"Venture capitalist Michael Cardamone, the tournament’s co-organizer, approves of young companies buying tables with venture funds. “You absolutely should,” he says. “It’s part of building culture.”"
Who are these people who play ping pong during work hours? I want to finish my work and go home. If I have a break, I want to go outside and get some sun and air because I hate being inside all day. I'm not looking for a frat.
Likely people who enjoy taking a break at some point during the day and also enjoy playing ping pong? I don't see how going outside to "get some sun" is objectively any better in general.
Hmmmmm I work at a large games publisher, and it's normal that everyone plays games during lunch(1 hour lunch is normal). I usually have 30 minutes for food then play something for the other 30 minutes(currently trying to get through Dark Souls 3). I guess it's the same with ping-pong or any other in-office activity.
A company often spend some floor space on areas where employees can take a break from work to disconnect for a few minutes. Why not put a ping pong table there?
Because it then stops being a space where people can take a break, and becomes a space where two people are playing ping pong, with everyone else crammed along the wall.
"Little things like free food and ping pong tables actually offer a massive return on investment."
Yes, provided everything else about the company is working. People are productive. The product is showing signs of fit. People believe in the founder(s)' vision and in the CEO's direction. Under these circumstances, things like ping pong tables and free meals can offer amazing ROI.
But when your first few business moves are shopping for fancy digs and filling the space with ping pong tables, your priorities are questionable. Morale can't be bought with trinkets. Morale is earned with a strong sense of collective mission and product traction. The rest is icing on the cake.
This distinction is often lost on people, who rush off to buy foosball tables as though the mere presence of such will trick employees into being happy and productive. It's a very '90s attitude: "People want to work for a startup that looks startupy." Well, sure. But the best people want to work for a startup that has a real shot at success, first and foremost.
1) Playtime is for after hours, with friends and family. Ping pong's a fun game but it's noisy and disruptive when you're trying to get work done.
2) Don't care about your free food, I have a strict diet and don't usually eat lunch. Ditto free booze which is frankly a dumb idea (see 1). Free non-alcholic drinks is fine.
It's also a tax break in the UK. An employee and the employer aren't taxed on the provision of food but would be taxed on a bonus, so you can offer what amounts to £x worth of free food per year rather than (or in addition to) a cash bonus.
It's certainly not linear, though; I think it will be interesting to see what's better in the long run. It's obviously impossible to measure, due to unpredictable factors such as changes in industry and market and competition.
As a whole, though, I think people, especially in our industry, aren't stupid. Free food would certainly be a more competitive retention factor (than ping pong) -- barring that your company's biggest competitors in terms of hiring aren't also offering free food.
"Hey, we have a dysfunctional CEO, a runway shorter than the one at Hong Kong airport, and a legacy codebase that reduces the most experienced developer to a gibbering wreck. But look - we have foosball and whiskey tasting nights!"
Sure, it's a semi-facetious example. But I'm suspicious of job ads that mention things like foosball tables or climbing walls and other such frivolities - it suggests either a juvenile working environment or that the company has to provide gimmicks to entice people to work there because it doesn't have anything solid to offer.
The ROI on those "gimmicks" is huge - to my mind it's the company that wouldn't spend a small amount of money on something fun that's suspicious. That suggests a company that's more bothered about appearances/"professionalism" than just getting on with things.
Juvenile, shrug - I guess I like a juvenile working environment.
Its part of building a culture certainly. Believe it or not its possible to build a company culture around things other than ping pong though - the last company I was at had a culture that revolved around food, cooking, and eating together for example (they do food delivery). Probably not as good for my waistline, but it definitely brought everyone together.
In my current company, ping pong table is the strongest day-by-day teambuilding activity — something that different team members do together, not related to work, something that builds positive relationships between anyone. Most of interactions with some people in the company are intense and have potential for conflict (just because our respective roles), and ping pong offers us a chance to have a different kind of interaction.
In previous company, it was a pool table and game room with Rocket League. In one before that, foosball. Regardless of the game, having some game that is played regularly by coworkers together really helps to build positive relationships and create a team. Definitely worth investor's money.
"Venture capitalist Michael Cardamone, the tournament’s co-organizer, approves of young companies buying tables with venture funds. “You absolutely should,” he says. “It’s part of building culture.”"