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

wired.com

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

#121

Post by C1sc0cat »

segmondy wrote: post #32

My eyes are hurting from seeing these articles whining about their misery while collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars each year. Most companies have issues, and these issues are not "Company" issues but PEOPLE issues. Once you're large enough, you are going to have people with differing opinions, beliefs and values. These are going to clash. If you happen to be on the losing side and don't learn to accept it, y…

What is your point ? you seem to be objecting that some googlers have politics (which would be considered mainstream in many countries and companies) which disagrees with yours.

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

#122

Post by MGzBezycyjEQrk5 »

lesson learned: large companies can afford to be wasteful.

google can afford to fight all these ideological battles and employee spats because of their large revenue. If they weren't raking in so much dough, I doubt they would be willing to humor employees complaints on the scale cited in Wired (an entire social network for employees and supported by the company?). I'm sure similar incidents occur at other large corporations. They definitely happen at mid-sized companies, albeit with lower intensity. working in HR for google must be quite the safari

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

#123

Post by deminature »

segmondy wrote: post #32

My eyes are hurting from seeing these articles whining about their misery while collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars each year. Most companies have issues, and these issues are not "Company" issues but PEOPLE issues. Once you're large enough, you are going to have people with differing opinions, beliefs and values. These are going to clash. If you happen to be on the losing side and don't learn to accept it, y…

Of course people with minimum wage jobs have it worse. That doesn't negate problems experienced by people at FAANG-level companies. It's especially interesting to hear about problems at these companies, as they're usually considered paradise, when in actuality they have problems like everywhere else, usually just different ones.

The average tenure at these companies is ~2yrs, so clearly the money isn't worth it for most people. It's interesting to hear why that is without dismissing any possible problem out of hand.

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

#124

Post by andreilys »

sidibe wrote: post #108
chadlavi wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is google just particularly dogged about salary negotiations, then? The numbers I've seen for someone new to the org don't impress me relative to the competitive baseline. Maybe you have to ask way higher, or you have to come in at a high level already?

Where do you see significantly better salaries? You might be ignoring the stock compensation which is basically like cash for an established stable company like Google

This is actually a common complaint on Blind (anonymous social networking site).

Google seems to consistently low ball relative to other companies (Facebook, Apple, uber, etc.)

Obviously depends on the team/role but seems like google is trying to leverage its “prestigious brand” to pay less

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

#125

Post by blub »

high_derivative wrote: post #42
segmondy wrote: post #32

My eyes are hurting from seeing these articles whining about their misery while collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars each year. Most companies have issues, and these issues are not "Company" issues but PEOPLE issues. Once you're large enough, you are going to have people with differing opinions, beliefs and values. These are going to clash. If you happen to be on the losing side and don't learn to accept it, y…

My inside-FAAMNG experience has been that most employees seem to be not interested in the politics and are primarily focused on doing good work (people in their 20s), or on putting in their 8 hours and going home to their families (people >30 mostly, of course they also want to do good work, just have additional new priorities in a young family). Then there is a vocal minority who leverage that no individual's perfor…

That majority of people can afford to focus on work or put in their 8 hours and go back to their families thanks to a "vocal minority" which was able to convince others in the past to fight for new rights and for what's right.

Obviously some people think there's more to life than cashing a large paycheck and writing code. "Not interested in politics" is an euphemism for clueless and easy to manipulate by those that are.

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

#126

Post by mrep »

tropicalia wrote: post #114
segmondy wrote: post #32

My eyes are hurting from seeing these articles whining about their misery while collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars each year. Most companies have issues, and these issues are not "Company" issues but PEOPLE issues. Once you're large enough, you are going to have people with differing opinions, beliefs and values. These are going to clash. If you happen to be on the losing side and don't learn to accept it, y…

My eyes are hurting from seeing these articles whining about their misery while collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars each year. Multiple easily findable sources suggest that the median tech salary at Google is well below $150k -- probably more like around $130k. I get your point about the "whining" -- but while the average Google definitely does better than someone with a non-tech salary -- it most cases they…

Lol, let me guess, you are citing glassdoor which still uses data from a decade ago in their average. 150k is new grad rates these days and senior engineers are making on average 350k [0].

[0]: https://www.levels.fyi/salary/Google/

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

#127

Post by JeremyBanks »

The comments here, paraphrased: those entitled tech they don’t know how much better they have it than people under oppressive governments, how dare they use their position to try to prevent their companies from helping oppressive governments!

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

#128

Post by serioussecurity »

Everyone here seems to think that if you have a good job you shouldn't be involved in labor organizing, because everyone else has it worse?

Isn't the point that everyone should be organizing because working conditions everywhere are much worse than they could be, and the organizing at Google is a case study for how organizing works at one particularly unusual company?

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

#129

Post by LMYahooTFY »

buboard wrote: post #115
LMYahooTFY wrote: post #94

As of now the most popular comments here seem to decry the notion that anyone making six figures could ever relay an experience of misery. This is utterly non-sensical. The article, to me, seems to imply that perhaps working at a radically free corporation doesn't yield pure bliss and benefit. Is there some reason this article needs to balance out any possible misery with all the luxurious amenities Googlers enjoy? D…

> that it's not possible someone could have a miserable experience at Google? I think that. Google employees are at the top of the pyramid, so if the article was true, they would have left for an almost identical salary nearby. The fact that they don't means that either google pays way above its direct competitors (it doesnt) or these people are outright lying, and their actions speak louder than 12k words

I disagree. Concluding that because they don't "just switch jobs" means they're being dishonest seems very flippant.

In fact, the idea that any organization on the planet could be exclusively a place where only happiness exists, and no one could be misfit, is patently absurd.

I see an implication in your response that money buys happiness and there are no other significant factors worth mentioning. Am I wrong?

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

#130

Post by compiler-guy »

pcstl wrote: post #75

I find it somewhat hypocritical that this article describes Google as a safe haven of dissent and open discussion, while it is pretty unanimous that expressing even slightly right-of-center opinions at Google will have you ostracized and possibly fired.

Google circa 2010 and Google circa 2019 are very different companies.
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