Facebook's Hackathons Get a Rethink

itwbennett writes "They'll still be all-night coding sessions, but starting with this week's 'Project Mayhem' event, there are a few notable changes. First, they're longer — starting at 11 a.m. Thursday and continuing until 2 p.m. Friday. And coding through the night is optional. 'It's like, "let's take this day off to do this, and then if I need to get more done, we can hang out and finish at night,"' said Facebook engineering manager Pedram Keyani, who organizes the hackathons."

In other news...

[Anonymous Coward]

Facebook now gets nothing done, and has fallen the way of Myspace.

hackathon?

[girlintraining]

Is this a "hackathon" or a let's work our employees ragged just before the weekend because we know they have no lives outside of our company? The hackathon is a time-honored tradition amongst hobbyists. When done by professionals, it's not cool, it's exploitative.

Re:hackathon?

[multiben]

Could not agree more. Where I work this type of thing comes around from time to time. "Show us how passionate you are about programming! Stay all night! We'll shout you pizzas and coffees!" Sure, that sounds worth it. When you start giving me random increases in pay, I'll start doing random amounts of unpaid overtime.

Re:hope

[phantomfive]

It's a shame you don't enjoy your job enough to want to do it.

I do. I also want to get paid fairly for it.

Enjoying my job is no excuse for letting my employer abuse me.

Re:hackathon?

[Trepidity]

If it's actually optional, why would you join a hackathon run by your employer, when there are so many other hackathons in the Bay Area? Are you some kind of cultist whose entire life, including their off-work hours, revolves around their employer? Why not go to SuperHappyDevHouse rather than a Facebook hackathon?