It is impossible to keep everyone happy at a company at all times. The difference between a company which seems to have happy employees and the one that doesn't seems to be the amount of PR spending. It is an advertising problem. Some companies managed to build that image by selective targeting. Otherwise how do you explain the churn rate of employees in the valley?
Have you worked at more than one company in the valley? There are vast differences in general happiness in different places.
Churn rate has a ton of other reasons, unless you want to pack so many different variables under 'happiness' that the term is meaningless.
But I guess if you're right, we have a test case: Uber will soon be perceived as Disneyland, because they have a massive hairball of a company happiness problem to deal with.
Actually time will solve this problem very easily. Uber does not have to do any thing differently. (Its not a recommendation).
Every successful company has these problems. Success attracts ambitious people and many of these high achievers accomplish their goals ruthlessly. In this process some other people who have different priorities feel left behind. Its just the way of life.
Take all the ambitious people and throw a challenging problem at them that can humble them other than that there is PR. PR expert will come out and tell you that not all teams in uber are bad, some of them are really good and the routine stuff we hear about any other big company.
Not every successful company has the constant stream of horrible behavior emanating from it over the course of years.
Trying to normalize this as growing pains or bored ambitious people(?!?) or whatever is simply false. I don't work there, but know people who have, and left, because it was such a toxic place. The point of my comment was that this was emphatically not a PR problem - it is a culture problem that obviously comes from the top of the firm.
Not sure I agree with the premise, but I think there is a point to be made. When was the last time people griped about the absolutely horrible culture of Amazon and Facebook? It wasn't that long ago, but I don't hear anything any more. I don't even know what it's like to work at Amazon of Facebook (I had one friend who worked at Amazon years ago and loved it -- data point of one), but last year the general consensus around here was that you'd have to be an idiot to work in either of those places. 2 years before that it was Netflix. I heard they just chew you up and spit you out. Now? Not a heard a word for ages. Today it's Uber. Tomorrow it will be someone else and everyone will forget about Uber. If they are smart they will capitalise on our poor memories.
Were these horrible places to work (as commonly reported)? Are they horrible places now? Who knows (certainly not me).
It is a PR problem because all the other people who did not have problems do not come out and say they like it there. If people come out and say I think uber is good to me they will look insensitive given the context of two women with bad experiences. PR will create a place where other people can speak out.
Over all churn rate in the valley is pretty bad, uber cannot doing any worse than the other companies there.
None of the stories coming out of Uber sounds remotely like high achievers making lesser beings feel left behind. It sounds like a toxic culture with lousy management.
We do not know what the truth is. We can only speculate. If those allegations were true, I wish uber will come out and address them.
Uber itself is a victim here. They are going after some other big monopolies in the industry. It could be as simple as their mistakes are blown out of proportion to smear them by their competition. We see similar big co is bad stories once a while its not like Uber has a monopoly in treating employees badly.
This seems like overgrown and irrelevant cynicism. Of course people are unhappy at any company; however, it's clear that some back better cultures and some are more toxic than others due to bad practices and conditions. The idea that it's all about PR is sophomoric.
How do you explain the amount of money/effort spent by the big companies in trying to attract young kids out of college and the cultish attraction for these companies from young people who know nothing about the industry?
Do you know of any big company that has a magic solution to this problem? Everyone has this problem but the end users perceive it differently depending on how the brand presents itself.
OK, color me not surprised to see that you're defending Uber elsewhere on sibling posts.
The point is that yes, there is PR involved. However, not having a toxic workplace is another. It is an idiotic suggestion that the perception of how good it is to work at one company or another is purely a matter of PR. Engineers talk to each other and do very frank "what it was like to work for BigCo X" all over the place. I think you probably understand this but it doesn't really fit well with your agenda here.
Honestly, work at a lot of companies is a drag, for a lot of people. Big deal. However, stories like the ones coming out of Uber are far outside the norm, even if you think that the endless publicity about shiny happy people working at same of the other companies is a product of PR.
Are you calling me a shill? Look at my profile, 3268 days on this site.
You are not able to handle a disagreement and called me all kinds of names. You should talk to your colleagues and see if they think you might be one of those overbearing colleagues who is contributing to a toxic culture by throwing a fit at everyone who disagrees with you.
I am not taking a side on this issue. Uber is a victim here. No one plans to have a toxic culture at work. I am just trying to put down the mob mentality by pointing out the obvious challenges.
You are repeatedly raising a non sequitur ("ooo, look, companies use PR to make it sound like they are good places to work") and using it to gloss over the fact that the stories emerging from Uber are bizarre and out of the norm. I'm beyond caring whether or not you are just simulating stupidity here.
Toxicity at workplace comes from attitude like you are showing. You just called me stupid for holding a different point of view. I bet you are not such a great colleague either.
I do not think the stories out of Uber are any out of ordinary. These are same stories that came out from finance industry and Hollywood. Success attracts problems like this. There is nothing you can do about it other than wait it out.
How do you explain the amount of money/effort spent by the big companies in trying to attract young kids out of college and the cultish attraction for these companies from young people who know nothing about the industry?
Because in the long run, they believe it to be cheaper because they can hire in college grads at a lower rate and think they are profiting because they should be versed in the newest stuff. In addition, this stuff (with larger companies) is good for business. This article is an example: Uber is getting bad publicity for treating workers badly, but other companies? Not so much because they promote a better image.
Do you know of any big company that has a magic solution to this problem? Everyone has this problem but the end users perceive it differently depending on how the brand presents itself.
For the recruitment thing? The best thing I can think of is by making sure people are educated. Beyond that, strong labor laws and separating health care from employment will help, but won't solve the issue.
As far as solving the "most folks are unhappy at work" - strong labor laws and health care. Outside of that, it is more up to the employer. While not everyone will be happy, you can make the majority of folks that stay there a while content - some places do this now.
What a coincidence, my company is also is full of happy employees with remarkably low churn (most employees here have been here for 3+ years, many for ~10), and it's in the Valley! ...and it's not a big company like Google/Facebook/Netflix/etc.
Ditto. I read some of these stories and wonder in what foreign land these companies are based. It's not like anywhere I've worked, or where any of my friends work. Yes, in the valley.
