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What I learned getting acquired by Google

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Re: What I learned getting acquired by Google

#291

Post by mark_l_watson »

CobrastanJorji wrote: post #79

The "red badge" thing was very real. It was really weird having TVCs on your team. You'd all work hard together to launch a thing, and then everybody except the red badge would get a celebratory team tchotchke or a team lunch or something. If you asked about it, the manager would say "we can't give Jim things directly because that might be like compensation and they'd be like an employee." There'd be all-hands meetin…

My experience as a red badge person was very good. While it is true that I was unable to bring my wife to lunch and I didn’t get free massages, everything else was great.

I was hired by someone with some clout who enjoyed reading two books I had written. He would occasionally call me to talk, and then one time he invited me to work on his pet project at Google.

Some of the perks were amazing. I took an 8 hour class ‘end to end’ that I would have paid a lot of money to take and in one day I got to learn how to use all of the internal systems I would need for my project, plus lots of other interesting stuff. Pure joy, that one!

I totally enjoyed the food (this was in 2013) and I went to invited speaker talks (I made sure that I wasn’t counting this against my 8 hours a day). Getting to meet Molly Katzen (author or Moose Wood Cookbook, etc.) and having a long conversation with her was great. Ditto for Alexis Ohanian.

I also have a work eccentricity, that apparently was not a problem: I always like to start work around 6am, and then leave early. As far as I know, this was not a problem. I need at least two hours a day with no interruptions.

Anyway, if you get a chance to work at Google for a while as a contractor, go for it!

Re: What I learned getting acquired by Google

#292

Post by cbarrick »

dilyevsky wrote: post #70
decaffjoe wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's common for Google offices to have gyms and pianos?!

Gyms yes, pianos - only really big/fancy ones like MV, Zurich, London, etc

Google Pittsburgh has a music room. We're definitely a smaller office.

Re: What I learned getting acquired by Google

#293

Post by secondcoming »

JSavageOne wrote: post #140
peddling-brink wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isn't just google, it's every company with contractors and employees. Microsoft learned the hard way to not treat contractors like employees. https://www.reuters.com/article/businesspropicks-us-findlaw-... Nobody else wants to learn that same lesson.

Ok but then contractors have the freedom to work whatever hours they want, not show up to the office, and subcontract out their work - right? If so that might be more appealing than being an employee

No, not really.

Re: What I learned getting acquired by Google

#294

Post by quantified »

castlecrasher2 wrote: post #134
slater- wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

thank you for mentioning this. i was a red badge. it was fucking demeaning. i have a lot of stories, but my favorite was when everyone on my floor got an earthquake safety kit except me. literally google didn't care if i lived or died. the expectation was that if i sucked up enough ("demonstrated my value") they MIGHT make me a real boy, like some bizarre Velveteen Rabbit fetish game. i loved watching how Google woul…

>it's a caste system One required by federal policy. Companies are legally bound, or at least incentivized to not risk lawsuits, to degrading temporary staff so as to distinguish between regular employees and contractors.

Because chintzing your full-time employees by calling them "contractor" and denying benefits is against the law.

Re: What I learned getting acquired by Google

#295

Post by user_7832 »

bradley13 wrote: post #260

Just to toss this out: I really wish huge companies like Google were completely prohibited from any sort of M&A activity. Buy up startups that might, someday, be competition. Absorb them and destroy their product. Sure, it's great for the people who sell their startup, but it's bad for the rest of the world, which might have benefited from the product that was assimilated into the Borg.

> which might have benefited from the product that was assimilated into the Borg.

I think a partial solution to this is to ensure a minimum level of support for say 10 years. A planned and community-agreed roadmap, bug and security fixes. Google could afford it without any practical cost. Founders get the money. Consumers get a product for a decade.

Re: What I learned getting acquired by Google

#296

Post by omoikane »

peddling-brink wrote: post #103
slater- wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

thank you for mentioning this. i was a red badge. it was fucking demeaning. i have a lot of stories, but my favorite was when everyone on my floor got an earthquake safety kit except me. literally google didn't care if i lived or died. the expectation was that if i sucked up enough ("demonstrated my value") they MIGHT make me a real boy, like some bizarre Velveteen Rabbit fetish game. i loved watching how Google woul…

This isn't just google, it's every company with contractors and employees. Microsoft learned the hard way to not treat contractors like employees. https://www.reuters.com/article/businesspropicks-us-findlaw-... Nobody else wants to learn that same lesson.

I remember Google had something like contractors need to pay $1 to use the gym, meaning it wasn't free so it doesn't count as a benefit, but the amount was clearly not something that was material.

Re: What I learned getting acquired by Google

#297

Post by dragonwriter »

quantified wrote: post #294
castlecrasher2 wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>it's a caste system One required by federal policy. Companies are legally bound, or at least incentivized to not risk lawsuits, to degrading temporary staff so as to distinguish between regular employees and contractors.

Because chintzing your full-time employees by calling them "contractor" and denying benefits is against the law.

“Full-time” is misleading noise here; the employee/contractor classification distinction doesn't hinge on term (temp/permanent) or time base (full/part time). Its true that some shops only bring contractors in for one side of one of those divides, but that's not what defines the status (or what defines who can be assigned each status.)

Re: What I learned getting acquired by Google

#298

Post by fshbbdssbbgdd »

gnfargbl wrote: post #92
CobrastanJorji wrote: post #79

The "red badge" thing was very real. It was really weird having TVCs on your team. You'd all work hard together to launch a thing, and then everybody except the red badge would get a celebratory team tchotchke or a team lunch or something. If you asked about it, the manager would say "we can't give Jim things directly because that might be like compensation and they'd be like an employee." There'd be all-hands meetin…

That's how it works with contractors in most large organisations. The other side of the coin is that they're usually rewarded better than employees are, on the basis that they can be fired at any time with no notice. In practice that rarely happens, as higher-pay => better-retention => becomes-most-knowledgeable-person-over-time.

I’m don’t think it’s true at companies like Google that contractors get paid better. My impression was they get a similar salary but no equity and worse benefits. I’m assuming we’re talking about the TVCs who basically act like ordinary contributors on a team. Not some specialist consultant, I don’t know about them.

Re: What I learned getting acquired by Google

#299

Post by user_7832 »

kccqzy wrote: post #248
pkilgore wrote: post #47

The tone of this is so different from the factual content it was really hard to read. Like a story about a machine that crushed your hand, and you wrote note to yourself that next time it would have crushed it faster had you sharpened the gears first.

Where did all your negativity come from? "A machine that crushed your hand?" The author clearly learned a lot, had fun, and also recognized the issues at Google and quit on their own accord. Sounds like any other job to me.

Not who you replied to but often even if significant parts of your job is shitty, if the fundamentals (incl having a good boss who bats for you) are in place, you'd speak favorably/with fond nostalgia. This didn't sound anything like that.

Re: What I learned getting acquired by Google

#300

Post by spacedcowboy »

peddling-brink wrote: post #113
coldtrait wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yea I've experienced this in capital one. Some smaller non tech companies are chill, where there is really no difference in how they treat contractors and employees.

I worked at a big insurance company for a while. Contractors could have their birthday celebrated, but cake was not permitted.

The cake was a lie ?
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