Another ugly aspect of the Zynga story is the use of “Google chef situation” as a metaphor for an employee getting too much stock. That refers specifically to Charlie Ayers, Google’s chef 1999–2006, who reportedly made a giant pile of money from his stock options. To anyone who suggests he doesn’t deserve that compensation: fuck off. Charlie worked incredibly hard at Google and did a great job growing a kitchen from one meal a day for 40 people to three squares for 10,000 people. That kitchen had a huge impact on the success of the company; Google got an extra 200 hours’ work a year out of employees because we wanted to eat at work rather than go out. Charlie personally was responsible for the kitchen’s success. I assume “chef situation” is some sort of class distinction, that chefs don’t deserve as much compensation as the hallowed engineers. That’s disgusting.

—

Nelson Minar on one of the many scummy aspects of Zynga’s attempt to force some workers to sell their stock back.

If it were possible for a company to be a douchebag, Zynga is almost certainly it.