What’s it really like to work at Facebook
WHAT’S really like to work at Facebook? With its amazing perks, what are you expected to give in return? We go behind the scenes to find out.
WE’VE all heard about the endless perks that come with working for a tech giant — the food, the healthcare and the dry-cleaning.
It’s the kind of treatment that few of us would be familiar with. For most of us, a working air conditioner is a win, and I have had jobs where the latter was far from a guarantee.
So, what are the denizens of Facebook’s Menlo Park, California headquarters treated to?
The VIP attention starts before you even step on to the hallowed ground. Facebook employees are shuttled on their own private buses to the campus — the Menlo Park campus being somewhat in the middle of nowhere and 6km away from the nearest train station. Visitors like myself enjoy free valet parking.
Another popular option (and for the San Francisco Bay Area/Silicon Valley in general) seems to be biking. And why not? Facebook has a dedicated bike shop which tends to all your bike needs for free. Did I mention that everything on campus (bar a couple of food outlets) is free? Like, as in, you don’t pay for anything.
The most popular benefit on campus is, of course, the food. So when you march out into the humid heat to grab a $12 sandwich or stare at the now-sad leftovers from yesterday’s dinner, Facebookers are enjoying a gourmet meal prepared in their funky industrial-look cafeteria. This week the menu has included delicacies such as spicy mushroom broth, roasted chicken wings with garlic lemon butter and beef sugo with pappardelle pasta.
But if the cafeteria’s offerings don’t quite grab you, you can always try your hand at one of the other outlets lined along its Disneyland-esque ‘Main Street’ — there are burgers, barbecue, ice cream and Tex-Mex. I also spied a food truck out the front in the parking lot which was probably used for something cool in recent days.
The ‘Main Street’ itself is replete with spaces for people to hang out from floor cushions piled next to signs that say ‘Keep On The Grass’ to fire pits to huddle around. There are also cool features such as a mini version of Dorothy’s house with a pinned-under Wicked Witch of the East next to a yellow brick road and a walkway bridge painted in the same International Orange colour as the Golden Gate Bridge.
For a creative distraction, Facebookers can pop into the old-school arcade, the print shop or the woodworking shop.
There are also the more serious, life-stuff needs the company provides to its employees such as healthcare including doctors, dentists and chiropractors. There are also salons, laundry services and a bank. And a tricked-out gym that’s about to be expanded because of the demand. Just so you don’t need to go off-campus for anything at all.
And there are also its generous parental leave policies which includes time-off for men and women, parking for expectant mothers and its controversial egg-freezing offer.
If you’re feeling insanely jealous about the facilities Facebook has (and you don’t), there is, of course, a flip side to it all. It’s not all fun and games (yes, there are fun and games).
Facebook’s global head of HR Business Partners, Janelle Gale, told me the main reason the campus is so comprehensive is because of convenience. “There’s nothing really around this area so it’s more for convenience than anything. Instead of running errands, it’s nice to have the convenience of having it here,” she said.
Ms Gale said the benefits and amenities provided on campus are driven by employee feedback and usage metrics. Ms Gale also said it was part of the company’s commitment to letting its employees work how they want to work.
“Our philosophy is work how it best suits you because everyone is super different. We have a population that comes in late and then they leave very late. We want to accommodate what works for different individuals. And from a happiness and productivity standpoint, that looks very different,” she said.
Sceptics have pointed out that by providing everything an employee could possibly want or need (including every single meal), workers will spend more time at work.
Tech companies are notorious for being demanding of their employees. Online careers reviews community Glassdoor, current and former employees of tech giants have griped about long hours and a lack of a work/life balance. While it’s hardly the worst (Apple and Netflix number among those offenders), Facebook is certainly not immune to those accusations.
Among the generally positive experiences reported on Glassdoor are the ones critical of the work/life balance:
“As is probably the case with most US tech companies, people tend to work a lot and it kinda [sic] creates stress for ones that want to have a personal life as well.” – Software engineer at Menlo Park.
“Sometimes too demanding. No life half of work life balance. It’s a driven and competitive culture — person sitting next to you doing 12 hours a day and weekends will get ahead faster.” – Platform manager at Menlo Park.
Ms Gale said the company is very cognisant of work/life balance and burnout. She said that Facebook offers 21 paid days off every year — there is no legal requirement to do so in the US — and leaders in the business signal to employees that it’s OK to take time off.
When I asked her about comments on Glassdoor, she said that because the company has grown so fast, there are challenges to scaling the company.
“We are constantly in a balancing act to make sure we get the right headcount to meet the objectives but also, we don’t want to overstaff because that means people don’t have meaningful roles,” she said.
“A lot of the companies who’ve gone before us and scaled their headcount really quickly tended to get the job so narrow and specialised that the jobs actually became a little bit too boxed-in and there wasn’t as much meaningful work to get around because of the overstaffing issue.
“So we’ve chosen to run more in the lean side intentionally to keep the jobs interesting. And that’s just a balancing act we constantly have to work at. It is an intense place to work at but that comes with the upside of meaningful, interesting work.”
Many comments on Glassdoor point to the upsides of working with very intelligent people and the culture and openness Facebook promotes. Ms Gale said in the recruitment process, cultural fit is a key criteria as Facebook looks for people who will “contribute to” rather than “detract from” the culture.
She said the three things Facebook looks for in a candidate are someone who can get behind the mission of the company, someone who’s built something unique and interesting, as well as someone who is the best at what they do.
Ms Gale said one of the most unique aspects of Facebook is its internal connectedness. She said that before she started at Facebook, her entire team had already ‘friended’ her on the platform.
“One of the things that are super important in here is to be connected. We’re all connected on Facebook, we all utilise the tool,” she said. “And the reason we do that is because we want you to be who you are both at work and at home in your personal life. Because if you can be who you are, then you’re going to much more successful and happy.
“We talk a lot about who you are here — bring your authentic self. If we see that someone is portraying a facade of someone who they’re not, that is a big red flag for us because we want people to be who they are. So there is a blurring of personal and professional in that regard. It’s actually super helpful for us because we end up building relationships pretty quickly. It’s like shorthand — ‘hey, I know that you went to your cousin’s wedding and that you have a new niece’.”
For those who are maybe more reluctant to share the details of their personal lives with their co-workers, Ms Gale assures me that you can use Facebook to share only certain things with your colleagues.
Of course, such a blurring of the personal and private doesn’t fly with everyone.
Comments on Glassdoor point to other side of the “connected” emphasis:
“If you are looking for a cubical [sic] or office-type privacy, this place is not for you. If you like to keep your personal and professional life, that doesn’t happen much here. Expectation is that if you are here, you are here to do things in your life that you love and there is no keeping that separate from your personal life.” – Business operations manager at Menlo Park.
“You are forced to ‘friend’ everyone you work with and join an incessant amount of internal group pages where you had to filter through all the BS people would post.” – Manager at Menlo Park.
But I get the feeling that most Facebookers really believe in the “connected” piece — much like the company’s raison d’etre itself of connecting the world. So it makes sense that same philosophy is in place in its own backyard.
What do you think? Have you experienced the same level of work perks? And what would you expect to give back in return?
Lavish life of NAB bank chief of staff
Luxury lifestyles of Australia’s “worst bank” staffers as the National Australia Bank’s culture of extravagance for big spenders is revealed.
Celebrity guru’s crushing downfall
HIS company says it’s “100 per cent focused on you” and clients’ “trust”. But everything has just come crashing down for this celebrity financial adviser.
From footy boots to white collars
ALL too often sports stars hit the skids after retirement — but many athletes say their on-field training taught them useful lessons for the corporate world.