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Ask HN: I've been slacking off at Google for 6 years. How can I stop this?

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Re: Ask HN: I've been slacking off at Google for 6 years. How can I stop this?

#81

Post by trolololooo »

throwaway_googl wrote: post #48

I have three friends at Google who are nice, smart people, but terrible employees. All three of them seem to be doing just fine in their Google careers. One is very smart, but he's been telling me literally for years that he has zero motivation, to the point where he sometimes won't actually start working until 6PM. He's moved around within Google trying to find something he's interested in, but it's just the same th…

Yes I've seen the same thing and more than once. Why should anyone leave, it's easy enough, and probably would be worse somewhere else. To me it's sad when this happens, because it's slowing down people who could be contributing to innovation and cool stuff, but I get it, paychecks are good.

Re: Ask HN: I've been slacking off at Google for 6 years. How can I stop this?

#82

Post by joejerryronnie »

rkagerer wrote: post #43
jboggan wrote: post #5

If you can not only survive at Google but slack along well enough to get promoted once on "10% of your mental capacity" I'd stay right where you are. You aren't going to find a better place to earn money for equivalent effort and it sounds like you've already adapted to the ecosystem. Sounds like you need an interesting side project or just a meaningful hobby. Don't go looking for the missing sense of fulfillment you…

Strong disagree! I can't believe all the advice here telling you to stay in a situation where you don't feel challenged. Clearly you wouldn't have written the post if you were content with the status quo. Find a role you thrive in, doing work that musters your enthusiasm. Whether it's at Google or elsewhere. Yes, it means giving up the cushy freeride, but there's no substitute for the deep sense of pride and satisfac…

I find that if I focus on improving one aspect of my life (e.g. health/fitness, hobbies, time with family, etc) then other aspects tend to become more satisfying as well. I think this is due to a general sense of accomplishment and the motivation from a “win” to refocus on improving in other areas.

Re: Ask HN: I've been slacking off at Google for 6 years. How can I stop this?

#83

Post by ThrowawayR2 »

Consultant32452 wrote: post #66
rkagerer wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Strong disagree! I can't believe all the advice here telling you to stay in a situation where you don't feel challenged. Clearly you wouldn't have written the post if you were content with the status quo. Find a role you thrive in, doing work that musters your enthusiasm. Whether it's at Google or elsewhere. Yes, it means giving up the cushy freeride, but there's no substitute for the deep sense of pride and satisfac…

I suppose this depends on whether you prefer to live to work or work to live. When I was younger I lived to work. Now I work to live. I've taken up backpacking, woodworking, and put a greater emphasis on my family life. If anyone is on the fence here, I definitely recommend working to live. If you can avoid misery at work, you're a lucky person, so do that if you can. But at the end of your life the odds you'll be mo…

This person is in the early stage of their career. Building the skills, network, and reputation necessary to carry them through the rest of their career while they are young and energetic _is_ working to live, particularly at a FAANG. Nobody wants to become a 50 year old with the skills and experience of a 30-year old.

Re: Ask HN: I've been slacking off at Google for 6 years. How can I stop this?

#85

Post by mattrp »

Mikeb85 wrote: post #41
ThrowawayR2 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Terrible advice. The FAANGs are highly competitive and people are eventually going to notice that this individual is not at the average job level they should be at relative to their years at the company. That will eventually make internal transfers very difficult (yes, hiring managers do check for duds for internal transfers) and motivate their management chain to wash this person out of the company as good attrition…

Maybe they are at the average job level but just aren't feeling challenged? They did get a promotion, so they can't be that bad... Maybe they're just bored? Either way, leaving a secure, good paying job is almost always bad advice, especially without a firm plan in place..

100% in agreement. One major risk you’ve accumulated by slacking is that you may not easily get another job if google does eventually push you out. Your next employer will say, tell us what you’ve done - specifically. At some point you either have pride and integrity as a person or you’re an asshole. Google might tolerate that now when you’re young but I think fewer and fewer others will as you age. It sounds like you have some time to make some changes in your life - I would recommend you start there before kids and other life events take priority.

Re: Ask HN: I've been slacking off at Google for 6 years. How can I stop this?

#86

Post by mukel »

Google is going downhill, the day I finished my internship I sweared I'll never in my life work on any money-making, no-challenge project. A bunch of engineers do enjoy what they do, they work on the cool projects, that's enough to keep it going; the rest is just cattle, work for the cash, enjoy the free food and the reputation of working at Google; I'm still sick of being bombarded with the "changing the world" nonsense. Change projects/company, find a mentor and/or a mentee, build new stuff; find your purpose, unleash your intellect. Don't fall for the "changing the world" lie.

Re: Ask HN: I've been slacking off at Google for 6 years. How can I stop this?

#87

Post by wayoutthere »

booleandilemma wrote: post #71
wayoutthere wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Software engineering just isn't that hard. Tedious yes, but not remotely difficult. We've been fed the narrative of economic success that many folks have forgotten what personal success looks like. You can be successful in your career and still feel like a failure. Therapy is the answer here. You have to un-brainwash yourself from the notion that your job is your life and figure out what really matters to you. Then f…

Software engineering just isn't that hard. Tedious yes, but not remotely difficult. Come back and say this after you’ve had to fix concurrency bugs or had to maintain some overseas contractor’s terrible codebase with no documentation.

I have; I was a software engineer for over a decade before I moved up through architecture and laterally into product. Those problems are tedious. Not difficult.

Re: Ask HN: I've been slacking off at Google for 6 years. How can I stop this?

#88

Post by throwthisaway2 »

You want to or you font. Its not googles fault. Font expect others to give you drive. I feel you ate asking hn for something you dont really want. You wouldnt need to ask us if you wanted advance. You would be coding instead.

Your problem is you are bored, because cjallenging yourself in tech is easy to do, but just dont want yo do it.

If you were promoted again you wouldnt be leaving. Thats your true motivation.

Re: Ask HN: I've been slacking off at Google for 6 years. How can I stop this?

#89

Post by dudus »

I was in a similar situation, but even though I have an engineering background I was in GTech.

I thought I was doing meaningful work at first. But after 7 years of the grinding it took its toll, I burned out and I left in September.

I'm not sure our situation is comparable, but I'll share some of my experience.

I was very well paid and that kept me on the job longer than it was healthy for me. Still I can't tell you if I made the right decision or not. My job was not stressful at all and not demanding, but I had some periods that I slacked too much and that took a toll on my perf. A bad perf made internal movements harder.

I wish I could have stayed longer for the money, I wish I had better scores that internal movement was possible. In the end I just got up one day and quit, and I don't regret.

I'm taking my time now to rest, travel and work on some side projects before restarting my career. I lived a pretty scrappy life in the bay that I can now not worry too much about money for some time.

I don't share the Google hate so common in this forum, I think it's a wonderful company to work for. A lot of opportunities, great people and comp. I blame only myself for my mental health deteriorating and affecting the quality and balance of my work. I'll work on getting that in order before finding a new job, and if I get back to Google I'll feel lucky.

This was more a rambling than anything. But to summarize my advice would be to prioritize your mental health, that's a lot more important than you realize. If you feel like the grinding is affecting you seek help or quit and find something else more fulfilling. If you feel you are ok maybe try an internal transfer and stay longer, add a side project if you need a challenge. If you do decide to quit give yourself a quarter to rest at least.

And lastly you're probably better than you think you are, impostor syndrome is real and affects everyone.

Re: Ask HN: I've been slacking off at Google for 6 years. How can I stop this?

#90

Post by mrnobody_67 »

Get an internal transfer at Google.

Or find ways to challenge yourself outside of work = learn to fly a helicopter, set a goal to run a marathon or ironman, learn ballroom dancing, learn how to sword fight/fence, whatever... push yourself outside of the comfort zone, sign up for 5 "intro to" classes to avoid procrastination and see what clicks.

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