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The Google+ project and exec team

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Re: The Google+ project and exec team

#31

Post by pi-squared »

The Googleyness is weak with this one. Inferiority complex. Work-life balance problems (work over xmas break, late night after work). Not being able to stand for oneself (salary, reschedule meeting). Wanting everyone to like him (literally said it). Seems to dismiss other people's jobs and even names as being less important than his.

Nobody's perfect, we all have some bad things in our personalities. But it's impossible to read this and extract the value that he tries to convey that Google as a company didn't accommodate him (dismissing the design of buildings or noogler's orientation) rather than he tried too hard to be liked and perceived as valuable member.

Re: The Google+ project and exec team

#32

Post by raydev »

allenu wrote: post #19

I tried reading this, but it is just stream of consciousness writing and littered with unnecessary details. It comes across as petty and the author doesn't seem to be good at communicating what he wants. For instance, he's whining about a 9am meeting with a coworker. If it's such a big deal, why didn't you ask for a later meeting?

The "coworker" seemed more like a superior. I'd also be wary of cancelling meetings with a hostile superior.

Re: The Google+ project and exec team

#33

Post by ganeshkrishnan »

Novashi wrote: post #20
whack wrote: post #10

Controversial opinion here. I know that exaggerating and complaining is a surefire way to get clicks, but it's hard to take the author's criticisms seriously when he complains about so many different things. Some as minor as the noogler orientation. Others as petty as putting down colleagues who haven't worked as designers before. Regarding the main event in question: I like that Google allows people to party in the…

He wouldn't be the first designer to pick apart everyday things and question them. But you have to remember that he was told he'd get to work on Chrome but was then assigned to G+. You have to be extremely laid-back and financially secure to roll with that punch and not put the rest of the company under a microscope (even criticizing petty culture-identity labels like 'nooglers' builds up resentment).

How is changing projects a punch? Haven't been longtime in a permanent position but there never was a project guaranteed during recruiting, only the skills and type of work.

Even if the project was guaranteed, things happen. Roll with it. Building resentment you are just hurting yourself.

Fuck, posts like these piss me off so much. There are so many candidates who would give their arm and leg to work at Google.

Heck, if i didn't have a startup I would have been happy to work even on Orkut at Google.

Re: The Google+ project and exec team

#34

Post by CoolGuySteve »

There’s a special kind of rottenness in big orgs when the only thing they can produce is “like X but by us”.

I understand why it happens, I’ve been on a few projects like that. The problem is that it’s hard to come up with a genuine new idea that a stack of middle managers will agree on and execute.

But if you say: “Let’s make Twitter/facebook/App Store”, then the middle managers can’t really disagree with you since there’s already a successful example of that thing on the market.

There’s also no room for miscommunication, everyone already knows what Facebook looks like, we just have to copy it.

The problem is that this work is dull, uninspired, and likely to be unsuccessful. What’s the point? Why not just kill this shit before spending millions of dollars on it?

Re: The Google+ project and exec team

#35

Post by Novashi »

rightbyte wrote: post #7
ggm wrote: post #4

Never write in anger. writing in sadness is ok, but writing in anger generally clouds the message. Some of this stuff is about how you work, and how others work. Its not about google, you could "feel" this way in almost any enterprise with more than 1 tier of management.

The writer seems unbalanced and I can't tell if he or the workplace is the problem, or both. The thing that cought my eye is that he was telling his boss his coworker was home hung over, becouse he worked while his grandma died instead of visiting her. Like, who is being inconsiderate here really?

>The writer seems unbalanced

That doesn't mean anything, and if you're trying to give it meaning, you're probably not qualified to diagnose someone over a twitter thread.

Everything, all-caps profanities and all, would be part of a normal conversation where a friend is ranting to you.

Re: The Google+ project and exec team

#36

Post by ganeshkrishnan »

pi-squared wrote: post #31

The Googleyness is weak with this one. Inferiority complex. Work-life balance problems (work over xmas break, late night after work). Not being able to stand for oneself (salary, reschedule meeting). Wanting everyone to like him (literally said it). Seems to dismiss other people's jobs and even names as being less important than his. Nobody's perfect, we all have some bad things in our personalities. But it's impossi…

Unfortunately in big companies no one is valuable. If someone is, the company has a problem.

Re: The Google+ project and exec team

#37

Post by jVinc »

This isn't a story about Google+, it's a story about a disgruntled employees failing at a job as told through his own glasses filled with illusions of grandjour and sense of superiority.

That said it's still an incredibly interesting story, and I have the feeling that many managers could gain some insight into what's going on in some of those "I am gods gift to development"-type individuals who can be both a huge benefit to a project yet at the same time be toxic to work with.

Re: The Google+ project and exec team

#38

Post by ganeshkrishnan »

brianberns wrote: post #25
ganeshkrishnan wrote: post #16

This is really ungrateful. The author is not happy because he got to work on Google+ not chrome? Google+ for all it's short comings were business failures not tech or ux or design failure. I worked on far stupider projects at big companies and I am utterly grateful for the opportunities given to me. Absurd blog and no matter how muchi hate Google posts like these makes me realize how ungrateful some people can be.

If I showed up at a new job to work on Project X, and they assigned me to Project Y on my first day instead, I might be pretty upset too. The problem isn't the reassignment itself. It's the lack of communication.

It's extremely common to get project reassigned especially since he was recruited three months later.

What i guess happened was that Google found candidates for their chrome project and put him in their backlog. Later when they had one more vacancy they went thru this backlog and made offers

Re: The Google+ project and exec team

#39

Post by acconrad »

It's one thing to not be happy at Google+, which is the center of this rant. But to put targets on all of the companies you interviewed at along the way with their founders Twitter names? Incredibly bitter and salty. It's no way to strengthen your argument or to live.
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