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Software companies that claim they "Work to make a Difference" strike me as cultish and are an immediate turn off.

I work for a living, I volunteer and work in my community to make a difference.




Silly question: Why don't we work to make a difference?

We spend, generally, at least 8 hours a day, 40 hours a week at work. If that time is spent making a difference, it really ups the odds that something actually gets done.


Working to make a difference is definitely good.

However, you are not making a difference by working at Hubspot. It’s just a corporate job, and management telling you otherwise is only serving them.

Edit: removed a pointless anecdote


Because these are for profit companies. What is actually happening when a company says they want to work to make a difference is that they want to harvest your enthusiasm for improving the world to make them more profit, or create free marketing for them.

When choices come down to make a difference or make a profit companies choose profit. If they truly wanted to make a difference, they would be nonprofits.


Because companies survive by making a profit, and will always revert to the mean.

The money you make at work can make a huge difference in other people’s lives. By spending it on causes you care about you are working to make a difference without having to buy-in that your random CRUD app brings joy to the word and ends suffering.


You won't be the only to raise eyebrows at such messaging coming from HubSpot, see "My year in startup hell": https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11369632


All other things being equal, isn't it better to work for a company that does something you think helps the world as opposed to one that you think is harmful or even merely neutral?


Yes, but the companies most vocal about how they are good for the world are so often doing so out of need to compensate for reality.


Things won't be equal though. Evil corps' pay and benefits are usually way better, simply because that's how they attract otherwise hesitant people in the first place.


But did you try "harmonizing work and life" like the deck says?


No such thing. Just a catch phrase man.


That’s the joke. Platitudes like “harmonize work and life” just puts the responsibility on the employee to repair their personal life after its damaged by corporate mismanagement.


That was a sarcastic remark.




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