Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Three Years of Misery Inside Google, the Happiest Company in Tech

wired.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 245 posts

Re: Three Years of Misery Inside Google, the Happiest Company in Tech

#11

Post by ryanmercer »

cogman10 wrote: post #10
torben-friis wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> signs telling us to lierally not wipe our feces on the walls in the bathroom This is not like the other details. What the hell caused that?

> I make 35k I can only imagine the people this company employees if they are spending 35K on a software developer. 90% sure the majority of staff is making minimum wage. With such low wages, you can't expect quality.

> if they are spending 35K on a software developer.

You do realize not every human being on the planet, or even HN, is a software developer, right?

>90% sure the majority of staff is making minimum wage.

I make 65% of my state's annual HOUSEHOLD income and 2.3x minimum wage... this is a problem with HN, many of you make 6 figure salaries and assume that everyone is a software engineer making 6 figure salaries.

The 2017 nominal median income per capita was $31,786 in the United States.

Re: Three Years of Misery Inside Google, the Happiest Company in Tech

#13

Post by yummypaint »

ryanmercer wrote: post #6

There's algae in the tube feeding the ice machine in my company's break room, multiple wet ceiling tiles all year long, signs telling us to literally not wipe our feces on the walls in the bathroom, shared desks with other shifts, a constant smell of mold and I make 35k a year, no chance of promotion at all without taking on tens of thousands of dollars of debt to get a 4-year degree in literally anything, at a rabid…

Sounds like you need a union

Re: Three Years of Misery Inside Google, the Happiest Company in Tech

#14

Post by tudelo »

ryanmercer wrote: post #6

There's algae in the tube feeding the ice machine in my company's break room, multiple wet ceiling tiles all year long, signs telling us to literally not wipe our feces on the walls in the bathroom, shared desks with other shifts, a constant smell of mold and I make 35k a year, no chance of promotion at all without taking on tens of thousands of dollars of debt to get a 4-year degree in literally anything, at a rabid…

It sounds like you know your situation sounds not as good as a googler, so what are you doing to actively better it?

Re: Three Years of Misery Inside Google, the Happiest Company in Tech

#15

Post by peterwwillis »

> To invent products like Gmail, Earth, and Translate, you need coddled geniuses free to let their minds run wild.

A cute meme that people like to repeat because it 'sounds right', not really accurate. Gmail was someone's pet project, Earth was purchased, and Translate was a boring statistical analysis program for 10 years. I mean, really, how "wild" does your mind have to be to write a crappy CRUD app or design an algorithm?

Re: Three Years of Misery Inside Google, the Happiest Company in Tech

#16

Post by huseyinkeles »

ryanmercer wrote: post #11
cogman10 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I make 35k I can only imagine the people this company employees if they are spending 35K on a software developer. 90% sure the majority of staff is making minimum wage. With such low wages, you can't expect quality.

> if they are spending 35K on a software developer. You do realize not every human being on the planet, or even HN, is a software developer, right? >90% sure the majority of staff is making minimum wage. I make 65% of my state's annual HOUSEHOLD income and 2.3x minimum wage... this is a problem with HN, many of you make 6 figure salaries and assume that everyone is a software engineer making 6 figure salaries. The 20…

I actually somehow expect everyone on HN to be a software developer/enterpreneur/anything-else-tech-related

Am I wrong with my assumption?

Re: Three Years of Misery Inside Google, the Happiest Company in Tech

#17

Post by non-entity »

cogman10 wrote: post #10
torben-friis wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> signs telling us to lierally not wipe our feces on the walls in the bathroom This is not like the other details. What the hell caused that?

> I make 35k I can only imagine the people this company employees if they are spending 35K on a software developer. 90% sure the majority of staff is making minimum wage. With such low wages, you can't expect quality.

I make a few thousound more currently as a software dev. Work for government in a poor, red state. Luckily, however my office conditions aren't nearly what the parent comment described.

Re: Three Years of Misery Inside Google, the Happiest Company in Tech

#18

Post by TheBranca18 »

ryanmercer wrote: post #6

There's algae in the tube feeding the ice machine in my company's break room, multiple wet ceiling tiles all year long, signs telling us to literally not wipe our feces on the walls in the bathroom, shared desks with other shifts, a constant smell of mold and I make 35k a year, no chance of promotion at all without taking on tens of thousands of dollars of debt to get a 4-year degree in literally anything, at a rabid…

Your entire premise is fallacious. It's responding to someone complaining about an injustice by saying there are starving children in Africa. Your situation sounds awful and if you are that miserable I would be happy to help with anyone that I know that has open positions, depending on your concentration. That being said, saying things like: "Sure, sexism and racial discrimination is bad bad bad, but this happens at the vast majority of employers." is not acceptable in my opinion. It's defeatist and dismissive. No one should just accept an injustice because it happens everywhere. That's simply not how civilization should work.

The main point of this meandering article that I'm gathering, and that's being kind since it's basically a 'book' about notable events at Google over the past few years, is the erosion of communication and transparency between the upper echelons of Google and the lower level employees. The amount of doxxing in particular really scared me.

Re: Three Years of Misery Inside Google, the Happiest Company in Tech

#20

Post by whamlastxmas »

huseyinkeles wrote: post #16
ryanmercer wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> if they are spending 35K on a software developer. You do realize not every human being on the planet, or even HN, is a software developer, right? >90% sure the majority of staff is making minimum wage. I make 65% of my state's annual HOUSEHOLD income and 2.3x minimum wage... this is a problem with HN, many of you make 6 figure salaries and assume that everyone is a software engineer making 6 figure salaries. The 20…

I actually somehow expect everyone on HN to be a software developer/enterpreneur/anything-else-tech-related Am I wrong with my assumption?

There's homeless people on HN. I've seen them post their stories before. There's all types.
Post reply on HN