Tech culture ‘reset’
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This reminds me of what investment banking went through in 2001. At Credit Suisse there was a cafeteria with free food open until 11pm. It got abused, occasionally guys would hit the pub at 7pm and go back at 10 for some grub. That ended, and the cafeteria started charging. They still kept the gym though.
https://www.vox.com/recode/2022/11/17/23463164/silicon-valley-layoffs-tech-boom-over
These are cost-cutting measures, but if you talk to people in tech, they’re sort of emotional, cultural resets as well. Google really kicked this off many years ago, saying, “We’re making so much money that we can afford to do this. We’re going to hire all the best talent. We’re going to keep them here by paying them a lot, but also through these outrageous perks: Not just free food but multiple cafeterias at every one of our offices where you can gorge yourself all day. Really elaborate gyms and shuttle buses to take you from your house down to our campus.”
And what you started to see last spring was companies like Facebook and Google saying, “We’re going to tap the brakes on this stuff, too.” Facebook last spring said, “You can still have free food if you stay here and work late into the evening, but we’re not going to give it to you quite so early.” So you really do have to sort of stick around at work. And as petty a thing as, “We’re going to give you smaller to-go boxes so you can’t take the steak we’re giving you and go feed your family with it.” They’re saying, “We don’t want you to think of Facebook that way anymore.” It’s going to be closer to what normal working conditions for lots of people around the US, at least, are used to.
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On a smaller scale, I can sort of understand some of the thinking.
For example, we had a surgeon who routinely booked a full day of work every Thursday. Shortly after he started working at our place, he told the staff that he'd be gone for half an hour, around noon-time, to get lunch downstairs.
OR management was not happy with so much downtime, so they made some changes. Every day, at about 11:15, the cafeteria staff would bring lunch up to the OR docs' lounge. Saved a fair amount of time, particularly when expanded across all the surgeons and gas passers.
Similarly, when the new ORs opened at the university, one of the things they provided was a "canteen" for the staff. You could get custom-made sammiches, soup and chili, and there was a salad bar. It wasn't free, but it kept staff from getting lost in other buildings.
