I can&#x27;t tell if this is satire or not. Office &quot;cultures&quot; that involve inane things like alcoholic drinks, free boutique meals, or dog-friendliness have absolutely nothing to do with getting work done. They are things you have to roll your eyes about and put up with. You can&#x27;t openly explain how unproductive it is, or you&#x27;ll be labeled as &quot;not a good culture fit&quot; even if you&#x27;re great at your job and get along with everyone.<p>So instead, you have to let your frustrations silently brew under the surface, always wishing your company cared more about employees and gave them adequately quiet and private space to get work done, or gave everyone a raise instead of spending the money on video games, gourmet coffee, etc.<p>Many engineers, especially experienced ones, are fully aware that all of these fringe &quot;culture benefits&quot; are just utter bullshit, and that they exist to try to hoodwink younger engineers into accepting worthless equity, criminally insane working environments, and exasperating, oppressive work culture that doesn&#x27;t really permit good work life balance.<p>They aren&#x27;t fooled or enticed by them. They simply have to put up with them because it&#x27;s what <i>everyone</i> is doing. And they have to act like yes-men when people ask if you like the new foosball table or that killer company party. And HR thinks it&#x27;s really working.<p>Your employees can&#x27;t really afford recreation or adequate living space or decent meals based on what they are paid, so instead bring the recreation to work, bring the meals to work, and just have people stay at work all the time.<p>We&#x27;re aware of this, and unfortunately until people start telling shitty companies &#x27;no&#x27; and insisting on being treated better (or software unionizes) it&#x27;s not going to improve, and everyone&#x27;s going to continue having insane shitty working conditions, but paper over it with all smiles about how cool Whisky Thursday is or whatever other bullshit none of us actually care about at all.