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Why did I leave Google or, why did I stay so long?

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Re: Why did I leave Google or, why did I stay so long?

#91

Post by shadowgovt »

spery wrote: post #73
varjag wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

His point is a job is not UBI, you supposed to contribute in return and adjust your schedule along other workers (aka a 'workday'). I dunno why is that so controversial.

That may apply to yoga class at 11am, but asking for a day off? Come on...

Especially at a company like Google, which tracks vacation days as compensation.

When you tell a Googler they can't take a day off, you are basically telling them the company will not honor a piece of the compensation package they signed up for. You'd better come to that table with a damn good alternative offer.

Re: Why did I leave Google or, why did I stay so long?

#93

Post by slibhb »

itg wrote: post #24

Another "leader" who complains about employees wanting work life balance and they are extremely entitled. These are the type of managers you want to avoid. I'm sure many Googlers are happy you left.

If they really complained about not getting compensated for buying their own food during lockdown I think "entitled" is a fair descriptor.

This is the first time I've read one of these blogs where the author complains about it being "practically impossible to fire someone". To me, that adds an air of authenticity to the complaining. In my experience too, the inability to fire people for reasons other than "this person is a real jerk" has been a looming problem.

As far as work-life balance goes, I think I agree with him there too. I have a lot of privileges and I assume Google employees have even more. But the flipside of that is that, when there's a deadline, I'm very invested in meeting it, even if that means working a lot of hours. To me those two things are related: the privileges are justified by the periods of intense, focused work.

Re: Why did I leave Google or, why did I stay so long?

#94

Post by ccozan »

geodel wrote: post #47
pyb wrote: post #3

A lot of interesting things here, but also the usual "billionaire complaining about all these entitled employees" vibes.

Yea, billionaires complaining about millionaires is a phenomenon in valley and vice versa too.

Well, we wouldn't move forward if we don't complain, right?

Re: Why did I leave Google or, why did I stay so long?

#95

Post by ido »

dijit wrote: post #33
macintux wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The “I’m a passionate guy so I can’t communicate without cursing” part was entertaining.

Ugh, I'm this guy and I hate myself for it. I've found that I really have to detach from the situation to use less curse words, such as counting to 5 mentally before saying _anything_. Any other tips for similarly terrible people such as myself?

If you are serious about not being able to not curse if you get excited you may be better off talking to a psychologist than asking the internet for advice.

Re: Why did I leave Google or, why did I stay so long?

#96

Post by Kototama »

"As I had kids, I learned the importance of being at home for them and that's how I understood Work Life balance - its a balance, sometimes you need to work weekends and nights, sometimes you can head out early or work from home - we balance the needs of the employee and the company."

sometimes you need to work weekends and nights while your wife take care of the kids alone so that your career progress and her's not.

Here, fixed for you.

Re: Why did I leave Google or, why did I stay so long?

#97

Post by Person5478 »

amelius wrote: post #25
_0o6v wrote: post #2

"You need to be able to answer the "what have you done for our users lately" question with "not much but I got promoted" and be happy with that answer to be successful in Corp-Tech." Good quote. Although you can extend the lawyers theme out to the rest of the bureaucratic corp too.

The problem with that question: who are the real users?

If it's an app and the answer to that question isn't clearly the people who download and install the app, your priorities are fucked.

Re: Why did I leave Google or, why did I stay so long?

#99

Post by izacus »

This is an amazing post - it describes exactly how bad manager looks like and what kind of expectations does he have from his employees. No emergency PTO (despite being a benefit), ability to just get rid of people who don't suit him, cursing at people, not having a proper work/life balance. It just keeps on giving.

And all for what? A mapping application having features which really don't save lives 99% of the time.

Re: Why did I leave Google or, why did I stay so long?

#100

Post by b3kart »

isbvhodnvemrwvn wrote: post #79
varjag wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

His point is a job is not UBI, you supposed to contribute in return and adjust your schedule along other workers (aka a 'workday'). I dunno why is that so controversial.

Have you missed the part where he things that working nights and weekends is expected in a job? "we have to do whatever it takes to win"?

Where goalposts for "winning" can conveniently be moved each weekend, I imagine.
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