[happyopossum]

You can call it a 'party' if you want, but a company-wide in-person event is a) valuable, and b) expensive.

Calling an all-hands a party without any supporting evidence feels willfully negligent.

[baq]

$68M/10000 employees = $6800/1 employee

A lot? Not a lot? Don’t know anymore.

[mmcclure]

It's on the high side, but...honestly not absurd? "Party" implies one night rager, but the source says "in-person company event." That seems more like a multi-day company onsite to me, and the total bill per person there probably includes travel, accommodations, food on top of any overall event costs.

Bringing a remote employee to SF just to work out of an office for a few days can easily cost a few grand.

[kermatt]

$6,800 per person is absolutely absurd. If the event lasted an entire month, that's still $225 per person per day.

[x0x0]

airfare: $500, 5 nights (sun -> thur) in a hotel, fully costed: $250, per-diem of $100 6 days (fri is a travel day) is already $2350. If you rent a place that thousands can show up you'll be in for at least $5k.

[mpeg]

I've been to all hands where it probably cost that much just in travel: business class LHR to SFO, hotel for a few nights, dinners, drinks, entertainment, venue, guest speakers, and on and on.

It doesn't seem excessive, the networking in these things is often really worth it

[quaunaut]

In what business is everyone in the company going business class?

[mpeg]

Not everyone, but often there are travel policies where any travel more than X hours long you can book business class without manager authorisation via concur and the like.

It's really worth it when you get off a 12 hour flight and have to go straight into hours of meetings without being a zombie

[frutiger]

Bloomberg Engineering

[layer8]

At the cited $340000 salary, it amounts to around the same as one extra week of vacation for everyone.

[dangoor]

Seems plausible. Travel (some international), hotels, taxis, venues, food, and entertainment. It adds up. Probably not a single day event.

[Scoundreller]

If you account the employee wages into it, then it really adds up.

[Aurornis]

For an event where many employees have to be flown in and stay at hotels in an expensive city? That's normal.

Hosting in-person events for 10,000 people is expensive even without having to transport and house anyone.

[nerdsniper]

That actually sounds pretty reasonable.

[darth_avocado]

Maybe it’s just me, but I think being able to retain more employees is more valuable than flying the entire company for an in person event.

[frde_me]

One could argue a smaller number of employees that are more motivated and feel connected to their coworkersis better than a more employees that are all isolated and "meh".

[surgical_fire]

Nothing inspires people to feel motivated and connected more than layoffs.

[darth_avocado]

You have fewer people you worked with, a constant threat of unemployment and more work? Sign me up for that boss

/s

[dang]

Yes - more at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47185110

[Hamuko]

Can it be that valuable when 40% of the participants aren't?

[layer8]

Maybe it served to find out which of them weren’t valuable. ;)