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Morale plummets at Google as workers complain bosses are 'inept' and 'boring'

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Re: Morale plummets at Google as workers complain bosses are 'inept' and 'boring'

#311

Post by bluepizza »

refulgentis wrote: post #254
CamelCaseName wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it possible they did this on purpose to expand their team size?

No that's absolutely bonkers and an edge case. 5 women don't have a baby in 1.8 months, and headcount has been frozen-ish since late 2021 unless you're Bard, so we're looking at someone dangerously stupid sticking their neck out to over-compensate, for no good reason, and inexperienced with basic tech shibboleths. Also, the large firing decisions in January 2023 and January 2024 were made up several steps up the ladd…

> 5 women don't have a baby in 1.8 months

They have 5 (or more) babies in 9 months, which is precisely the point of empire building: being able to handle more than one priority.

Re: Morale plummets at Google as workers complain bosses are 'inept' and 'boring'

#312

Post by EvanKnowles »

willio58 wrote: post #228
jjjjoe wrote: post #204

The reason the word "inept" keeps coming up is just how opaque and senseless to the rank and file the January 2023 layoffs were. High performers, low performers, newest hires, most tenure: we saw all kinds of heads roll. I saw a team lose its sole TL with a decade+ of tenure on the team, then turn around and hire 4-6 people to try and catch up. A growing deployment team was actively hiring before and after it got a 6…

> I saw a team lose its sole TL with a decade+ of tenure on the team, then turn around and hire 4-6 people to try and catch up. My god.. That's pure ineptitude and I'm sorry for anyone at that company right now. This basically sends the message "doesn't matter how good you are, we're going to spin the wheel every so often and if it lands on you you're out"

We had this, but HR moved so slowly that the (good) guy that was fired was still there when the new guy arrived.

Re: Morale plummets at Google as workers complain bosses are 'inept' and 'boring'

#313

Post by uoaei »

scialex wrote: post #274
uoaei wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's nice in theory, but can you say that Google does things that actually achieve that trifecta?

YouTube, Google maps, Gmail ...

Name a single YouTube content creator who is satisfied with that arrangement.

Re: Morale plummets at Google as workers complain bosses are 'inept' and 'boring'

#314

Post by refulgentis »

bluepizza wrote: post #311
refulgentis wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No that's absolutely bonkers and an edge case. 5 women don't have a baby in 1.8 months, and headcount has been frozen-ish since late 2021 unless you're Bard, so we're looking at someone dangerously stupid sticking their neck out to over-compensate, for no good reason, and inexperienced with basic tech shibboleths. Also, the large firing decisions in January 2023 and January 2024 were made up several steps up the ladd…

> 5 women don't have a baby in 1.8 months They have 5 (or more) babies in 9 months, which is precisely the point of empire building: being able to handle more than one priority.

Sure, except, it was 1 employee replaced by 5, and there isn't headcount backfill.

Re: Morale plummets at Google as workers complain bosses are 'inept' and 'boring'

#315

Post by Gud »

michaelt wrote: post #124
siggen wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What he said probably cannot be verified, even. On another note, has anyone noticed how Pichai likes to take pictures in front of others’ work for the media [1]? To me, it’s a weird feeling—- like someone taking credit for others’ work. [1] https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2019/10/23/google-quantum-computing...

Eh, that's kinda normal. Just because the queen shows up to get photographed cutting a ribbon at a new university building, doesn't mean anyone imagines she laid any bricks or tiled any bathrooms. The photo you linked to is only confusing because he's not wearing a suit. Chuck that guy in a suit, have him look on politely as someone in a high-vis vest or a lab coat points at something, and this photo would be one amo…

> Chuck that guy in a suit, have him look on politely as someone in a high-vis vest or a lab coat points at something, and this photo would be one among thousands.

That would be different. In that situation it is clear who is doing the work, and who is providing the money.

But posing in front of a widget, he is signaling to the world, “I made this”.

Re: Morale plummets at Google as workers complain bosses are 'inept' and 'boring'

#316

Post by uoaei »

im3w1l wrote: post #273
uoaei wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's nice in theory, but can you say that Google does things that actually achieve that trifecta?

Sure. It's just we tend to notice the tradeoffs and forget the win-wins. Every bug fixed and every performance improvement benefits all three.

> Every bug fixed and every performance improvement benefits all three.

I'd love to think so, but the truth is that any platform, working correctly, disadvantages those who contribute most of the content. The platform owners earn money in ways that are always contrary to the interests of the content creators.

Re: Morale plummets at Google as workers complain bosses are 'inept' and 'boring'

#317

Post by Rastonbury »

refulgentis wrote: post #314
bluepizza wrote: post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 5 women don't have a baby in 1.8 months They have 5 (or more) babies in 9 months, which is precisely the point of empire building: being able to handle more than one priority.

Sure, except, it was 1 employee replaced by 5, and there isn't headcount backfill.

I don't find that story believable, you don't layoff then open backfill or let alone multiple roles on the team. The handful of Googlers I spoke to are now in smaller teams handling the same workload. If true it must've been some AI related team

Re: Morale plummets at Google as workers complain bosses are 'inept' and 'boring'

#318

Post by bsimpson »

foofie wrote: post #295
willio58 wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I saw a team lose its sole TL with a decade+ of tenure on the team, then turn around and hire 4-6 people to try and catch up. My god.. That's pure ineptitude and I'm sorry for anyone at that company right now. This basically sends the message "doesn't matter how good you are, we're going to spin the wheel every so often and if it lands on you you're out"

> This basically sends the message "doesn't matter how good you are, we're going to spin the wheel every so often and if it lands on you you're out" The conspiracy theory that's making the rounds is that these rounds of layoffs from tech firms have zero to do with financial reports or economy downturns, and are instead a coordinated effort, along with RTO policies, to wrestle negotiation power from tech workers and p…

I've also heard it positioned as an age discrimination loophole to fire your seniors and replace them with juniors, while calling the whole thing a macroeconomic-driven layoff.

Re: Morale plummets at Google as workers complain bosses are 'inept' and 'boring'

#319

Post by rlanday »

dzdt wrote: post #160
michaelt wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A significant part of the workforce is just there to provide services to the workforce itself. The bureaucracy is expanding to meet the needs of the expanding bureaucracy.

Is there a rocket equation for bureaucracy? Something to model the exponentially growing efforts of a company that are spent self-support and bureaucracy as the amount of productive work scales up?

Yes, the original Parkinson’s Law paper contains an equation:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson's_Law > The growth was presented mathematically with the formula x = (2k^m + P)/n, in which k was the number of officials wanting subordinates, m was the hours they spent writing minutes to each other.

(check the original paper for details since this obviously doesn’t explain what n is)

Re: Morale plummets at Google as workers complain bosses are 'inept' and 'boring'

#320

Post by PeterStuer »

CamelCaseName wrote: post #241
willio58 wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I saw a team lose its sole TL with a decade+ of tenure on the team, then turn around and hire 4-6 people to try and catch up. My god.. That's pure ineptitude and I'm sorry for anyone at that company right now. This basically sends the message "doesn't matter how good you are, we're going to spin the wheel every so often and if it lands on you you're out"

Is it possible they did this on purpose to expand their team size?

Absolutely, and tick more boxes on things other than merit and 'gets the job done'.
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