Facebook Building a Company Town

cold fjord writes "The Wall Street Journal reports, 'Facebook Inc.'s sprawling campus in Menlo Park, Calif., is so full of cushy perks that some employees may never want to go home. ... The social network said this week it is working with a local developer to build a $120 million, 394-unit housing community within walking distance of its offices. ... the 630,000 square-foot rental property will include everything from a sports bar to a doggy day care. Even in Silicon Valley, where tech companies compete to lure coveted engineers with over-the-top perks and offices that resemble adult playgrounds, Facebook's plan breaks new ground. A Facebook spokeswoman said employee retention wasn't a major factor in the real estate push. "We're certainly excited to have more housing options closer to campus, but we believe that people work at Facebook because what they do is rewarding and they believe in our mission," she said. Some employees had inquired about places to live near the corporate campus, she said ... The development conjures up memories of so-called "company towns" at the turn of the 20th century, where American factory workers lived in communities owned by their employer and were provided housing, health care, law enforcement, church and just about every other service necessary.'"

Comments

accidental lie by omission.

[Anonymous Coward]

>were provided housing, health care, law enforcement, church and just about every other service necessary.'

Amazing how you can make servitude sound good if you omit enough.

They were also "provided" with constantly mounting debt and money unusable anywhere else to make them docile, servile, and put them at the bosses' mercy.

Re:accidental lie by omission.

[AthanasiusKircher]

>were provided housing, health care, law enforcement, church and just about every other service necessary.'

They were also "provided" with constantly mounting debt and money unusable anywhere else to make them docile, servile, and put them at the bosses' mercy.

Indeed. There's a reason for the chorus of the song Sixteen Tons, which tells about the plight of the coal miner in a company town:

You load sixteen tons, and what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt. St. Peter don't you call me, 'cause I can't go -- I owe my soul to the company store.

Unfortunately, the Wikipedia article on company towns also seems to sweep away a lot of the negative stuff -- maybe the people who wrote the summary only read about the Wikipedia version of reality.

That said, historical company towns that didn't force workers to use scrip avoided some of these issues -- but that would mean allowing workers easily to exit the town by actually paying them real money, which they could take elsewhere. Many historical companies didn't want to allow that, so no matter how benevolent the educational and social things the company provided, it was often essentially a kind of slavery.

Re:accidental lie by omission.

[Anonymous Coward]

Amazing how you can make servitude sound good if you omit enough.

Had you RTFA, you might have noticed that the very next paragraph after the sentence you quoted goes into what you accuse it of "omitting".

Re:accidental lie by omission.

[cervesaebraciator]

You're reminding me of Hilaire Belloc's, The Servile State , a great "third way" (i.e. neither capitalist/individualist nor socialist/collectivist) perspective:

Many would argue that a man so compelled to labour, guaranteed against insecurity and against insufficiency of food, housing and clothing, promised subsistence for his old age, and a similar set of advantages for his posterity, would be a great deal better off than a free man lacking all these things. But the argument does not affect the definition attaching to the word servile. [...]

It must further be grasped that the essential mark of the Servile Institution does not depend upon the ownership of the slave by a particular master. That the institution of slavery tends to that form under the various forces composing human nature and human society is probable enough. That if or when slavery were re-established in England a particular man would in time be found the slave not of Capitalism in general but of, say, the Shell Oil Trust in particular, is a very likely development ; and we know that in societies where the institution was of immemorial antiquity such direct possession of the slave by the free man or corporation of free men had come to be the rule. But my point is that such a mark is not essential to the character of slavery. As an initial phase in the institution of slavery, or even as a permanent phase marking society for an indefinite time, it is perfectly easy to conceive of a whole class rendered servile by positive law, and compelled by such law to labour for the advantage of another non-servile free class, without any direct act of possession permitted to one man over the person of another.

Re:accidental lie by omission.

[AthanasiusKircher]

Had you RTFA, you might have noticed that the very next paragraph after the sentence you quoted goes into what you accuse it of "omitting".

Umm, I did RTFA, and I still think the image of the historical "company town" brought up there is pretty skewed.

The development conjures up memories of so-called "company towns" at the turn of the 20th century, where American factory workers lived in communities owned by their employer and were provided housing, health care, law enforcement, church and just about every other service necessary.

Aww, that sounds really great! My company gives me everything! Well, let's go on to that next paragraph that you claim fills in the details:

Spending more time in the clutches of the company sphere isn't necessarily positive. One reason the old company towns eventually disappeared was that they could be overbearing to workers.

And that's it! Nothing else to say critically about this historical company towns brought up in comparison.

Sorry, but there is a lot of "omission" here. Some historical company towns were lucky enough to have reasonable benefactors running things. But in many cases, they were just slavery by another name.

Sorry, but "could be overbearing to workers" doesn't quite do justice to the historical reality.

Re:accidental lie by omission.

[Daniel Dvorkin]

So you may owe your soul to the company store, but fortunately, you can pay in Zynga tokens.

Re:accidental lie by omission.

[Anonymous Coward]

AthanasiusKircher -

It wasn't essentially slavery. At worst it was essentially debt bondage.

Slavery means a personal is held as property by another person and is made to do work with no pay. That simply wasn't how company towns operated.

I encourage you to seek to set the historical record straight but I implore you not to exaggerate and by doing so treat another group - in this case management of company towns - as fallaciously as the group you are championing has been treated.

Yours,

Anonymous Coward

Re:accidental lie by omission.

[Anonymous Coward]

> There's a reason for the chorus of the song Sixteen Tons ...
A reason, yes. To be a catchy folkish tune. Written and became popular long after the days of company towns.

Re:accidental lie by omission.

[Anonymous Coward]

Search 'meet your strawman', to see how you were sold into slavery before you were even aware of being alive.

Re:accidental lie by omission.

[AthanasiusKircher]

It wasn't essentially slavery. At worst it was essentially debt bondage.

There are lots of terms thrown around for putting people in a situation where they are effectively forced to work and their freedom is removed. "Debt bondage" is one. "Serfdom" and "indentured servitude" are others, and there are more. Yes, I agree there are distinctions to be made about exactly how the systems operate, but in many cases these systems have effectively very similar results as slavery. And I'm by no means the first to use this term to refer to the practices of company towns.

Slavery means a personal is held as property by another person and is made to do work with no pay. That simply wasn't how company towns operated.

I agree that the workers were not legally "owned" by the company, and therefore according to the standard definition of "slavery" they were not "slaves." But note that I did say "essentially a kind of slavery," not slavery per se.

As to how "company towns operated," the company often did in fact make a person "do work with no pay." Workers were often rewarded only with company scrip rather than money for their work, which frequently meant that they could only redeem their "pay" for items available at company-owned stores and separate company-owned town businesses. Prices were generally inflated to ensure that workers rarely were able to "save" anything (and even if they did, they couldn't spend it outside of the town, so it would be effectively worthless). In more extreme cases, companies would deliberately structure their "prices" to ensure workers were in a state of continuous debt.

The net result: a person is forced to continue working for a company indefinitely, with little hope of ever accumulating any meaningful "pay" that could ever be spent in the outside world.

Sorry, but that's SLAVERY without the technical legal "property" aspect. Workers may not have been "bought" and "sold" in the way slaves were, but in most other respects, they could be bound to serve their master. Remember also that the company towns mostly flourished before modern workers' rights, so while workers may not have been abused to the extend that slaves were on the worst plantations, they could still be made to suffer significantly.

Now, of course, many company towns weren't that bad. But many slave plantations weren't that bad either. Many companies treated their workers benevolently, and many slave owners paid for their slaves to be educated too. Conditions varied significantly for both groups. I'm not saying these two things are equivalent -- but debt bondage is still "bondage," which is another common word for slavery.

I encourage you to seek to set the historical record straight but I implore you not to exaggerate and by doing so treat another group - in this case management of company towns - as fallaciously as the group you are championing has been treated.

I appreciate the politeness of your response. But I'm frankly not sure what "group" I am supposedly "championing." I'm trying to get at the historical reality of how bad conditions COULD BE (not everywhere, maybe not even in most company towns). I do not mean at all to disparage those company managers who did indeed treat workers fairly and benevolently. But there were plenty of places where workers were abused and effectively put into "debt bondage" as you put it (a topic I actually linked to in my original post).

But to me, in extreme cases, whether or not we call that tantamount to slavery is just a matter of semantics -- someone who doesn't have freedom to make significant choices about his life and is forced to work for someone else is, to my mind, a slave. Whether the government recognizes him as "being owned" by someone else is a legalistic quibble that serves to excuse heinous practices while technically outlawing "slavery."

Re:accidental lie by omission.

[AthanasiusKircher]

A reason, yes. To be a catchy folkish tune. Written and became popular long after the days of company towns.

Yes, and if you actually followed the links in my post, you would discover that one person who claimed to have written the song was a coal miner at the time when unions were first being organized in Kentucky to break the stranglehold of the company towns, and the other person who claims to have written the song was the son of a coal miner -- a miner who supposedly used some of the phrases from the chorus to describe his experiences.

Of course it became popular later. But those involved in writing the lyrics had first-hand experience with company towns.

Re:accidental lie by omission.

[AHuxley]

Yes ~'rent' and ~local shops 'food' costs could be altered to ensure your cash wage was near useless and any savings ability kept very, very low.
The other experiment was to provide just enough quality to keep emerging unionism away.

Re:accidental lie by omission.

[khallow]

The obvious difference with slavery is that the worker could leave legally. That makes it not slavery. And as a practical manner debt would at that time be hard to collect when the person moved out of the state (unless it were enough to involve someone like the Pinkertons).

Re:accidental lie by omission.

[AthanasiusKircher]

Once again, from a legal standpoint, an employee was not property -- thus, again, technically we're not talking about slavery per se. But if you were in debt, often you technically could not leave legally. From a practical standpoint, it might be hard to track you down, but from a practical standpoint it could be hard to find a runaway slave as well. A choice of forced work for a company or forced labor in debtors prison (or more likely poorhouses or poor farms in the late 1800s) isn't much of a choice. And, for the record, there were even cases where a child was forced to work for years to pay off a father's debt to a company store... while such people may have been technically free to leave, legally they could only be free by paying off the debt, and the company often had the means to basically make that impossible without outside help or money.

Re:accidental lie by omission.

[Dahamma]

It's not that I don't agree with your point that company towns were awful places in general... it's just that it's such an OBVIOUS historical fact to anyone with a remote interest in this story that there really isn't any point in going into the history of it in an article about Facebook. And for those who are not students of remedial history, as you pointed out there are just plain TONS (probably more than 16) of pop culture references to the same.

Re:accidental lie by omission.

[TheLink]

There's another thing I'm curious about. Do all those beloved Constitutional amendments and acts (e.g. FOIA) apply in company towns?

After all I see many people here saying stuff like freedom of speech does not apply on company property (websites, bulletin boards etc), since it's private property.

If this stuff doesn't apply then the US people who keep asking for a small government are rather stupid, since many powerful corporations will be all too happy to take over. Once they own most of anything and anywhere worth owning, good luck with freedom of speech, right to bear arms etc.

Re:accidental lie by omission.

[khallow]

or forced labor in debtors prison

Oh, yea, this practice had started in the UK. I was thinking of the US version and had forgotten that it started elsewhere.

Re:accidental lie by omission.

[AmiMoJo]

The places Cadbury build for its employees are pretty nice and seemed to benefit the workers. It doesn't have to be as you describe, at least outside the US.

Re:accidental lie by omission.

[Anonymous Coward]

This entire thread spawned by your post is just stupid. OMG the sky is falling!!!!1!!one!!! Guess what: I'm pretty sure that any facebook employee living in one of these housing units is still going to:
1) get paid in USD for any work they do
2) be allowed to quit and leave facebook at any time they want
3) pay a monthly or weekly rate for these place, and will have agreed to that rate up front before moving in
4) have any rent payment automatically deducted from their paycheck (as they agree to up front), so they will have no debt to facebook upon leaving
5) be able to pay any debt they do incur (despite the above) after they leave by paying in USD (note: USD is "legal tender for all debts public and prive", which means if facebook refused to accept it as payment for the debt, the debt would be null and void by US law)
5) still be subject to (and retain all right given to them by) all laws, local, state, and federal
6) be able to report any violations to authorities, lawyers, and media outside of the facebook campus.

So I'm really failing to see what the point of any of this thread is, beyond being a sort of tin foil hat circle jerk.

Re:accidental lie by omission.

[Anonymous Coward]

It wasn't essentially slavery. At worst it was essentially debt bondage.

Wonderful. Now with the death of the word litterally some people are confusing essentially with what lietteraly used to mean. Just wonderful.

Re:accidental lie by omission.

[mjwalshe]

Yeah there is quite a difference between rapacious capitalist robber barons and quakers.

Re:accidental lie by omission.

[Anonymous Coward]

Exactly this...

Gosh, all those poor bastards being forced to work at Facebook against their will.

Menlo Park is not a "company town" by any stretch of the imagination, its an upper-middle class yuppy fucking town.

The Facebook campus is in the old Sun buildings out in a fucking swamp - er, excuse me, "coastal wetland". To get there you usually have to drive through Redwood City (the Cholo section) or East Palo Alto (the peninsulas very own ghetto).

I suspect this housing project has far more to do with yuppy and hipster Facebook employees not wanting to have to drive through East Palo Alto (with its dirty poor black and brown people) to get to work.

Re:accidental lie by omission.

[chihowa]

We had debtor's prisons in the US until the mid 1800s.

Re:accidental lie by omission.

[xXXxkatyaxXXx]

agreed^

Re:accidental lie by omission.

[superdave80]

...they could only redeem their "pay" for items available at company-owned stores and separate company-owned town businesses.

Sorry, but that's SLAVERY without the technical legal "property" aspect.

So, the workers received goods (through the company store) for their work, and were free to leave at any time... and you consider that slavery? I don't think that word means what you think it means.

...but in most other respects, they could be bound to serve their master.

What kept the worker from simply leaving the company town? If they weren't physically stopped from leaving, then it is by no means slavery. You could argue that minimum wage workers today make so little money that after they spend on necessities, they have no savings. Are they slaves, too?

Re:accidental lie by omission.

[Anonymous Coward]

You're a fucking idiot. Most company towns paid the workers in a shitty fake currency that only they took. So where would they go? Fuck you're stupid.

Re: accidental lie by omission.

[Anonymous Coward]

Minimum wage does force slavery if those are the only jobs available, and the wage slave can't afford to leave. The alternative is homelessness and vagrancy.

Re:accidental lie by omission.

[Cyberdyne]

That said, historical company towns that didn't force workers to use scrip [wikipedia.org] avoided some of these issues -- but that would mean allowing workers easily to exit the town by actually paying them real money, which they could take elsewhere.

Why am I suddenly reminded of stock options and the whole "vesting" concept, where if you leave too soon some of the paper you got as part of your remuneration becomes worthless? Not identical of course - I'm guessing even Facebook's "company stores" won't take stock options in payment - but there are more than a few parallels there.

On the other hand, it also sounds like a nice setup if it all works properly, and you'd still be free to leave if you wanted.

Re:accidental lie by omission.

[eriqk]

You could argue that minimum wage workers today make so little money that after they spend on necessities, they have no savings. Are they slaves, too?

Yes.

Re:accidental lie by omission.

[superdave80]

Wage Slavery is not the same as Slavery. That's sort of the reason there is a completely different term for it...

Next up...

[msauve]

cubes with showers, bathrooms, and beds! 7x24 productivity!

Re:Next up...

[slick7]

I know your job is so cool that you do not want to go home, so I built you a home at work, so you can work from home, at work, without going home from work, so you can work at home, at home and then leaving home to go to work, at work, in your home, at work, to get your work done. Kapish?

Re:Next up...

[Anonymous Coward]

They should hire FoxConn to run their campus next. :P
May be wire all the place up with cameras while they are at it.

Re:Next up...

[Anonymous Coward]

Lol, that sounds really appealing to me actually assuming my wages stayed the same. Reduced living expenses? Hell yeah!

I just did the math. I only have $548 disposable income every 2 weeks after Gas, Rent, & Food. That's slightly over $1000 in real earnings per month's labor. That translates to $6.25/hr real income after basic expenses(only free recreational activities). For people with a lot of structured debt that may seem like a lot for some people. I personally consider ~25% of revenue a pretty shitty profit margin if you were to look at my life as a business.

Re:Next up...

[Anonymous Coward]

The salt on the wound is that if the IRS treated me as a business, I would only pay taxes on the $6.25/hour which aren't business expenses. Why is it that Facebook and Google can write off the fuel for their corporate jet, but someone making $10/hour can't write off his Taco-Bell dinner and the maintenance for his shitty $2000 car?

Re:Next up...

[CohibaVancouver]

Because with taxes you can write off expenses related to the money you earn, not the money you use to live. Where it gets fuzzy is commuting - One might argue that's a cost that should be tax-deductible.

I'm jealous

[Anonymous Coward]

Nobody wants to hire me.

Re:I'm jealous

[Anonymous Coward]

I know what you mean. They see "Anonymous Coward" on the front of the resume and then it's like you don't exist...

Re:I'm jealous

[Anonymous Coward]

They even promise you a rejection letter in the mail, and then they break that promise.

Re:I'm jealous

[Half-pint HAL]

It's worse now that the everything's digital. One single batch email to all unsuccessful applicants -- would that be too much to ask? Apparently so. Shoddy.

And how do these guys make $$$ again?

[Anonymous Coward]

Where is all the money coming from to pay for all this?

I've never given FB a dime.

Is this all from that dumb IP?

Or is it intelligence world money?

Re:And how do these guys make $$$ again?

[Ryanrule]

advertising. they are all prostitutes.

Re:And how do these guys make $$$ again?

[agm]

With Facebook you are not the customer, you are the product.

Re:And how do these guys make $$$ again?

[Anonymous Coward]

advertising. they are all prostitutes.

We are all prostitutes.

FTFY

Re:And how do these guys make $$$ again?

[Anonymous Coward]

Advertising are not the prostitutes: They are the pimps; the media are the prostitutes!

Re:And how do these guys make $$$ again?

[Anonymous Coward]

With Facebook you are not the customer, you are the product.

So if I'm watching TV, the commercials are the customer and I am the product?

Re:And how do these guys make $$$ again?

[Anonymous Coward]

Wrong. With Facebook, you are the customer. Your currency happens to be your personal details, but Facebook is designed to appeal to consumers, not advertisers. It appeals to advertisers BECAUSE it appeals to consumers.

Re:And how do these guys make $$$ again?

[Dahamma]

Yep. That's exactly how it works.

Re:And how do these guys make $$$ again?

[dwpro]

That's some fine mental gymnastics. Conflate consumers and customers, equate an personal information to currency, finally pretend advertisers give two shits whether the consumer likes the product. Could you explain how I'm the customer of road advertisements as well?

Re:And how do these guys make $$$ again?

[Ralph Wiggam]

Wow. That is so insightful and original. I have never seen that on the internet before. I wish I could think up things that are so brilliant and insightful.

Actually a good idea.

[Anonymous Coward]

I hate Facebook more than anything, but this is a really good idea. Especially for the higher-ups.

If they have enough services there, some might even rent semi-permanently if the price is good enough.
I mean, some people go legally homeless and live in hotels and the like deliberately because it sometimes ends up being considerably cheaper for their lifestyle.
Some, rarer, even go roofless. I wish I could find that one interview with a roofless guy who decided it was just better than renting a hotel or even living in a home, it was a very good read.

I wonder if company dorms and facilities might make a comeback. The future doesn't look that bright to be honest and it would help to have a workforce closer for long periods both for the company and the employees.

Re:Actually a good idea.

[AuMatar]

I wouldn't want to live there long term, but for a company that hires as many new college grads and relocations as they do- it may be cheaper long term than renting them rooms for a transition period- corporate hosuing is expensive.

Re:Actually a good idea.

[SpzToid]

In my mind, where this will have the largest impact, is by reducing local housing pressures; especially local housing inflation.

Amazon is basically doing the same thing using prime real estate in Downtown Seattle. These companies have such a large workforce that comprises such a large part of the surrounding community, stressing daily transportation, or local bandwidth, etc., these same companies have got to be taking the daily lifestyles of their employees, along with the impact onto the community, into consideration as part of the overall plan.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/26/us/as-amazon-stretches-seattles-downtown-is-reshaped.html

a doggy day care

[Anonymous Coward]

the 630,000 square-foot rental property will include everything from a sports bar to a doggy day care.

I don't even want to know what that's slang for.

really?

[Anonymous Coward]

A Facebook spokeswoman said [..] "[...]we believe that people work at Facebook because what they do is rewarding and they believe in our mission,"

I really really don't see how working for Facebook could be rewarding. good paycheck, maybe.

I just don't get facebook or why anyone would put personal info into something like that and then sit around hitting reload to see what their friends are doing (who are all also sitting around hitting reload).

Re:really?

[TrippTDF]

This reminds me of the book Oryx and Crake. This is essentially the first private, corporate community. There will be many more like them in the future.

These people will not be part of the community in which the buildings exist. They will not give back to the community. Hell, I bet some tax loopholes will ensure their money doesn't even make it into the local economy.

And the work is rewarding because Facebook has a mentality that they are changing the world. They are, of course, but not in the ways that they tout. They say they are making the world more connected. However, I feel way less connected to my friends and Family now that I see their updates on Facebook. All they have done is created a super awesome database of private information and given the keys to the Government, all while creating a new sort of loneliness among people.

Re:really?

[Richy_T]

First?

How does it differ, in concept, from places such as this?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bournville

Re:really?

[Anonymous Coward]

There's this new fad called "having friends". Some day you might understand it.

Re:really?

[Anonymous Coward]

"I just don't get facebook or why anyone would put personal info into something like that and then sit around hitting reload to see what their friends are doing (who are all also sitting around hitting reload)."

You might be able to do some public service by giving the law enforcement corporations something interesting to read maybe?
Do you think they like porn? I really should make a Facebook profile sometime, just to provide some beneficial links...like maybe if enough people in law enforement search 'meet your strawman', perhaps they'll figure out what they're doing isn't right...

Re:really?

[Oxygen99]

It differs because society hadn't already consigned them to the history books. Glad to see the spirit of Ayn Rand is alive and kicking. Hooray for us. Bagsie next trip to Rapture!

Re:really?

[khallow]

These people will not be part of the community in which the buildings exist. They will not give back to the community. Hell, I bet some tax loopholes will ensure their money doesn't even make it into the local economy.

The problem with this assertion is that Facebook in this scenario would be doing what you claim they aren't. Their community just isn't your community. Just because people live nearby doesn't mean they are part of the same community.

They say they are making the world more connected. However, I feel way less connected to my friends and Family now that I see their updates on Facebook.

Why is that Facebook's fault? Sounds to me like you aren't "giving back" to the "community".

Now, you might be a bit puzzled why I'm jumping on this post. I don't like false obligations or how easily they get bandied about politically. Claiming some nonsensical obligation to "give back" is an example of this. The "community" in question will no doubt provide basic infrastructure services. In return, it will no doubt get considerable tax or fee income even if Facebook itself somehow weasels out of paying property taxes. Receive services, give payment. That should be the sole extent of these obligations.

The "give back" demand is just another demand for money and resources by the undeserving.

The mission?

[93 Escort Wagon]

What mission is it the company thinks employees believe in, exactly? It's hard to believe the employees find it meaningful and rewarding to sell people's personal information or push advertisements into people's news feeds...

Re:The mission?

[Anonymous Coward]

Facebook's mission is to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected.

Re:The mission?

[CastrTroy]

The mission is to make lots of money. I'm sure lots of people could get on board with that one.

Re:The mission?

[uvajed_ekil]

I like to hire smart employees: the ones who are loyal first to themselves, and their paychecks. We work in "Corporate America" to make money and fund the rest of our lives, not for some vague corporate "mission" that has no intrinsic value of its own. Yes, my employees better do their jobs and do them well, and they know that. They also know they will continue to be paid fairly well as long as they do their jobs. I don't screw them, they mostly don't try to screw me, and we skip all the superficial BS. If they find jobs that pay them more than I can, I wish them well. I've never had anyone leave for a company with a fancy mission statement - just money I can't compete with.

Re: The mission?

[dunkelfalke]

Well, I have turned down a few offers with better wage promises because I like what I do now and my current boss has treated me fair all the time. Loyalty does exit.

Re: The mission?

[Half-pint HAL]

Loyalty does exit.

Surely exiting is disloyal..? ;-p

Re:The mission?

[Xest]

That's the bit that made me chuckle.

No Facebook, they work for you because you have enough money to pay extremely well, no more, no less.

No one works at Facebook because they believe in farming people's personal data and breaking various data protection laws around the world and getting away with it every 5 minutes.

Re:The mission?

[lexman098]

Not everyone is driven by money. I like to think I work for the satisfaction of making something that I see can see value in.

Re:The mission?

[lexman098]

There are consumers that value their facebook profile and the connections with others. I personally don't (what gave it away?), but I can see how some would and I can therefor see how someone might also find satisfaction in providing that valuable service to others. I bet there's a decent amount of facebook employees that wish the corporate heads would stop trying to pilfer so much from their user base.

Not really

[timeOday]

Key quote:

The apartments will go for market rates, and a handful will be set aside for low income residents. All but 15 of the units will be open to non-Facebook employees.

So, it's a new 394-unit development in Menlo Park, which is near Facebook (and lots of other things).

Re:Not really

[ackthpt]

Key quote:

The apartments will go for market rates, and a handful will be set aside for low income residents. All but 15 of the units will be open to non-Facebook employees.

So, it's a new 394-unit development in Menlo Park, which is near Facebook (and lots of other things).

Yep. And now's the time to acquire real estate.

Re:Not really

[saccade.com]

Ironically, the FB headquarters is right next to East Palo Alto, one of the poorer neighborhoods in the Bay Area. In the early '90s it had the highest (per capita) murder rate in the US, but that's since come down. Still, maybe not the place the average FaceBook nerd want's to send their kids to school at.

Re:Not really

[TrippTDF]

Way, way past time to acquire. I had friends that just sold their 3 bedroom, mid-century home for well over a million dollars.... The house will likely be torn down and replaced with something larger. Had the house been newer or bigger, the property would have got for more. The 1+ million was essentially for the lot.

Re:Not really

[msauve]

"Way, way past time to acquire."

Yep. Buying an orchard in the 1950's, in the Valley of Heart's Delight, was the way to go.

Re:Not really

[Anonymous Coward]

And they're not building condo towers because?

Sure some areas are being built up but far too much of the place is still suburbia.

Spend a few million bucks on land and build a 70 story tower. Then you'll make some dough.

Re:Not really

[Anonymous Coward]

It's called East Palo Alto

Re:Not really

[Anonymous Coward]

want's send their kids to school at.

Still, even a teacher in East Palo Alto could probably teach them not to end a sentence with a preposition... (let alone explain the proper use of apostrophes).

Re:Not really

[Half-pint HAL]

Still, even a teacher in East Palo Alto could probably teach them not to end a sentence with a preposition... .

I'm assuming East Palo Alto is a largely Hispanic area then, because not ending a sentence with a preposition is fine for Spanish and for French (remember, the English elite were mostly French, hence words like élite), but English is a different language. This is the sort of nonsense up with which I will not put.

Re:Not really

[Anonymous Coward]

You did not get this: There will be Facebook Shop, A Facebook Bowling Center and a Facebook Kindergarden (then followed by Facebook Elementry School then Facebook High School) all within Walking distance (and conveniantly within the fence) of Facebook Campus. If you have a toothace, you go to the Facebook Dentist in your block.

THAT is what they are aiming at. You work for Facebook? You never have to leave Facebook Inc. You work there, your kids go to school there, you live there. If they are still big they will then also have a Facebook Retirement Home next to the campus. Of course all is secured by the Facebook Security Service.

If this turns out to be successful (meaning your employees work more at the facility as they "save the commuting to get there" and they *THINK* they are happy because they live in a fancy place and watch Facebook sponsored BluRays) we'll also see Google doing it as well, which then is going to get followed by EA, Boeing and Monsanto.

What we see here is the development of Corporations we read about in Shadowrun. I'm not saying it'll go that far but this surely here is the spirit of it. If Facebook did not expect it to give a financial return in some way or secure their high-value employees to stay, they simply would not do it.

Re:Not really

[Anonymous Coward]

Hmmm... I can't think of a Spanish sentence that ends in a preposition. What would be an example?

Según Wikipedia, la lista de preposiciones aceptada por la RAE es la siguiente: a, ante, bajo, cabe, con, contra, de, desde, durante, en, entre, hacia, hasta, mediante, para, por, según, sin, so, sobre, tras, versus y vía. No se me ocurre ninguna frase que termine con ninguna de estas palabras, al menos que estén en forma de adjetivo o adverbo (e.g., yo estoy en contra, en cuyo caso "contra" es una locución adverbial).

The rule about not ending English sentences with a preposition actually came from Latin, where sentences do not end with prepositions. As you might imagine, Spanish closely follows the rules of Latin. French, I believe, is a little less strict with this rule, at least as it applies to informal language. Par exemple, voir cette discussion sur WordReference: http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=589014.

The property...

[ackthpt]

Will probably be the only thing people remember of facebook in 10 years.

Re:The property...

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, this "sharing stuff on the internet" thing is just a fad, like computers.

Re:The property...

[SeaFox]

I'm actually looking forward to the photo essays of the "Ghost town from Facebook" ten years from now.

Sell

[Anonymous Coward]

Time to sell FB stock.

There used to be a lot more companies that took care of employees from college to retirement - IBM, HP, Wang, Japan Inc. among others. They eventually all realized that this made their employees too comfortable, insular, and inbred, quick to dismiss anything that didn't come from the inside because "we have some of the top experts in the world on XYZ right here."

tumbleweeds blow by

[themushroom]

When Facebooktown became Hooverville?

Circles

[Amorymeltzer]

For those who haven't read it yet, the NYT Magazine has an excerpt from a new Dave Eggers book named Circles . It captures this sort of thing eerily well.

Ad Revenue

[maz2331]

They make a boatload of cash on ad revenues, plus charging commercial entities for "reach" - ie, a "friend" of Coca Cola may not see many posts unless Coke ponies up the cash to reach X-number of eyes.

Re:Ad Revenue

[Anonymous Coward]

The problem for Facebook is that, unlike TV advertising, the results of their services are easily quantifiable and they're generally not good (or else I'd be using them.) Facebook's going to have to find some other revenue model or reduce costs, or else its future is going to be a steep decline over the next few years.

Sixteen tons

[Anonymous Coward]

I owe my soul to the company store...

Should have its own Slashdot article

[peter303]

The new Eggers book is interesting and relavant.

Re:Should have its own Slashdot article

[Amorymeltzer]

http://slashdot.org/submission/3020735/we-like-you-so-much-and-want-to-know-you-better

Some employees will never want to go home

[Anonymous Coward]

Some employees may also never be able to leave town?

Get paid in vouchers for the company store, because they give "added value for your hard work and commitment".

Your dog may not shit on the carpet due to the "doggy walkers", but you have allowed Facebook to shit on your very soul.

Suggest that they also set up a company psychiatric clinic to deal with the consequences.

Re:Some employees will never want to go home

[Anonymous Coward]

Let me make clear that I'm a Googler, outside of the US. Some employees may also never be able to leave town? I live in an area which is heavily populated by Googlers, very close to office. This is by my own choosing. Get paid in vouchers for the company store, because they give "added value for your hard work and commitment". The only vouches I could get is for a company sponsored massage. Which I've never gotten (hmf!). I usually get monetary or stock based 'extras'. Monetary bonuses for 'short-term' hard work - stock based for long-term performance (and then there is raises). Thing is, if you suddenly have a large company with thousands of employees from lots of nations which doesn't know the host nation -- they'll all want to cluster around the office. The company _does_ become the main social life for at least the first 5 years.

safety nets

[Anonymous Coward]

will it come with complimentary nets around the buildings? you know, for the times when someone "unlikes" your posts?

and in trun we want to be able to work 24/7

[Joe_Dragon]

with NO OT pay.

Fired and Evicted on the same day!

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah better not get fired.. They'll kick you out of the party house.

Menlo Park?

[FooAtWFU]

Legally it's Menlo Park, but that's just because of the gerrymandering. If you'd asked me, I'd say Facebook HQ is in East Palo Alto, a high-crime/low-income area that most people in the area know only by its IKEA. Between the safety and the paucity of relevant local stores/services/etc, it's not exactly the number one place you'd choose to live. (That said, if you're over there, try some Jamaican food at Back-a-yard.)

They've also got Fremont nearbyish (across the bridge) - it's reasonably affordable for the area, but it's all sprawling-suburbs and is very quiet. Palo Alto is the next town over the freeway; if you don't mind fighting rush-hour traffic for half an hour to go a few miles, it's probably the most interesting place to live. Menlo Park proper has limited housing stocks. Atherton is even worse (it's a series of sprawling mansions, though a pleasant drive).

If living near work keeps some employees sane, these apartments will be a godsend. Of course, the real question is "why did facebook put its headquarters in the armpit of the Bay?"

I'm in Brooklyn now. Subway to work. :D

Re:Menlo Park?

[Anonymous Coward]

If you'd asked me, I'd say Facebook HQ is in East Palo Alto, a high-crime/low-income area that most people in the area know only by its IKEA.

You can't be serious. In most parts of the world, high crime areas are known not for IKEAs selling meatballs and flatpack furniture but for murders, rapes, and robberies. You know, high amounts of crime.

The worst thing that can happen to you in an IKEA is your girlfriend saying 'just ten more minutes'.

Re:Menlo Park?

[Anonymous Coward]

Based on my experiences riding rapid-transit in the Bay Area & Wahsington DC, "subway to work" might suit you well, but it's definitely not something I'd be grinning about... I really wasn't happy trying to find somewhere to sit (or balance uncomfortably), random dudes hitting on me or grabbing my thigh/ass, heavy smokers triggering my asthma, being packed in with everyone else, noise, belligerent people, and so forth. Long commutes with stop-and-go traffic aren't fun, but 1.5+ hours alone having some electronic downtime, playing music I enjoy and looking at the scenery definitely suits me better than 30-45 minutes on mass transit.

(Thankfully it's a moot point, as I don't commute anywhere anymore.)

Re:Menlo Park?

[Anonymous Coward]

This. More than anything else, if there is a suspect motivation to building this housing, it is so employees dont have to drive or bike through East Palo Alto to get to work.

It very much has a whiff of racism to it, but I perfectly understand and dont really blame them. East Palo Alto can be a fucking dangerous place.

Re:Menlo Park?

[Anonymous Coward]

The Ikea is right off the freeway in a stripmall along with a Best Buy and a few other stores. Two blocks behind the Ikea you can be shot for your watch.

Globex Corporation

[Anonymous Coward]

I would post more, but I'm in the middle of a fun run! See you at work tomorrow, though I don't like to call it work!

I owe info to the company store

[cervesaebraciator]

Some people say a man is made outta mud
A code monkey's got Mountain Dew for his blood
Dew in the blood and Cheeto bones
A bad back and carpal tunnel syndrome

You click 16 likes and whaddaya get?
Another ad targeted to your regret
Can't get a new job for what my profile showed
I owe info to the company store

I was born one mornin' when the sun didn't shine
I picked up my laptop and I coded a line
I coded PHP and in Javascript
And off to Menlo Park then I was shipped

You click 16 likes and whaddaya get?
Another ad targeted to your regret
Can't get a new job for what my profile showed
I owe info to the company store

If you see me comin', better step aside
The Dew and Cheetos made me a little too wide
A little too wide and a little too old
But for Facebook's perks my soul I've sold

You click 16 likes and whaddaya get?
Another ad targeted to your regret
Can't get a new job for what my profile showed
I owe info to the company store

Re:I owe info to the company store

[cold fjord]

Ya code 16 k-lines and whaddya get?
A thousand bug reports and a schedule slip
PM just told me vacation's a no
I have no life till there's shipping code

Re:I owe info to the company store

[Anonymous Coward]

That was nothing less than inspired. You should sing that over the original music and UL to YT.

Re:I owe info to the company store

[jmhobrien]

Agreed, this is exactly what I was about to say.
cervesaebraciator, if you don't want to record this, I'd be happy to. This needs to go on the tubes.

Re:I owe info to the company store

[jmhobrien]

For those that didn't get it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2tWwHOXMhI

Re:I owe info to the company store

[cervesaebraciator]

Have at it. Just call it a parody and share-alike.

Re:I owe info to the company store

[noelhenson]

Siimply, nice!

Re:I owe info to the company store

[martinQblank]

Like

/I'll go now.

Key Features

[FuzzNugget]

Greetings are made not by waiving, but giving a thumbs up (anyone giving thumbs down will be publicly beaten)

Everyone is needy and constantly pesters you to be their "friend"

The town bulletin board is full of trite comics and jokes (and nothing useful)

Traveling salesmen do recon by eavesdropping on all your conversations and then show up at your door to sell you everything they think you want to buy

Every few weeks, someone walks into a stranger's home after dark, takes off all their clothes and tells everyone about embarrassing personal matters before they realize they got off at the wrong bus stop

The population numbers are inflated because everyone uses multiple identities and fake IDs

Public works tears down all the infrastructure and rebuilds everything from scratch every year (the townsfolk protest about it for 5 minutes before relenting)

Re:Key Features

[TheSeatOfMyPants]

I always figured it'd be like The Truman Show -- everyone putting on a big show of being an abnormally perfect [insert identity here] when they think someone important is paying attention, then secretly saying/doing all kinds of "unacceptable" stuff whenever they think they're safe from scrutiny...forgetting that no matter how much the world focuses on someone else, the 'cameras'/Facebook are actually there recording 24/7.

Given there will probably be security cams all over the place, and they'll likely be run by a company contracted by Facebook, I would be surprised if some degree of that didn't happen. After all, in today's economy, most people *really* don't want to gain any negative attention within their company by getting caught (or having a child/spouse caught) doing something that violates their superior's moral beliefs.

Hey, Works in China...

[rueger]

The development conjures up memories of so-called "company towns" at the turn of the 20th century, where American factory workers lived in communities owned by their employer and were provided housing, health care, law enforcement, church and just about every other service necessary.'"

Hey, hopefully they'll get some tips from the Chinese companies that make the technology that support Facebook....

Re:Hey, Works in China...

[Anonymous Coward]

Worked in America too as you already quoted. Do you have a point to make or are you trying to align Facebook with China just for shits and grins? There pretty much isn't anything you can accuse the Chinese of that you can't say the same for about Americans, you nationalist dick smoker.

Re:Hey, Works in China...

[Anonymous Coward]

There pretty much isn't anything you can accuse the Chinese of that you can't say the same for about Americans

The Chinese use more coal than Americans.

And fuck your per capita cop-out.

Re:Hey, Works in China...

[Anonymous Coward]

yes, but the Chinese are not stupid enough to let israelis wire-up the wireless at their top government buildings.
no matter how many american secret weapons, awacs, etc,etc the israelis steal from usa and sell to China doesnt mean they trust them to set up sensitive radio installations. Although they have been trying, AIPAC dont work in Chinese politics.

per-capitol? hnnnnnnn, lets reckon that 2% of populus (by ethnic cat) in any DEMOCRACY would not have more than 3% seats in gov, highfinance, foreignpolicy, etc.etc.

oh yeah, PER CAPITOL BUILDING...... that lady who got shot driving her car was trapped in the brainwave-bandwith-wagon, emanating from...... the israelis?

"Groucho, please pass me the tinfoil hat!" Karl

Like

[thammoud]

Thumbs up here.

Yikes

[GrahamJ]

The idea of working at Facebook conjures up images of that horrible reality tv show where several people live in a house. Drama!

You're fired.

[TheSpoom]

You also have 24 hours to vacate your apartment.

Re:You're fired.

[Anonymous Coward]

You also have 24 hours to vacate your apartment.

And 10 days to leave the country, if Facebook brought you here on a visa :-)

Re:You're fired.

[wannabgeek]

Is it 10-days? I thought it's immediate.

Also, they say it's rented on market prices and is open to outsiders, so the "24-hours to vacate" may not be reality.

Re:You're fired.

[shentino]

Glory to Arstotzka!

Sixteen Tons

[BlindRobin]

and what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt.
St. Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I ow my soul to the company store.

The Shadowrun Renraku Arcology

[IonOtter]

It's a great idea, so long as you don't turn day-to-day operations over to an AI.

Welcome to Delta City

[Anonymous Coward]

Brought to you by Omni Consumer Products

OCP is a division of Koch Industries

Lose your job lose your house in the same day

[BetaDays]

Why would I want to do that?

misread

[johntromp]

"to a doggy day care"

I originally read that as "dodgy day care" ...

-John

Re:What's the problem?

[Anonymous Coward]

Good news! You've been sacked! and evicted! Now go sleep in someone else's gutter.

This just in...

[TheloniousToady]

"After initially turning him away, Facebook's new company store eventually agrees to accept Eduardo Saverin's pre-IPO Facebook scrip."

Why are they so rich

[Anonymous Coward]

Why are companies like facebook so rich?

Because they give you no money for your personal information, but sell your personal information to others.

Post-bubble silicon valley is relies on the masses undervaluing their personal information in order to make money.

People should be earning an income from their facebook profiles: post more details about yourself, get more money. It's easy to see how such an arrangement could work for both parties. And by placing a clear value on information, the masses would be more aware of what they're giving away.

Translation

[uvajed_ekil]

"Yeah, we're not going to pay you enough to own a nice place nearby, but we'll lease you a mediocre place where it will be hard for you to call off or seek better employment, okay?"

Edifice complex

[Anonymous Coward]

Is this, and Apple's space ship a sign of a top? One can only hope. Sorry fanboys. I have not love for either company.

Just like China

[p51d007]

But with more space, and food

Slight difference.

[sethstorm]

The old company towns worked to keep people in for the long term. The only way that businesses come close to that is with their preference for less free labor (temporary workers, guest workers) - and to keep people for shorter terms.

Not true at all.

[Anonymous Coward]

The problem with your statement is that such job security frees people to do their best work. Having people not as secure in their work makes things worse in terms of productivity (never mind morale).

No strip club?

[MadMaverick9]

Forget about it ...

Need a name?

[nospam007]

I hope they'll name it Creepy Hollow.

Those who don't study history are doomed to repeat

[davydagger]

Those who don't study history are doomed to repeat it.

http://www.h-net.org/~latam/powerpoints/Pullman.pdf

what is next for facebook, paying its workers in script?

It may only be temporary...

[greg_robson]

"Facebook's plan breaks new ground."

Not really, Bournville (home of the makers of Cadburys Chocolate) was constructed by it's Quaker founders. They built affordable housing for the workers, a swimming baths, parks, and made sure that their workers lived in good surroundings for their own health and welfare. No pubs though, Quakers are not too fond of alcohol!

Other wealthy Victorian companies did the same in the cotton industries and other areas of extreme expansion.

It didn't last forever though, those companies either no longer exist today, or have far fewer profits to lavish on the workers.

Other halves

[Anonymous Coward]

But what are their partners going to do, will they want to live at Facebook as well or will they want to live on their own company's corporate town somewhere else?

I got 99 friends but u ain one...

[Anonymous Coward]

Fuck Facebook.

Gladiator At Law

[Required Snark]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gladiator-At-Law

The plot is typically topsy-turvy. Whereas in the earlier novel The Space Merchants the world was ruled by advertising agencies, in this novel corporate lawyers, especially the secretive firm of "Green, Charlesworth" have gained a stranglehold on the world. Business Law is an extremely lucrative career, while Criminal Law pays enough to afford some of the luxuries of life but not enough to save for the future.

Success means living in a luxurious automated "bubble home" constructed by "GML", a corporation which is nominally public but whose shares are never traded openly. All work contracts include GML housing as part of the pay scale. Not having a contract job means having to live in a community such as "Belly Rave", originally a post-war suburban development for returning soldiers, now a slum ruled by teenage gangs. Its original name was "Belle Rêve".

For the common people, there are bread-and-circuses entertainments in the form of gladiatorial games of various kinds, with monetary rewards for the winners. Some games pit elderly people against each other armed with padded clubs, but others are more deadly.

FB" Seahaven" - On the air, unaware? Cue the Sun!

[Anonymous Coward]

"...It's all true. It’s all real. Nothing here is fake. Nothing you see on this show is fake. It’s merely controlled...."

As expected, Data silo runner thinks Backwards

[VortexCortex]

In other news, an Internet commentator notices the trend of computing hardware, the Internet, data storage, and nearly all other technology to decentralize and empower individuals to create and manage their own data, in direct opposite direction the billionaires' desire to funnel all resources, labor, web traffic, and money into fewer accumulation points.

Re:As expected, Data silo runner thinks Backwards

[VortexCortex]

Telecommute? Nah.

not a good idea

[xXXxkatyaxXXx]

Let work be work and home be home . I dont think this is a good idea at all .

Joe vs the Volcano

[Anonymous Coward]

I love the version from Joe:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytS4yFM4Oxw

We Like You So Much...

[Eravau]

I just listened to this short (45 minute), free audio book this morning on the way to work... and then this article popped up on Slashdot. I swear I heard the Twilight Zone theme song start playing and got a shiver. "We Like You So Much and Want to Know You Better"

I wished my employer did this too.

[antdude]

I wouldn't mind living in a dorm(itory), like my college days, on my workplace campus since commuting sucks (up to two hours one way sometimes!) especially in Los Angeles. Also, it's expensive! I don't drive so I have to rely on rides since I am disabled. :(