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

paygo.media

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

#11

Post by kevingadd »

_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.

I think like 1/3 of the people I knew there who got promotions got it purely off of visibility and not actual customer impact. In one case they literally dumped an unfinished API on Chrome users before it was finished and then after collecting their promotion, abandoned it to let other people clean up the mess. In other cases schedules were compressed or important features were cut so that we could "ship" in time for the next promo round. So frustrating.

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

#12

Post by mirthflat83 »

_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.

> at the end of every day, I always ask myself "what did I do for our users today". This simple exercise helps keep priorities straight. When I found myself avoiding this question because I was embarrassed by the answer, I knew my time was up.

I agree. Good quote

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

#13

Post by HiJon89 »

monoideism wrote: post #6

[removing my remark because I was likely wrong about his meaning]

I had to read that sentence a couple of times but I think it’s just poorly worded. He’s not saying that the person is old, he’s saying that the reason for wanting to fire them “you are not doing a great job”, is a “plain old” reason

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

#17

Post by JosephRedfern »

monoideism wrote: post #6

[removing my remark because I was likely wrong about his meaning]

I'm 99.9% sure OP the author didn't mean that people should be fired for being old. I agree that the phrasing is open to misinterpretation, but I read it as "plain-old not doing a great job"

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

#18

Post by monoideism »

HiJon89 wrote: post #13
monoideism wrote: post #6

[removing my remark because I was likely wrong about his meaning]

I had to read that sentence a couple of times but I think it’s just poorly worded. He’s not saying that the person is old, he’s saying that the reason for wanting to fire them “you are not doing a great job”, is a “plain old” reason

I think you're right, but why put the dash in there? It made it really hard to parse.

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

#20

Post by jpm_sd »

paulcole wrote: post #8
pyb wrote: post #3

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

The whole thing is one red flag after another, but the biggest standout to me is the author being annoyed coworkers are taking personal days. That’s what they’re there for! When I don’t want to work, I use the benefit that lets me not work.

Try managing a team where people take last minute personal days all the time, without having to give advance notice or a reason.
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