63

What is the most ridiculous over-the-top "startup" thing you've been the victim of as a developer?

Alternatively, what kind of weird startup luxury would you absolutely love to have at your company?

For me, at various companies I've worked at/visited:

1. Hammocks & fatboy beanbags. Current employer has a "Netflix & Chill" corner with nice couches, and a small gym. I have encountered isolation/flotation tanks at the office of one of our partners... which is cool, but over the top in my opinion.

2. A fully automated aquaponics garden in the lunchroom. Was awesome, until some fish died and started to rot.

3. One hoverboard per employee, at previous employer. I splashed hot chocolate milk in an arc over three desks. A coworker broke his ankle while watching me spill chocolate milk.

4. Daily scrum standup meetings, on socks, in a big bouncy castle. Not kidding. Fucking ridiculous... (but secretly fun). That employer also had spiral slides between all floors, a tiny half-pipe with tiny skateboards, and someone who rode a unicycle way too much. It was a fucking circus. Stuck in the office of a Fintech company.

5. Soldering bench (at my current company), with drawers full of breadboards, servos and electronics components. Completely unrelated to my work, but it was my idea. It's just great to build a simple kits together with another random coworker while brainstorming platform features & refining specs... much better than meetings with bullshit slides.

6. Unlimited energy drink. Developed a serious caffeine habit (15-20 cans a day), and almost got a stomach ulcer. Not beneficial to employee health.

7. I really do love working from home + unlimited holidays. Just being able to honestly say "fuck you guys, I'm gonna get drunk and play games today", and at other times working until 4am and sleeping in the next day, or taking a week to work in a park in Rome... It makes work truly feel like my favorite hobby. Combined with a good sprints and curious/ambitious people, you can easily track productivity anyway.

Comments
  • 26
    Where the hell have you worked?😂
  • 30
    Holy fuck how did you not die from 15-20 energy drinks a day? That's really unhealthy.
  • 6
    @jhh2450 asking the real questions there my dude
  • 4
    @AleCx04 I come from a family with major health issues on both sides; one side has really bad heart issues. Caffeine is something I've got to avoid extreme amounts of. No coffee and minimal energy drink consumption. (I like Mtn Dew kickstart)
  • 5
    @jhh2450 i am very easily affected by caffeine. Drank 3 cups of coffee and a monster energy drink the other day and was dying. So i have no clue how this gangstah survived 15 energy drinks 0.o
  • 4
    @AleCx04 I usually drink about a 2 liter worth of Pepsi Max (now called 0 or something like that) a day. It's got 2x the caffeine of regular Pepsi and no sugar or calories. Fucking love it. I'm surprised its not come back to bight me yet tbh.

    I do try to balance it with lots of water every day. I need to move towards more water than soda soon. Too unhealthy.
  • 3
    @jhh2450 well pepsi 0 is the right path. That is how i did it, but i went the coke zero route. Eventually one gets used to not drinking sodas man
  • 1
    @Bitwise dear heavens dude!! Do you crash afterwards? No side effects? Can you right now smell colors?
  • 1
    @jhh2450 @Bitwise @AleCx04

    I went back to 1 energy drink and a lot of coffee per day.

    The problem with energy drinks is not the caffeine, it's the total strain it puts on your digestive system. I always drank sugar free, but the acidity makes it very tough on your stomach.

    Coffee is better. You adjust to lots of caffeine, your build up tolerance.

    Of course, if a teenager drinks 20 cans at once as a stunt with zero caffeine tolerance, they get heart problems. But you can "safely" build up to much, much more.

    The problem is that you start getting migraines if you skip a cup, because coming down is a bitch — and thus you wake up every morning with a headache because it's your low point. I would literally down half a liter of Redbull at midnight to get to sleep, and get through the night without waking up from headaches.
  • 7
    @AleCx04 Also yes I do smell colors and taste the vibrational hum of the universe, I hear the surface of the earth softly rushing as it spins, and see voices stir up vortexes and waves in the molecules of my coworkers faces.

    But that's the LSD.
  • 1
    @bittersweet this made me lol pretty hardcore. At the office, manager wants to know whats up.....

    ....told her I am doing drugs. Far better than showing her devrant
  • 2
    @bittersweet I've only drank a small bottle of soda today and I've got this intense migraine right now. Trying to just power through the pain and drink more water.
  • 2
    @jhh2450 I've learned that there's nothing better against headaches than putting your mouth around some slightly salty nuts, and getting plenty of fresh fluids!
  • 1
    We've got kombucha/beer on tap, people who make us free coffees - any kind you can think of, a gym, a large balcony with giant Jenga, snacks, puzzles, other games...we got it going on. 😂 Trade-off is we can't work from home and hours are strictly set.
  • 2
    Smoke weed every day!
  • 0
    @Santaclauze Once in a fortnight!
  • 1
    In my startup I planned

    1. a ball-bath
    2. a real tea house with snacks, a bazillion flavors of tea, shit loads of board games and Shisha
    3. VR + Retro Clash Arcade Room

    My co-founders do not yet see the necessity for this, but this is nothing unfixable. I have an issue pending on dreamhub.
  • 2
    Yo, the hoverboard story is priceless. I broke my diaphragm while reading about someone breaking his uncle while watching you spilling chocolate milk.

    Your idea with the soldering station is really soldering the team together.
  • 1
    @w4tsn I do hate it when my uncle breaks!
Add Comment