to a negative environment.

Which employee (all other things being equal) is more likely to burn out: a)
Diligent and responsible employee is essentially free to do what they need to
do to get their job done. b) Diligent and responsible employee who gets
shuffled into a 'highschool' scenario: hall-passes, attendance reports, dress
code.

Obviously some places feel they require these restrictions. Maybe in a large
corporation you'll end up hiring employees who you can't trust to show up on
time, etc. But isn't that also HR's fault?

------
briancooley
If the accoutants looked at free sodas and snacks as leveraged
salary/retention bonuses, they wouldn't suggest eliminating them.

~~~
eli
My employment contract lists free sodas as one of the benefits, right next to
health and dental. Probably one of the main reasons we still have them.

~~~
numair
That's pretty amusing. You get health and dental benefits, along with one of
the leading causes of health and dental problems... I know soda is considered
holy water among many HNers, but for those of us who are highly health-
conscious, that sounds a bit like the Detroit assembly lines with the
cigarette vending machines.

~~~
eli
Yeah, the irony was not lost on me. I actually requested some sparkling water
be added to the mix, but apparently that costs more from the distributor.

~~~
superkarn
The company I work for provides coffees, sodas, and spring water. Most of the
time I'm happy with just water. But I asked for some healthier alternatives
and they started offering fruit juices =)

------
noonespecial
Outstanding. Using "jumped the shark" just never felt right for this
situation. "The elves have left middle earth". A spot on perfect description
of this sad and awkward phase all startups encounter as they grow to
successful bigcorps. I love it.

~~~
jcl
A minor flaw in the metaphor: Middle Earth doesn't have to compete with
whatever the elves create in Valinor. Talented employees leaving is both a
loss for the company and a gain for competitors.

~~~
pyre
That assumes that they move to competitors.

~~~
potatolicious
If I knew my chief competitor just made a bunch of major bungles, and that
their morale is at an all-time low... I'd get my recruiters in there _fast_.

~~~
pyre
How would you know about the morale within the company? HR dept. spies?

~~~
btilly
Every company has you sign agreements about not recruiting from your old co-
workers. But nothing in those agreements says that you can't pass along
resumes that people push on you.

When morale is bad, people who are left tend to offer you resumes when you
quit. In that situation I've been glad to forward resumes of people who are
good, and have avoided forwarding resumes of people who aren't. (After all you
get judged by the quality of people that you recommend.) To the extent that
I'm someone people want to work with again, this results in cherry picking the
best people.

The effect is even more direct when employees go through recruiters.
Recruiters ask about the work environment where you are, and have no problem
trying to track people down if they get the sense that good people may be
available.

------
alexgartrell
On the very first day of my internship at a very big corporation, they removed
the free sodas. Even though this was only part of a large collection of cost-
cutting measures, it sent the most clear "F*&# you". (There was a number of
other fun things that they did, such as allowing certain groups to use their
Engineering interns as QA people without ever alerting them that this would be
the case)

Needless to say, Carnegie Mellon students are heavily discouraged from working
there by those of us who screwed up, and I definitely think that the huge dump
they took on their recruiting pipeline has affected them negatively in the
quality of people they'll be able to hire.

~~~
endtime
Do you mind saying which company this was?

~~~
alexgartrell
Cisco

------
SandB0x
I've been in an office where the free fruit was removed. Towards the end of
the afternoon I normally get quite hungry. With a bowl of fruit I would
silence my stomach rumblings for an extra half hour and get some more work
done. Without - screw it - time's up and I'd rather go home to cook.

~~~
nwatson
A company I worked for in the south-bay area decided to order fruit from a
"farm fresh office fruit delivery" service. I don't know how much the delivery
company charged.

It worked well for the first several months. The delivery company brought a
wide assortment of fruit, many "standards" and also some more exotic varieties
like papaya, kiwi, etc. Over the months though the apples took a larger and
larger portion of the delivery. And the exotic varieties disappeared.

People got sick of eating all those apples. We canceled the service.

The company also made pretense of being "green" but used extreme and wasteful
packaging.

~~~
flatline
> Over the months though the apples took a larger and larger portion of the
> delivery

I have to ask, was this over the winter months when many fruits are out of
season?

------
sethg
A certain VP I know once remarked that at one of his previous startup
employers, he advised the upper management against providing employees with
free coffee _in the first place_ , because savvy employees know that _losing
the free coffee_ is a leading indicator for layoffs.

He said this at the engineering staff meeting following our day of carnage at
which a third of the company was laid off. We also lost the free soda.

~~~
blackguardx
At the last company that I worked for, they didn't remove the free coffee but
they took away the free napkins, sugar, creamer, coffee cups, etc. I was laid
off two months later.

The coffee also got better right before the layoffs. In an effort to save
money, they looked for a cheaper coffee source than the crappy business supply
company they had been using. They managed to stumble upon a deal at a local
coffee roaster to get cheaper coffee.

It was pretty good when made correctly. One of the worst things than can
happen at a company is for someone who doesn't like "strong coffee" to be the
first one into the office in the morning. Not putting enough coffee grounds in
the filter basket makes coffee taste bitter and horrible. If you want weak
coffee, add water to a strong cup. Someone eventually had to put up signs
giving this same advice.

------
cmos
If you look at the energy costs of a vending machine it's actually cheaper in
some cases to have an efficient fridge with soda for free. (at least back in
the day) The vending machine company often doesn't pay for power, so they have
no incentive to cool the soda efficiently.

A nice 'interim' way of making a change would be to have a $.25 'donation' for
each soda which eventually goes to some animal shelter, which would then be a
tax writeoff.

CFO's will suck the lifeblook out of a company if nobody stops them. That is
their job. Shame on the others for letting the CFO mess with their culture.

~~~
InclinedPlane
The big cost here is likely to be labor. When you give away free sodas you
have to pay someone to keep sodas in stock. When you sell sodas you can even
sell a contract to a 3rd party to restock the machines. This is why free sodas
are fairly rare, because soda machines are a money maker for the company and
involve fewer employees on the balance sheet, whereas free sodas rack up all
of the costs of an employee (salary, taxes, benefits, etc.)

On the whole it's probably a silly tradeoff, since the benefits to employee
retention of free sodas almost certainly far outweigh the comparatively minor
costs, but if you just look at the balance sheet it can be awfully tempting to
get rid of.

~~~
gaius
At my present company the free sodas (and beers, on Friday) are simply
delivered in pallets and teams take a week at a time to be responsible for the
fridges. Peer pressure is enough to make this work. There was the time Luke's
team didn't restock the beer fridge and to this day he's known as Luke Warm...

------
umjames
I work for a non-profit where, to cut costs, they initially took out all the
water coolers. When people complained, they gave us one water cooler per
building.

I'd really like to be able to say that this would make people start leaving,
but no one here is really going to do that. I'll bet senior management knew
(and was relying on) that.

Lesson learned: In startups, people are more likely to leave on principles. In
big companies (even non-profits), almost no one leaves unless they're fired.

~~~
modoc
I worked at a very large company, which post-merger started rolling out
various changes which negatively impacted our development group. $0.25 sodas,
redbull, and snacks went to normal prices, release night dinners were cut,
flex time became less flexible, etc...

While no one quit due to any one of those changes, it did change the place
from somewhere fun to work to somewhere that wasn't fun. As a result about
three months later a large number of the architecture group and other key
people quit within a 1-2 week span. So while no one may quit the day the water
coolers are removed, that type of change will lead to higher turn over later
on, especially among the top folks, who can find a new job pretty easily.

~~~
ZachPruckowski
_While no one quit due to any one of those changes...about three months later
a large number of the architecture group and other key people quit within a
1-2 week span_

Sounds to me like they put out resumes shortly after the cost-cutting, it just
took a few months to get a better job.

------
jchonphoenix
Interestingly enough, the same theory applies to recruiting and internships.

I was part of IBM's premier internship program (Extreme Blue) last summer, and
of the 3 best developers in the lab, none of them wanted to work for IBM.

One of them actually cited "no free coffee and soda" as his reasoning.

Goes to show that this applies to recruiting as much as employee retention.

~~~
derwiki
They took away our free popcorn at Silicon Valley Lab. It was demoralizing.

------
bmj
Maybe I'm just weird, but this wouldn't bother me. My employer does offer free
sodas and snacks, but I don't take advantage of them (I don't drink soda, and
tend not to snack on junk food). I do drink the free coffee, but in the past,
I've survived this by bringing a thermos from home. I can understand why some
people might not like the free stuff to be taken away, but I'd prefer to work
for an employer that compensated fairly for my work, and one that does not
expect that I work more than 40-45 hours on a regular basis.

~~~
algorias
It's not about your compensation at all. The impact of free snacks is so tiny
for the employers cost structure that the decision to offer them or not is
completely unrelated to their ability (or willingness) to pay a fair salary.

Would you really prefer an extra $200 or so per year over free soda? I think
you wouldn't even notice the difference in your bank balance.

~~~
qjz
The company has to succeed, my stock has to go up in value, and as the company
grows in size it can get much better deals on things like health insurance
than I can alone. $200/yr spent on soda doesn't benefit me in any way at all.
I'll drink tapwater at work if I'm thirsty. Is startup culture really so
averse to frugality and so blind to its benefits?

~~~
dagw
If a company is in such trouble that $200 per year and employee will make any
sort of real difference, then they have much bigger problems. Not wasting
money is one thing, pointless frugality for the point of frugality is
something very different.

And really I think you're missing the point by focusing on the soda. If you
want the company to grow then you have to keep the employees content and
productive. A company full of disgruntled workers looking for a new job will
not help your stock go up in value. If the price of that is $200 in soda for
some people then that is money well invested, and a direct benefit to you.

~~~
qjz
You'll get no argument from me that a good investment is money well spent,
whether it's free soda or a company fleet of Lamborghinis.

But what problem is the CFO in the article trying to solve? The author claims
the startup is "fairly successful" but it's already a few years old, just
breaking even, and still heavily dependent on financing. His true measure of
success seems to hinge on the fact that the company continues to exist in a
bad economy. Meanwhile, the CFO needs to address "Sarbanes Oxley compliance, a
new accounting system, beef up IT and security, Section 409A (valuation)
compliance, etc." This sounds like an important phase in the company's growth,
and she's trying to find ways to pay for it. In the context of the article,
this isn't an arbitrary decision that disregards morale, productivity or even
QA. It's a growing pain essential to establishing the company's success. IOW,
they do have much bigger problems.

There's no question that preventing disgruntlement during these stages is an
HR challenge that needs to be handled delicately. But I think the need can be
communicated effectively without losing valuable employees. The fact that it
wasn't is the real failure in the article.

~~~
gridspy
Despite upvoting you for your clear argument - I disagree. The top engineers
are the lifeblood of the company, and to make trivial cost cutting measures
($10k really is nothing) that risk their retention is incredibly stupid.

Decrees from the top that disregard the input of and value of the employees
are the issue here, not how those decrees are handed down. I can't think of
any way that HR could say "no more free soda" without it sounding like the
stupid cost-cutting measure that it is.

------
foulmouthboy
I think part of what would irritate me here is not just that they've taken
away free soda, but they're now actively charging me for it. I wonder if it
would've come across better if there just wasn't any soda offered in the
office anymore.

Maybe it's totally illogical, but I'd be more irritated with the idea that the
company not only took away this perk, but is now trying to make a profit off
of it.

~~~
Zot95
No, that (removing soda as an option) wouldn't go over well at all. Forget the
idea of being offended, the practical matter is that soda is no longer an
option... or at least a convenient option. You may as well take away the
coffee as see how that goes over.

------
ax0n
I've worked at two startups while they slowly took away the free stuff. It
sucks, but it's a phase that successful (okay, and not-so-successful, in their
death throes) companies eventually need to go through.

Also, thank you for removing the apostrophe, icey. _gnashes teeth at stray
apostrophes_

~~~
algorias
Why do they _need_ to go through it? free soda will always be a tiny expense
in relation to everything else.

Sure 10K sounds like a lot of cash for soda, but a company with 50 employees
is spending millions on salaries.

~~~
mechanical_fish
_10K sounds like a lot of cash for soda_

This, by the way, is the very _definition_ of bikeshedding. Everyone knows
about soda; everyone has bought it before. So cutting out soda is something
that the entire executive team feels competent to discuss -- unlike, say, the
efficiency of the QA department's staffing schedule, or climate control zones,
or the use of electricity for lighting offices at 3am, or the difficult
politics of downsizing particular business units. Soda is a simple theatrical
stunt for making the CFO look good. It's a good show.

Of course, as Steve points out, it sends a very clear message to the people
who've been drinking those sodas: Your work is no longer considered an
investment in the future. Now you're a cost center.

~~~
noonespecial
Unfortunately, shows are just that. Pure signaling. If you cut $10k for snacks
but the executive keeps his $30k company car lease, what have you just told
the engineers who made the company possible in the first place? To them its
about respect. Its worth more than money to most of these types, and when it
dries up, they're gone.

Most _"I will work harder"_ types at startups just kind of know when the pigs
are trading them to the glue factory for a case of whiskey.

------
Scott_MacGregor
For about the same price as the quarter eating vending machine, a 7-11 style
soda dispenser could probably have been installed and the price per soda would
probably have been around 2 cents each for a big gulp size. It is very cost
effective, much better than bottles or cans. It might have been viewed as a
step up in benefits vs. a takeaway. Pennywise, pound-foolish.

<http://www.sodadispenserdepot.com/dispensersused.html>

~~~
flatline
Having worked on and off in restaurants over the years, you have to clean
these things nightly - and thoroughly - or else they get disgusting very
quickly. That's the biggest problem with most of this kind of thing, espresso
machines too. We have a single-serve automatic coffee maker right now that's
not supposed to require regular cleaning, it's a little better about it but it
can still get really gross.

------
rythie
Next step in those companies is that the managers start having meetings in
fancy hotels costing a lot more than that small saving.

------
scj
I'm kind of confused on the timeline:

"Last week as a favor to a friend..."

"The best engineers quietly put the word out that they were available, and in
less than month..."

While both statements can be true together, it would seem to me that "in less
than a week..." would be more appropriate, and devastating.

I realize I'm just fussing over unimportant details though.

~~~
barrkel
You left out the bit in the middle:

"I had lived through this same conversation four times in my career, and each
time it ended as an example of unintended consequences."

~~~
scj
I would agree completely with you, if the next sentence was "In a similar
situation at a different company, no one on the board..." But without such a
line, I read that as commentary based on previous experiences, followed by a
continuation of the main story.

(I assumed that "the board" in the next sentence referred to the board in the
first part, which lead to the continuation. This is re-enforced by using "This
company" and "the company" which would imply that the author was referring to
the only company introduced)

------
msluyter
I went through this transition once. Initially, sodas were to be .50$, but
that caused an uproar and price was quickly reduced to .25$, where it remains
today. It's one thing for sodas to not be free; it's another for them to be a
profit center.

Aw well, at least coffee is still free.

------
JoeAltmaier
Significant: hundreds of posts on this topic. Obviously the social situation
is vitally important. Corporate drones will never get it, so one solution is
to never hire them. Look at W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc, they do (used to
do?) it right.

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pwnstigator
The CFO failed to anticipate that humans are irrational, and that people will
read all sorts of things into the loss of free sodas. It's not just an
economic transaction.

I thought the sales point of "business" types was that they were good at
managing the irrationality of humans.

~~~
dkarl
Do you think the CFO who proposed this dismal change regrets it? She raised
her standing with her peer group by proposing a popular cost-cutting measure,
and they probably blame the engineers for the outcome, not her. They may even
be glad to be rid of the engineers who wouldn't adjust well to big-company
culture. Big-company culture is a culture of mediocrity and
interchangeability, and the guys on top like it that way. They want all the
initiative and excellence to be on their level of the company, so everything
that happens in the company is due to their control. Google is exceptional in
even _trying_ to avoid that fate.

~~~
pwnstigator
I doubt it. Few people are going to mention the sodas during exit interviews.
In fact, I think very few people are even aware that the sodas might be a
trigger for their decision, since it's not about the sodas, but the show of
loyalty.

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anonjon
I bet I could save many times more than 10,000 a year by eliminating a CFO.

~~~
BerislavLopac
A _bad_ CFO, definitely. And a good CFO would never cut that kind of corners.

A good CFO knows that a corporation's job is not to _save_ money, but to
_earn_ it.

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lucifer
Based on what he says, end of the free sodas is a lagging indicator that is
significant only for the reason that it serves as a "wake up call" for the
"heads-down" talent. Unless the talent is entirely clueless (which makes you
wonder about the "superstar" qualification), at some point they will realize
that they are no longer a good fit for the company and will leave.

So it seems the moral of the story is that hold off on sending overt signals
to your employees until you have prepared for their (inevitable) exodus.

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brown9-2
I just want to say I really love this analogy.

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vii
We all like free stuff, but there is no demonstration that the company was
actually harmed by saving the money on free drinks. Did having the early
engineers move on have a significant negative impact? Apparently not, or it
would have been mentioned in the article. . .

After all, you could hire them back if you offered them enough, and you'd do
that if they were essential.

Maybe it was in fact better to replace them with people happier working in a
medium sized company.

~~~
potatolicious
> After all, you could hire them back if you offered them enough

This is typical HR thinking, and is only valid for a certain demographic
(i.e., the people on the mid-to-low end of the bell curve). In my experience
the absolute top-level engineers cannot be retained with just money.

Let me put it this way - you're an ace engineer with oodles of experience. You
are in high demand, and if you were unemployed, you probably would have
recruiters banging your door down by week's end. These are the "top talent"
that all companies claim they want to hire - and they will make top dollar
regardless of where they go.

Having known some of these people, the motivator is not money, because money
is not _why_ they do this, and honestly they're swimming in it already. To
hire these guys you need to do something more - a great working environment, a
kickass team, a sane management structure, etc etc.

Money can only motivate someone so far.

~~~
JoeAltmaier
Yes, money will make a certain character swallow their pride/morals: a
prostitute. Anybody with self-respect will have other reasons for taking a
job. My old manager said "Nobody every quit over money". Well, he managed
high-end Engineers, but you get the idea.

