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What is Google doing with its open source teams?

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Re: What is Google doing with its open source teams?

#301

Post by abigail95 »

AStellersSeaCow wrote: post #189

Current Googler, I have no insider info at all, found out about this the same Friday morning as everyone else. Everything expressed here is speculation based on my own observations and conversations with HR leaders at Google and other companies involved in this round of industry layoffs. It's unfortunately not surprising that some current and rising stars in the open source world were impacted by this. There's an imp…

What law in California provides the difference between a normal firing and a layoff, with employee performance being a distinctive factor?

Re: What is Google doing with its open source teams?

#302

Post by hnfong »

Quarrelsome wrote: post #257
cmrdporcupine wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it's not to increase productivity, it's to increase compliance and push down salary bands. Have you forgotten this is the same company that had a backroom non-poaching pact with Apple (and probably other SV firms) a decade ago? And got caught red handed and got in a shitload of trouble for it? When I joined Google in 2011 they were still dealing the fallout from that.

> it's not to increase productivity, it's to increase compliance and push down salary bands. Its as if someone has forgotten that they can increase revenue instead.

Which one is easier for executives, particularly during a recession?

Re: What is Google doing with its open source teams?

#303

Post by temp-goog »

raydev wrote: post #298
temp-goog wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here’s some reliable second-hand information I’m posting on this one-off account. Take this with whatever degree of salt you wish. My understanding from somebody in a position to know is each VP was given a target/quota of cuts. Then they basically had big spreadsheets with salaries and performance ratings, and then pseudo-blindly cut teams or people to make quotas without input from directors/managers, and gave thos…

> I won’t work someplace my tenure is based on a dice roll. Having lived through multiple layoffs in the last few years, I'm not sure there's any org larger than, just handwaving here, 1k people that doesn't do this. I think you'd have to go to a startup before your absence is actually felt.

That’s a good point, also why I’m looking closely at startups.

Re: What is Google doing with its open source teams?

#304

Post by googthrownaway »

AlbertCory wrote: post #10

I knew Chris DiBona quite well. While I don't know the whole community as well so this is a rash statement, it's hard to imagine anyone knowing more about open source than Chris does. And Chris, if you're reading this: you rock, man.

Using a throwaway account for obvious reasons:

The insider perspective seems a bit more textured, as coworkers current and former have confided the last couple of days. Yes, this man was the face of a lot of things good, but he did steamroll (with his Segway no less) people along the way in a manner that doesn’t seem to be normal corporate acrimony. I can’t judge other people’s experiences, so I won’t.

I’ve only had a few direct experiences with the man. I was personally neutral until a specific incident: he cornered me and coerced me to sign over rights to an open source project that predated my employment to a third party. Having his job level and entire department lorded over me was an asymmetric power play.

Nevertheless, I’m not happy to see him laid off, mainly because nobody deserves the indignity of such a layoff.

- Your Average Xoogler

Re: What is Google doing with its open source teams?

#305

Post by EdwardDiego »

scarface74 wrote: post #296
EdwardDiego wrote: post #293

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have an ad blocker, but it's not aggressive enough to remove sponsored search results.

Which one do you have? 1Blocker for iOS removed an ad for Confluent when I did your same search before I disabled it.

Opera's built-in one.

Re: What is Google doing with its open source teams?

#306

Post by aix1 »

googthrownaway wrote: post #304
AlbertCory wrote: post #10

I knew Chris DiBona quite well. While I don't know the whole community as well so this is a rash statement, it's hard to imagine anyone knowing more about open source than Chris does. And Chris, if you're reading this: you rock, man.

Using a throwaway account for obvious reasons: The insider perspective seems a bit more textured, as coworkers current and former have confided the last couple of days. Yes, this man was the face of a lot of things good, but he did steamroll (with his Segway no less) people along the way in a manner that doesn’t seem to be normal corporate acrimony. I can’t judge other people’s experiences, so I won’t. I’ve only had…

> he cornered me and coerced me to sign over rights to an open source project that predated my employment to a third party

I'm really curious as to the motivation and background to this. How much can you tell us without revealing your identity?

Re: What is Google doing with its open source teams?

#307

Post by googthrownaway »

aix1 wrote: post #306
googthrownaway wrote: post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Using a throwaway account for obvious reasons: The insider perspective seems a bit more textured, as coworkers current and former have confided the last couple of days. Yes, this man was the face of a lot of things good, but he did steamroll (with his Segway no less) people along the way in a manner that doesn’t seem to be normal corporate acrimony. I can’t judge other people’s experiences, so I won’t. I’ve only had…

> he cornered me and coerced me to sign over rights to an open source project that predated my employment to a third party I'm really curious as to the motivation and background to this. How much can you tell us without revealing your identity?

As a small person, I have zero desire to invite recrimination from anyone. This is not a comment about the person the thread concerns. It is a small world and industry.

My only intention was to provide a little bit more nuanced depth to the original conversation. It’s not just puppies and rainbows. People and organizations are complex and operate in shades of gray.

Re: What is Google doing with its open source teams?

#308

Post by danbmil99 »

AlbertCory wrote: post #10

I knew Chris DiBona quite well. While I don't know the whole community as well so this is a rash statement, it's hard to imagine anyone knowing more about open source than Chris does. And Chris, if you're reading this: you rock, man.

Many moons ago, Chris wanted to recruit me to work on video compression/streaming (this was I think before they acquired Youtube). He found out I was a big Pythonista, an up-and-coming language at the time.

Chris then invited me to meet at a playground where our kids could play and we could talk tech. He also brought along his colleague, Guido Van Rossum! We had a fun chat but in the end I decided bigco was not for me.

No regrets.

Re: What is Google doing with its open source teams?

#309

Post by enos_feedler »

GauntletWizard wrote: post #289
enos_feedler wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine learning that was your job.

It's not uncommon; There's a title for it - "Brand ambassador" - Though it's often the case that your official job title is something different while you act in that role. I doubt people in that position have illusions about what their role is, and in fact most are probably offered the choice of how much they lean into the branding and how much "Real Work" they do, with expectations set around "You are famous/known f…

Brand ambassadors are a different thing. Thats like when a famous rapper is the official fan of an NBA club. Employees hired on to positions with technical contributions (developer advocate) which is just a cover for some kind of image building in the market.. dunno

Re: What is Google doing with its open source teams?

#310

Post by sireat »

malinoal wrote: post #149
spaceman_2020 wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The three Google products I use most frequently - Gmail, Search, Maps - have been underperforming heavily lately. Search is useless unless you really tailor your query to find organic results (throwing in "reddit.com" is almost a necessity). Gmail frequently lets harmful spam slip through, sometimes even tagging it with an 'important' label. The decline in Maps has been the most visible, mostly because it has negativ…

maps missing main roads is a (relatively) new "feature", you have to disable "prefer fuel-efficient routes" in your navigation settings to get sensical routes back

Google Maps keeps thinking that road repair that lowers 4 lane highway to 2 lanes means that the road is closed.

While you are driving on the "closed" road Maps keeps insisting on turning back and suggesting silly alternate routes.

Had guests who trusted Google and took the Google alternate route losing 30 minutes in the process .

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