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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'

#341

Post by asah »

noqc wrote: post #183
asah wrote: post #93

(repost after every Google-bashing...) Alternate perspective as a longtime googler, ex-googler, mostly-happy user and shareholder. Please hear me out. As user, I'm pretty ok with Google. Websearch is sputtering sure but that's normal after a challenge like chatgpt. I tried Bing again and came back after a day. Google seems ok on privacy: in 2024, you don't see hackers exfiltrate Google data, employees abuse privilege…

> Websearch is sputtering sure but that's normal after a challenge like chatgpt. If you think the complaint about google search is that it isn't as good as chatgpt, I think you might be not listening. The problem with google search is that it's worse than it was

Apologies, I was making a deeper point, which is that search is going through a period of disruption and the endgame will be something more like ChatGPT and less like a lost of 10 links.

To address your concern, yes [low quality content] will still exist but it won't look at all like today's stuff. Too soon to tell.

In periods like these, the British saying applies to users: keep calm and carry on. The American saying: bitchin' ain't switchin'.

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

#342

Post by api »

lazystar wrote: post #242
api wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I forget where I heard this but I once read a saying that “communication is only possible between equals.” I think that’s too extreme as a blanket statement but it’s definitely true that when there are major wealth or position differences communication becomes difficult and all kinds of perverse incentives come into play. If you wonder how, for example, George Bush II thought it really was “mission accomplished” in I…

speaking truth to power is difficult when the survival of your social structure depends on your continued income. ironically - or perhaps intentionally - the fact that no one feels safe due to random firings of "top performers", new hires, "underperformers", etc, could result in a work envoronment where everyone finally speaks the truth, because they dont have a guarantee that lying will continue to protect their pay…

Works the other way too. Higher ups have an incentive to provide a rosy outlook, explain away problems, and over promise to those under them to stay there. So really everyone in a hierarchy is incentivized to blow smoke.

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

#343

Post by throwawayqqq11 »

ryloric wrote: post #297
AndrewKemendo wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The CEOs job is to make the board happy. That’s it. There’s no other requirement. You make the board mad you’re fired. You make the board happy, then you’re golden and can do whatever. The easiest way to make a board happy is to reduce headcount, increase revenues (ideally wherever you have strongest margins) and prevent collective bargaining. CEO at this level isn’t a people leader like you’d expect because boards d…

Come on, you say it as if every board member is an android focused only on short term results. They've had a board when Eric was CEO and Google was doing it's best work as well. It's not really about the board, Google has become a mature company that's not going to grow 20% YoY anymore and this is what happens to such businesses. Unless they're lead by an exceptionally strong person who can stand up to economic force…

> It's not really about the board.

> Unless they're lead by an exceptionally strong person who can stand up to economic forces

Isnt the board the ultimate force, including the economic one?

You are supporting OPs claim actually. Becoming a mature company brings declining workforce morale.

> they will turn them into IBM.

because

> The CEOs job is to make the board happy. That’s it.

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

#344

Post by ChatGTP »

scarmig wrote: post #252
ChatGTP wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who was a key player in ensuring the web is worse do you think?

If you had to pin it on a single actor, Google. Ads have corrupted the original vision of the web. When you offer a path for other actors to monetize the web, they will, and Google did that more than anybody.

Google has made so many "death of the web" moves over the past few years that it's hard for them not to be implicated in the current situation. If they've shat in their own pants, well that's too bad.

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

#345

Post by [deleted] »

paxys wrote: post #136

Is there a single tech company where morale has been high since 2022? Microsoft had multiple layoffs and froze promos, bonuses and stock grants for all employees, and now they are the most valuable company in the world and have a great reputation in the industry. Google, Amazon, Apple, Meta and the rest aren't much different. If you are looking for groundbreaking innovation, competent management, no politics, freedom…

[deleted]

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

#346

Post by fsflover »

utopcell wrote: post #142
pinewurst wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The regular employees are far more deluded than management in thinking that they're somehow changing the world for the better.

Google Web Search is (supposed to be) changing the world for the better.

These are only from the last year:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34920760

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35039360

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36564042

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39198329

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

#347

Post by filoleg »

avidiax wrote: post #334
belter wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its almost like Developers need...A Union....

Google has a union (AWU). It is currently protesting in support of Gaza.

Anecdotal side-tangent: had a terrible second-hand experience with AWU.

I was an employee, and a friend of mine was interviewing at Google. After one of his interviews, he called me up and asked if I heard of AWU. I was not sure what prompted that, but I said I was roughly familiar with AWU, and then my friend elaborated on what went down.

Turns out, his interviewer spent half the interview just buzzing my friend’s ears off about AWU and trying to recruit him to join before my friend even got the offer.

And then my friend told me the exact details of what was said about AWU and what they do, and my ears just rolled up, because I realized that he was getting coaxed by an AWU member with a bunch exaggerations and half-truths. Mostly about the perceived self-importance of AWU, how much they actually accomplish, and what they actually do.

Left a sour taste in my mouth, because doing this as an interviewer is imo pretty unethical.

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

#348

Post by berniedurfee »

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…

One possible explanation is that companies try to avoid discrimination lawsuits by laying off employees in a way that provides plausible deniability of discrimination.

That tends to mean broad sweeping layoffs that select whole orgs, functions, lines of business or locations.

Often that means rehiring (sometimes the same people) to rebuild what was lost by some broad sweeping blind decision.

There’s also some gaming that goes on beforehand to protect key people by shifting them around to get them out of the selection group.

So yes, opaque and senseless may have been a purposeful strategy.

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

#349

Post by llelouch »

nharada wrote: post #39

"Decisions went from being made for the benefit of users, to the benefit of Google, to the benefit of whoever was making the decision." This is definitely a small-to-large company pattern I've observed

Kind of reminds me of the evolution of bureaucracies

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

#350

Post by true_religion »

filoleg wrote: post #347
avidiax wrote: post #334

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google has a union (AWU). It is currently protesting in support of Gaza.

Anecdotal side-tangent: had a terrible second-hand experience with AWU. I was an employee, and a friend of mine was interviewing at Google. After one of his interviews, he called me up and asked if I heard of AWU. I was not sure what prompted that, but I said I was roughly familiar with AWU, and then my friend elaborated on what went down. Turns out, his interviewer spent half the interview just buzzing my friend’s e…

Many unions have a goal that no one should be hired unless they are already a union member.
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