As a former employee, I find this article misleading. The seven-day workweeks until 2 a.m. typically only occur during the first month after chip tapeout, but even then, we were on 8-hour shifts to ensure 24-hour coverage.
Mmm, really? How many people can power through this in the long term? Imagine having these super designers and you burn them out because you want them at work all the time. The CEO would be a fool to let this happen. Yes, it might happen but it's rare.
> Ten people who either worked at the company or are still employed at the firm described the environment as a pressure cooker in which meetings often descend into shouting matches, according to Bloomberg News.
This is what working in the Bay Area was like during the bubble, during the recovery and early Web 2.0.
You work 6 and 7 days a week, keep crazy hours, sometimes you duck out when you need to. Long lunches are a thing, you drink at the office. All personal decorum goes to hell. It becomes purely about the work, about doing well.
It's a pressure cooker, a boiler room, it is swimming with sharks. You will either learn to find a deep inner productivity or you will drown. Things get rather wild in this sort of environment. I suspect that addaral is still the drug of choice for this set.
Every one can taste their "fuck you" money and is just looking to hold on long enough to get out.
If your cut out for that sort of game its great. If you arent it's hell.
