What happens when the Rockstar programmer needs time off because of a death in the family? Is Hastings okay with that if it's in the middle of an important project that can't easily be taken on by others? If great programmers are limited by supply I suppose he has no choice but to keep them.
My manager was forced to go help his family in a foreign country for a month and they fired him before he returned. They did this almost routinely (and still do from those I speak to) to people who had to take time off. It’s a highly political and backstabby kind of place. It’s the only company in SV I’ve worked at (been at more than half of FAANG) where yelling matches were not uncommon in meetings. The culture slide deck was mocked internally especially for how many brilliant jerks were kept on payroll.
Oh and to top it off, the company is mostly Hollywood production people by sheer number nowadays. The focus of the company has veered so far from technology I doubt its a great engineering culture anymore. Internally they boasted they would become HBO before HBO could become them, but who the hell wants to be HBO? Quite the turn off. There were many of these.
I have never heard someone raise their voice in a meeting in my 5 years here, have taken multiple long leaves (and during my stint as a manager supported others doing the same,) and while there certainly are differing points of view passionately debated, everything I have seen has been “on the table” and without the subterfuge I’ve seen elsewhere. It is an intense culture (no slackers) but I’ve found it very forthright.
