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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'

#11
Outside of ads, and maybe LLM work, what projects are going on at Google that are interesting, to both the top brass and to line level engineers, that might lead people to feel differently? Google has been a rudderless ship cruising on ad dollars for years, with mid level managers launching one unimpressive product after another. Products that get canned by Google months later and only serve to benefit said managers resume. There's nothing apparent in the company to drive any high morale, unless morale is measured in RSUs.

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

#12
"And I just want to clarify that, through these changes, people feel it on the ground and sometimes people write back and say, ‘Thank you for simplifying.’"

Is there any mandatory training for CEOs to first understand when somebody is kissing up, second evaluate how devastating is cherry picking rare positive feedback to the company's morale? I can't believe top people can be so inept.

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

#13
post #11

Outside of ads, and maybe LLM work, what projects are going on at Google that are interesting, to both the top brass and to line level engineers, that might lead people to feel differently? Google has been a rudderless ship cruising on ad dollars for years, with mid level managers launching one unimpressive product after another. Products that get canned by Google months later and only serve to benefit said managers…

designing a new music app and/or chat app every 2 years sounds pretty fun

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

#16
post #9
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

CEO helps profits and ensures stock price. Engineers only spend money. Who should go? /s

I know, /s, but: If you have someone who aimlessly kills products and fires people but lacks vision or a decent plan, you could find someone much cheaper, and save tens of millions on executive compensation. If operating margin is so crucial now, then it seems cutting pay of top executives is the easiest way to achieve that with the least damage to the company.

Firing people actually helps raising a stock price [0].

0 - https://money.com/tech-layoffs-affect-stock-prices/

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

#17
post #11

Outside of ads, and maybe LLM work, what projects are going on at Google that are interesting, to both the top brass and to line level engineers, that might lead people to feel differently? Google has been a rudderless ship cruising on ad dollars for years, with mid level managers launching one unimpressive product after another. Products that get canned by Google months later and only serve to benefit said managers…

I'm hoping they're building a commodity AR/VR operating system -- essentially spatial Android. They've already announced a partnership with Samsung and Qualcomm so I've got to imagine some interesting hardware is coming soon.

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

#18
post #11

Outside of ads, and maybe LLM work, what projects are going on at Google that are interesting, to both the top brass and to line level engineers, that might lead people to feel differently? Google has been a rudderless ship cruising on ad dollars for years, with mid level managers launching one unimpressive product after another. Products that get canned by Google months later and only serve to benefit said managers…

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

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

#19

"And I just want to clarify that, through these changes, people feel it on the ground and sometimes people write back and say, ‘Thank you for simplifying.’" Is there any mandatory training for CEOs to first understand when somebody is kissing up, second evaluate how devastating is cherry picking rare positive feedback to the company's morale? I can't believe top people can be so inept.

Survivorship bias in action.. "I'm glad to be alive.. thanks boss!" How many of the people laid off said "thank you for simplifying.." ..

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

#20
Google does plenty of stuff well, but what's their last big exciting new product or even new feature? Bard is good but they're chasing OpenAI. Same story with the Pixel phones and Samsung. Or YouTube Shorts and Tiktok.

It all seems directionless or stagnant, like the bad old days of Microsoft.

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