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What I learned getting acquired by Google

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Re: What I learned getting acquired by Google

#301

Post by MattPalmer1086 »

szundi wrote: post #239
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.

In my company I almost fired someone from HR for constantly forgetting how these contractor people are part of the team, invited to every event etc

In the UK at least, if you are a contractor you are legally not an employee.

If you took any employee benefits, the tax man could retroactively classify you as an employee and demand a huge tax bill from you.

So many contractors would refuse any such benefits even if they were offered. Some didn't care of course and took them anyway, but they were potentially setting themselves up for a huge legal and tax problem.

Re: What I learned getting acquired by Google

#302

Post by RajT88 »

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.

Microsoft contractors while not getting the benefits package of an FTE, may actually make more money than the same role as an FTE.

I have known some folks getting insurance through their partner's work who passed on going FTE because it would be a pay cut.

Yes, they are not allowed access to a lot of stuff (source, telemetry, etc.).

Re: What I learned getting acquired by Google

#303

Post by seanmcdirmid »

GreedClarifies wrote: post #235
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn't work in China (I've heard).

Worked for me. Maybe someone filled a ticket to make it happen, I sure didn't have to do anything.

I've heard blockages in the Beijing Wudaokou office, but that was before I started working at Google (I left China in 2016 and started at google in 2020, so maybe a big gap). Maybe it changed? (or my info was wrong)

Re: What I learned getting acquired by Google

#304

Post by screamingninja »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #189
gizmo wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A 10 person startup without a business model? And all the tech got thrown out. Clearly an acquihire.

How can you tell them difference between that and early removal of a competitor?

What is the difference? If your competitor is competent, acqui-hire them. If they are not, there is no real competition.

Re: What I learned getting acquired by Google

#305

Post by Galacta7 »

ssharp wrote: post #278
kelnos wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the GP's point was that's how it should be. If a company is going to -- for "legal reasons" -- not treat contractors the same way they treat employees, then they should be doing so not only in bad, exclusionary ways, but also in good ways, with the expected perks of being a contractor that FTEs don't get: freedom to set their own hours, work where they want, and subcontract out their work. But no, companies l…

>> Google pays the staffing agency, the staffing agency pays the "contractor" a salary (significantly less than what Google pays the staffing agency), and all is fine... legally, anyway. The staffing agency vig is so high it is practically the same as an FTE.

I used to work for a temp agency (clerical, not in tech) and I remember once seeing what my agency was getting paid for me on an hourly basis. Iirc, it was something like 3-4x what I was getting paid hourly. It was kind of sickening tbh. Plus many agencies forbid temps from being hired away without paying an outrageously hire fee to do so.

It felt like being an indentured servant in many ways. The only upside was that if you hated the place you worked, you could always ask to be reassigned someplace else. But that's the only major plus I can think of.

Re: What I learned getting acquired by Google

#306

Post by Rebelgecko »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #139
asdfman123 wrote: post #33

The second passport thing is definitely true. When I'm abroad--even, recently, Buenos Aires--I have access to office space, free food, a gym, and even a music room where I can practice guitar and piano.

Doesn't work in China (I've heard).

Should be fine (although your ability to access work materials might be limited). Visiting the Shanghai office is a decent alternative to the tower's paid observation deck (similar situation at the Taipei 101 office)

Re: What I learned getting acquired by Google

#308

Post by bornfreddy »

ido wrote: post #214
SilverBirch wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To me it reads more like someone with a positive disposition (or someone who has founded a start up and doesn't want to burn bridges) laying out the problems without saying they are problems. I mean come on - the upsides: we "merged cultures", "our app lives on", "careers have bloomed" versus downsides "we quit", and "we don't think we actually delivered what we wanted to". But it's ok because after everyone who care…

> I mean come on - the upsides: we "merged cultures", "our app lives on", "careers have bloomed" versus downsides "we quit", and "we don't think we actually delivered what we wanted to". But it's ok because after everyone who cared about the product quit, maybe someone else will might make it happen ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Do we ignore the most obvious upside, that this guy (and possibly/probably everyone in that startup) got paid…

And can now watch his dream of so many years languish in the app store. Money is only a part of the equation.

Re: What I learned getting acquired by Google

#309

Post by Rebelgecko »

decaffjoe wrote: post #68
asdfman123 wrote: post #33

The second passport thing is definitely true. When I'm abroad--even, recently, Buenos Aires--I have access to office space, free food, a gym, and even a music room where I can practice guitar and piano.

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

Often just an electric keyboard but yeah

Re: What I learned getting acquired by Google

#310

Post by e_y_ »

JohnFen wrote: post #9
moritonal wrote: post #8

Is this a happy story? Having read it my takeaways are that they were immediately asked to rewrite their app in Google's way, then a separate research team went off and wrote them a new API for their core functionality. And now given Socratic by Google on the Play Store was last updated on Oct 21, 2020, and is not available for my Android 13 device, so seems to have just died? Kind of seems like Google bought the com…

Was it an aquihire?

Normally I'd consider it an acquihire when a company acquires a startup / smaller company and immediately announces the discontinuation of the product. Less so if there's an attempt to continue developing the product, even if it eventually gets shut down.
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