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

Google's once happy offices feel the chill of layoffs

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 103 posts

Re: Google's once happy offices feel the chill of layoffs

#61

Post by JohnnyD10 »

I have worked for a company similar in size to Google for a long time. During covid I experienced the highest high of my 18 years here. Flexibility was suddenly rampant (it was forced, but still) in a company that had been stodgy and inflexible since its founding. They began hiring just like Google and every other company did, so jobs were plentiful. This had a 'rising tide' effect on everyone (I got a promotion without asking for it, which is basically unheard of). Suddenly, I was able to define my work pretty much universally, and I was appreciated for doing do. It created an environment where I and my colleagues all wanted to contribute more than ever before. We put in tons of extra hours, many even unpaid.

Side note: it was RTO mandates that killed this.

But I digress. It made me wonder: is this fun, experimenting, creative, flexible environment one that pops up in general when all companies first form and the business realities of non-unlimited funding haven't caught up with the leadership yet? Is it something that hits all companies for a while when the economy is on an upward trend (as I attested to in my own company)? Have people found pockets of this kind of environment, even in the worst of times?

I'm trying to figure out when and where it exists so I can find it again. I'd never experienced it until covid, and now that I have, I want it back, and for the first time, I'm willing to do something major to get it because I know now what it feels like. It feels like Star Trek Generations, where that guy is trying to do whatever he can to get back on the nexus (except I'm not trying to destroy a planet).

Re: Google's once happy offices feel the chill of layoffs

#62

Post by reaperducer »

BoxFour wrote: post #7
anotherhue wrote: post #3

Thoughts and prayers and all that but honestly this is for the best. As an economy we can finally reassign the massive investment of talent into something other than advertising. And maybe we can be honest with ourselves that Wall Street always wins in the long run.

Be careful what you wish for: Many of those highly talented individuals will likely end up channeling their skills into areas that one could view as equally negative societally, such as hedge funds or defense contracting (like Palantir). This isn't to justify the current state of advertising, but rather to express skepticism that dismantling an industry will lead talented individuals to willingly accept a significant…

Many of those highly talented individuals will likely end up channeling their skills into areas that one could view as equally negative societally

Or they could go the other way. Just like after previous bubbles.

When the real estate bubble burst and took a good chunk of the financial industry with it, plenty of people went into healthcare, or the arts, or started their own small businesses without the goal of taking over the world.

People aren't boolean. They aren't rats trained to only go after the biggest piece of cheese. The vast majority have human-scale goals and families and desires. Very few people, even in the tech sector, are comic book villains.

Re: Google's once happy offices feel the chill of layoffs

#63

Post by jpm_sd »

hiddencost wrote: post #49
jpm_sd wrote: post #2

Xoogler here, left in 2015. I don't think Google's offices have been "happy" or "exuberant" for a long time. The big cultural shift was already underway when I left.

Yeah :| my problem right now is that I haven't been outside in a very long time, am paid incredibly well, and really have hyper specialized in getting stuff done at Google. The things I've done I can only really explain well to googlers. So it's been quite challenging finding a role outside that pays me as well.

No post body was provided.

Re: Google's once happy offices feel the chill of layoffs

#64

Post by scarface_74 »

onetimeuse92304 wrote: post #45
scarface_74 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or able to spend six months studying for coding interviews…

If you mean to actually learn to code for a job that obviously requires coding skills... While we are at it, also spend another year learning technology and design patterns to prep for a design interview. Listen, nobody gets a job at Google because they studied for coding interview. Coding is a precondition of getting the job, but it is far from enough to secure it.

There is a huge difference between “learning how to code” and “learning how to pass coding interviews”. What you actually do at any job - BigTech or not - is completely different from what you learn “grinding leetCode”.

If there is more of a prerequisite than “learning how to pass coding interviews” to get into Google, how do juniors with no real world experience get in?

Re: Google's once happy offices feel the chill of layoffs

#65

Post by hotpotamus »

JohnnyD10 wrote: post #61

I have worked for a company similar in size to Google for a long time. During covid I experienced the highest high of my 18 years here. Flexibility was suddenly rampant (it was forced, but still) in a company that had been stodgy and inflexible since its founding. They began hiring just like Google and every other company did, so jobs were plentiful. This had a 'rising tide' effect on everyone (I got a promotion with…

The Nexus comparison is interesting since Picard chose to leave it because he knew it wasn't real and convinced Kirk of the same.

Re: Google's once happy offices feel the chill of layoffs

#67

Post by reaperducer »

scarface_74 wrote: post #36
AbstractAirways wrote: post #26

> "From an H.R. standpoint, this is a nightmare... It completely reverses their image as a desirable employer." Good. I mentor early career and nontraditional-background engineers, and among this set, Google has acquired a certain reputation. To paraphrase, if you can just pass the interview bar, you'll find yourself in an organization where the pay is amazing, the oversight is minimal, the visa/greencard policy is g…

And I would still recommend any early career person to “grind leetcode and work for a FAANG”. The money is too good to give up. I would also tell them to live below their means and save like crazy while they were there and to immediately sell their stock once it is vested and diversify. FWIW: I didn’t get into BigTech until 46. It served its purpose and I have no desire to go back to any large company. But again, I’m…

The money is too good to give up.

Not everyone is motivated by greed.

Re: Google's once happy offices feel the chill of layoffs

#68

Post by laidoffamazon »

verteu wrote: post #52
laidoffamazon wrote: post #28

I don't recall a similar story when Amazon went through their first major layoffs in 2022 (which heavily hit their office on the same street as the Google Cambridge office mentioned in the first sentence), but I do recall stories about Google's layoffs including glossy photos of ex-Googlers and members of the Alphabet Workers Union. None when my current company did layoffs last year. At what point do non-Googlers mat…

I'd guess it's because Amazon doesn't have a reputation as a happy place to work.

Perhaps, but neither does Facebook and I’ve seen reporting about their layoffs that’s similar.

I think it’s because Amazon engineers are seen as lesser/lower class. The people that write for the NYT know their classmates from Yale and Penn that work in non tech and tech roles at Google, but they don’t know any UTenn grads that work at Amazon as SDE3s. Thus, they’re seen as people that don’t matter.

Re: Google's once happy offices feel the chill of layoffs

#69

Post by Jensson »

jplusequalt wrote: post #40
BossingAround wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a depressing era with post-covid sugar crash, new wars, getting over inflation, job market being in the trash, etc. etc. I'd argue there are no "happy offices" as a whole, and won't be for another ~10 years until everything settles and we're on an upwards trajectory (and sugar rush) again.

Why we as a society put up with this yoyo-ing economic model will never make sense to me. Nobody likes recessions, or layoffs, yet we're all complicit with them.

Everyone likes bubbles and hiring sprees though. If people didn't apply for jobs during hiring sprees these bubbles wouldn't happen either.

Re: Google's once happy offices feel the chill of layoffs

#70

Post by fullshark »

jplusequalt wrote: post #40
BossingAround wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a depressing era with post-covid sugar crash, new wars, getting over inflation, job market being in the trash, etc. etc. I'd argue there are no "happy offices" as a whole, and won't be for another ~10 years until everything settles and we're on an upwards trajectory (and sugar rush) again.

Why we as a society put up with this yoyo-ing economic model will never make sense to me. Nobody likes recessions, or layoffs, yet we're all complicit with them.

Economic shocks are simply unavoidable. Supposedly the goal is to avoid the yo-yo effect of them, e.g. try to control the rate of inflation and unemployment so it doesn't feel so chaotic. The COVID shutdown and money print to deal with it kind of worked on that front if you consider just how disruptive it all was and how people are still going about their lives, contributing to GDP.
Post reply on HN