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

Google's 'Rest and Vest' Days for Senior Employees Are Over, Says CEO

inc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 52 posts

Re: Google's 'Rest and Vest' Days for Senior Employees Are Over, Says CEO

#11

Post by eduction »

I’ve watched Google through its entire “journey” and I have to say it’s revealing how quickly they jettisoned their rhetoric about having, attracting, and retaining what they claimed were the best engineers in the world at the slightest whiff of economic headwinds.

Google was basically an infant in the dotcom boom/bust cycle and for a company weathering its first real economic challenge, and a mild one at that, it is sure notable how quickly they are throwing their employees under the bus.

While I don’t have much sympathy for someone who makes a ton of money working two hours a day, I have even less sympathy for executives who created, championed, and perpetuated the thinking that encouraged that to happen and now try to shift blame for their own philosophy onto the people they proactively lured into their firm.

Google execs thought they would continue to make tons of money by treating certain engineers like gods. The second they suspected that might not be the case they demoted these gods to lazy slacker deadweight. Don’t fall for it. The real deadweight is running the company. The real blame lies with the decision makers. They have been blowing hot air about what enlightened managers they are for 20 years and suddenly realize they might be revealed as frauds. Step 1, blame the victims of your incompetence, the people you will soon lay off. Smear them, with no honor or decency, hurting their chances of recovering from the very situation you put them in.

What a company.

Re: Google's 'Rest and Vest' Days for Senior Employees Are Over, Says CEO

#12

Post by longtimegoogler »

kyrra wrote: post #8

Googler, opinions are my own. The article links to another piece talking about coasters[0]. Maybe this is from being a grunt senior SWE, I don't think I've ever met a coaster at Google (that gets away with it). People that I knew were slackers that I've worked with have been ushered out the door (or left on their own accord when they couldn't get promo, or were getting low ratings). But I only interact with a tiny fr…

Same. I have never met this proverbial rest and vest guy making 7 figures. Most everyone I know is scrambling to survive the performance reviews and get to the next level.

And if your productivity is very low you will get put on an improve or out plan.

Re: Google's 'Rest and Vest' Days for Senior Employees Are Over, Says CEO

#13

Post by googlryas »

KerrAvon wrote: post #3

Why would I ever want to work at Google if the management setup tolerates this sort of organizational flotsam? What a poorly managed place it must be if there’s no chain of accountability for senior employees.

It doesn't, in my experience. In the previous incarnation of the perf review system(which just slightly changed recently), there were effectively 3 buckets:

Needs improvement, meets expectations, and exceeds expectations.

The first one is "I'm going to get fired ASAP if I don't improve".

The second one is still viewed as a failure even though you're meeting every aspect of your current role.

The third one is "okay good, maybe i can go for promo if I string together 4 of these performance reviews as exceeds expectations"

Re: Google's 'Rest and Vest' Days for Senior Employees Are Over, Says CEO

#14

Post by riku_iki »

eduction wrote: post #11

I’ve watched Google through its entire “journey” and I have to say it’s revealing how quickly they jettisoned their rhetoric about having, attracting, and retaining what they claimed were the best engineers in the world at the slightest whiff of economic headwinds. Google was basically an infant in the dotcom boom/bust cycle and for a company weathering its first real economic challenge, and a mild one at that, it is…

> What a company.

I didn't get this, Google is very profitable cash cow, so decision makers are doing their job better than competition.

Re: Google's 'Rest and Vest' Days for Senior Employees Are Over, Says CEO

#15

Post by melony »

kyrra wrote: post #8

Googler, opinions are my own. The article links to another piece talking about coasters[0]. Maybe this is from being a grunt senior SWE, I don't think I've ever met a coaster at Google (that gets away with it). People that I knew were slackers that I've worked with have been ushered out the door (or left on their own accord when they couldn't get promo, or were getting low ratings). But I only interact with a tiny fr…

Are you an employee who worked his/her way up or are you one of those who were acquihired?

Re: Google's 'Rest and Vest' Days for Senior Employees Are Over, Says CEO

#16

Post by mike_d »

kyrra wrote: post #8

Googler, opinions are my own. The article links to another piece talking about coasters[0]. Maybe this is from being a grunt senior SWE, I don't think I've ever met a coaster at Google (that gets away with it). People that I knew were slackers that I've worked with have been ushered out the door (or left on their own accord when they couldn't get promo, or were getting low ratings). But I only interact with a tiny fr…

(Ex-Googler)

These people aren't on teams you interact with. They have a low enough employee ID and/or a sufficient level that they just mill about on a passion project.

Re: Google's 'Rest and Vest' Days for Senior Employees Are Over, Says CEO

#17

Post by Melatonic »

kyrra wrote: post #8

Googler, opinions are my own. The article links to another piece talking about coasters[0]. Maybe this is from being a grunt senior SWE, I don't think I've ever met a coaster at Google (that gets away with it). People that I knew were slackers that I've worked with have been ushered out the door (or left on their own accord when they couldn't get promo, or were getting low ratings). But I only interact with a tiny fr…

I do not work at Google but that is what I have heard from every friend of mine who does. In fact they have all said that it was almost a shock working there at first just how competitive it was. Then again I am sure there could be whole departments with completely different mentalities.

Re: Google's 'Rest and Vest' Days for Senior Employees Are Over, Says CEO

#18

Post by stingraycharles »

riku_iki wrote: post #14
eduction wrote: post #11

I’ve watched Google through its entire “journey” and I have to say it’s revealing how quickly they jettisoned their rhetoric about having, attracting, and retaining what they claimed were the best engineers in the world at the slightest whiff of economic headwinds. Google was basically an infant in the dotcom boom/bust cycle and for a company weathering its first real economic challenge, and a mild one at that, it is…

> What a company. I didn't get this, Google is very profitable cash cow, so decision makers are doing their job better than competition.

Depends; these would seem like the kind of decisions that affect the long term a lot more than the short term.

In the long term, this could severely impact the perception of Google for prospective employees, which in turn could hinder their ability to hire talent.

They spent decades building the image of “one of the best” employers for skilled software engineers, and they could potentially throw that away with just a few bad decisions.

It’s precisely because they’re still making boatloads of money that this makes even less sense.

Re: Google's 'Rest and Vest' Days for Senior Employees Are Over, Says CEO

#19

Post by matrix_overload »

riku_iki wrote: post #14
eduction wrote: post #11

I’ve watched Google through its entire “journey” and I have to say it’s revealing how quickly they jettisoned their rhetoric about having, attracting, and retaining what they claimed were the best engineers in the world at the slightest whiff of economic headwinds. Google was basically an infant in the dotcom boom/bust cycle and for a company weathering its first real economic challenge, and a mild one at that, it is…

> What a company. I didn't get this, Google is very profitable cash cow, so decision makers are doing their job better than competition.

They are a de facto monopoly on online advertisement networks worldwide. Unless the management deliberately pilots the company into the ground, their cash cow will outshine the competition out of sheer inertia.

The quality of decision making is seen when the rules of the game change and the companies are forced to adapt. This may or may not happen this cycle, depending on what happens to interest rates.

Re: Google's 'Rest and Vest' Days for Senior Employees Are Over, Says CEO

#20

Post by hn_go_brrrrr »

Melatonic wrote: post #17
kyrra wrote: post #8

Googler, opinions are my own. The article links to another piece talking about coasters[0]. Maybe this is from being a grunt senior SWE, I don't think I've ever met a coaster at Google (that gets away with it). People that I knew were slackers that I've worked with have been ushered out the door (or left on their own accord when they couldn't get promo, or were getting low ratings). But I only interact with a tiny fr…

I do not work at Google but that is what I have heard from every friend of mine who does. In fact they have all said that it was almost a shock working there at first just how competitive it was. Then again I am sure there could be whole departments with completely different mentalities.

There are. Some are very collegial, others are...not quite Amazon, but they lean in that direction. Never work in Payments.
Post reply on HN