Slashdot Mirror
Facebook Buys a Private File Sharing Service
angry tapir writes "Facebook has purchased most of drop.io, an online content-sharing service, but the social-networking giant sounds more interested in acquiring the company's developers than its technology. Drop.io is a service that lets users create a 'drop' where they can share documents, videos and other digital content. The user can set a time for how long the drop will exist, decide who can view the content, set permissions for who can alter the content and share content in a variety of ways, including on Facebook."
FYI, Mark Zuckerberg says that he ALWAYS acquires companies for the people rather than the intellectual property.
Buying a company for its employees seems so much like a recapitulation of the feudal system. I've already felt that America has basically become a feudal state with the federal government playing the role of king, and large corporations playing the role of feudal vassals. But this just throws that into sharp relief.
Need a Python, C++, Unix, Linux develop
What's the problem? Can't Facebook get attract good developers the regular way anymore? Hmm. Maybe all the smart ones know Zuckerberg is a jerk and the company culture is rendered uninhabitable by the swarms of junior-grade developers writing junior-grade PHP, and demand more money than they could negotiate this way.
On this topic, an Australian newspaper article about devs leaving Google for Facebook
In the US, you can basically walk from any job, any time you want for any reason. You don't have to give two weeks notice, that is a courtesy, not a legal requirement. You can just up and quit, and that is that. Your employer cannot force you to work. Of course they won't pay you if you don't, and they don't have to give you a good reference if you aren't professional about how you quit, but you can just up and leave for any or no reason and that is that.
In that regard, employees have tremendous freedom. You don't owe a company anything, regardless of what they've done for you. You can jump ship as often as you like. Some people do too, you find some people that go through jobs like changing shirts. They stay at one place only until somethign slightly better comes along then bail. Sucks for the company but that is how it goes.
The only case where there can be any kind of direct repercussion is if you signed a contract beforehand. Like say a company offers you $100,000 as a hiring bonus to move and buy a house or something. However in the contract it notes that you have to work for them for a year to get to keep that. If you quit before that, you owe a prorated amount back. Ok then maybe there is a direct consequence.
However not only is such a thing exceedingly rare (when was the last time you heard about it?) but it is also 100% disclosed up front. You'd have to sign for something like that. A company can't say "Here have this bonus," and then later say "Haha! Just kidding, we had our fingers crossed!"
In fact you find normally employment contracts are the other way around. You are talented and they want you, so you sign a contract saying they promise to hire you for 3 years at a given rate. If they decide your services aren't needed fine, but they still have to pay out that contract. My friend has such a thing with a consulting gig. They wanted him to move, and it wasn't worth his while if they wouldn't promise him work past the first contract. So they agreed to one year, 40 hours a week minimum, at his rate. If they decide they don't want him before that is up, fine, but they still have to pay out that contract.