Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by alakep 1387 days ago
All this and AirBnB pays its engineers so well. Crazy to me. Feels like they should hire better engineers for the $ and build solutions that are more transparent and consistently adjuducated.

Also comments about email/phone number change cutting people out of AirBnB— same story. This is a feature I could imagine a single engineer building and testing in a summer internship. Yet still horrible guest experience.
3 comments
thinkingemote 1387 days ago
Ironically, it's because companies pay their engineers so well that this happens. This is because the well paid engineers really do not want to do customer support at all. They want to build shiny stuff, stuff that generates profit, not work in the cost centre.

Indeed, the tech industry has a term for taking care of highly paid engineers: HumanOps. HumanOps views the mental health of engineers as very important. Cost centre work is below smart people, and customer service is not valued in the slightest by well paid employees.

Additionally, these large companies continue to generate huge profits. These reports as in the OP are viewed by them internally not even as bugs to be fixed, as low in volume compared to the vast amounts they take in, they are viewed as a kind of random, natural occurrence and one that simply happens and there's nothing anyone can do about it.

So we have a situation where people can get banned instantly and where the company will put more effort into not fixing it. $ and tech is being used to not fix it.

link
zivkovicp 1387 days ago
Engineers only build what they are _told_ to build, it's naive to think any employee (even the all-powerful engineer) has the freedom to make decisions about how the business will operate.

In truth engineers often push back on features and business practices that seem sketchy and unethical. Their in-demand skill set and good salaries allow them to be more assertive and demanding of their supervisors/employers, but they are also just employees and have limited power to affect change.

link
TheChaplain 1387 days ago
They pay their engineers to work on things that makes them money.

Banning someone is cheaper than the cost of handling/solving the actual issue.

link