I worked at a tech company drowning in VC cash a couple years before the dotcom bubble burst. They spent over 100 million building a new office that looked like the inside of a spaceship from a 70's movie. It had weird fiber optic-like track that made a pulse of light race around the ceiling. They built way too many meeting rooms with cush leather furniture. Everything made out of weathered 1/4 inch plate steel for some reason.
This was all meant to "help our company recruit talent like Google does", despite the fact that the nearly 100% of staff at that location took customer service calls or did IT for the call center.
They did all that, but didn't raise wages, of course. One time the bosses called a meeting to ask, "What can management do to make your jobs better?". Several people asked for higher wages or to expand bonuses. What we got instead was bags of company branded swag like stress balls and t shirts.
That's amazing.
I worked at a tech company drowning in VC cash a couple years before the dotcom bubble burst. They spent over 100 million building a new office that looked like the inside of a spaceship from a 70's movie. It had weird fiber optic-like track that made a pulse of light race around the ceiling. They built way too many meeting rooms with cush leather furniture. Everything made out of weathered 1/4 inch plate steel for some reason.
This was all meant to "help our company recruit talent like Google does", despite the fact that the nearly 100% of staff at that location took customer service calls or did IT for the call center.
They did all that, but didn't raise wages, of course. One time the bosses called a meeting to ask, "What can management do to make your jobs better?". Several people asked for higher wages or to expand bonuses. What we got instead was bags of company branded swag like stress balls and t shirts.