The Dark Face of Silicon Valley
Behind the beautiful photos of bicycles in the Google headquarters are hidden drugs, poverty and thousands of lives worn out by the tremendous pressure to which the workers are subjected. Until they are exhausted. The situation is unsustainable.
Probably the place where the headquarters of the most important technology companies in the world are concentrated is called Silicon Valley and is in California. There were born companies like Apple and Microsoft and was the home of many more companies that disappeared with the crisis of 2008. But the idea that Silicon Valley is an idyllic place where all dreams come true and you can earn all the money imaginable is false. Really fake.
If you ever decide to visit Silicon Valley, you will be able to realize that around the enormous buildings in which the headquarters of Google, Facebook, Apple and Microsoft are located, there is one of the biggest concentrations of motorhomes that you will surely see in your life.
The rapid growth of the great valley has made the distribution of resources uneven and totally disorganized. As a result, rows of tents pile up in the vacant lots where young programmers who don’t earn enough to rent an apartment on the outskirts of the city sleep.
The economic boom has caused housing prices to be around a million dollars, making it impossible for a young outsider recently hired by a great technology to assume the immense cost of housing there. A recent study by the University of Washington published that a 5% increase in the price of housing would mean 2,000 more homeless in the city.
In addition, candidate selection practices have been shown to have a negative impact on the diversity of workforces in businesses, excluding some communities or minorities (LGBT, African American or Hispanic). This has become a long-term problem for companies because, when it comes to creating products, they are less adapted and decontextualised for those communities excluded from the companies.
As a consequence of the dizzying growth rate of companies, their workers are treated like machines and pressured until they wear out morally, physically and psychologically. Employees are seen as disposable products.
In addition, Silicon Valley’s frequent results-oriented, high-speed culture has led to a culture in which only the new is valued, so large companies do not focus on improving existing products, but prefer to create entirely new products, which affects the bottom line.
Another factor that has contributed to the deterioration of Silicon Valley culture has been the mentality of the big companies: “if you don’t join me, I’ll beat you”. This has resulted in mass layoffs and when a large company detects a possible threat to it, it directly decides to buy or take offensive measures against it. The most recent case is that of Instagram, which with only thirteen employees and without generating profits, the social network was bought (not by chance) by the social networking giant Facebook for nothing less than a billion dollars.
Do you really think that it is beneficial to concentrate large companies in the same place? After all, most of us aspire to success in our lives, don’t we? For some people success is in Silicon Valley.
