[hueving]

>It's ludicrous extremes like having pingpong tables and games and coffee baristas at work. This is not living "frugally."

If a pingpong table and games are a major expense in your company, you're already dead. A barista is wasteful, unless he/she is serving coffee to hundreds of employees that would otherwise waste company time by leaving the office for a coffee break.

As an engineer, I avoid companies like the plague that refuse basic niceties in the name of saving money. It's a major indicator that it's going to be a miserable environment and you will have to fight tooth-and-nail for every piece of equipment and (even worse) raises/promotions.

[kintamanimatt]

> If a pingpong table and games are a major expense in your company, you're already dead.

I would disagree with such a sweeping statement. There are lots of bootstrapped companies that can't afford such things, nor do they even have the office space for them. This doesn't mean they're "already dead", it means they're doing things differently in the early days and prioritizing other expenses. Not every startup wants to be a VC-funded enterprise.

An established company, on other other hand...

[adrianratnapala]

Hmm, I work for Google now, and they are the first company I have worked for with either baristas[1] or ping-pong tables. These are definitely luxurious perks and not "basic niceties".

But Google is not a frugal startup. It's a giant company offering a big complicated benefits package.

[1] Free ones that is. Not counting big plants with cafes that charge market prices and seem to break even.

[hueving]

>These are definitely luxurious perks and not "basic niceties".

I don't think you realize how little these items cost when divided out amongst the number of employees. In particular when you consider the alternative of them leaving the Google campus for a half hour for a coffee break.

If you think catered lunches and the like are purely perks, then you drank the Kool-Aid. There is a reason they don't want you bringing free food/snacks home - it's because when you consume it in the office they are getting a benefit out of it as well.

> and they are the first company I have worked for with either baristas

It's not because Google is that much nicer. It's just because they realized early on the return on investment these things provide. This stuff is pretty much par for the course for newer tech companies in the bay.

[xiphias]

I work at Google as well and actually they give us plastic plates to be able to bring dinner home. Some colleagues of mine use this perk to bring their baby food so that they don't have to cook at home.

There's a catch though: the dinner is served at 18:15

[webkike]

A ping pong table is a one time cost of about $600. I don't understand how that could be considered a luxury in the context of a company in San Francisco

[aninhumer]

The table itself may be cheap, but the office space for it is probably not.

EDIT: Not that I'm saying it's not worth it, just that there are more costs to consider here.

[adrianratnapala]

That, and also the culture that says it's OK to just play ping-pong whenever you feel it is Ok to play ping-pong.

Well, maybe that is not expensive, but it is a big deal, and a company has to back itself to know that it will come out ahead.