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Googler... ex-Googler

nerdy.dev

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Re: Googler... ex-Googler

#411

Post by apwell23 »

Scandiravian wrote: post #367
apwell23 wrote: post #346

Earlier quoted context omitted.

low eu salaries implies finding job is hard. fact.

There's a higher monthly salary in the US, sure. However, you're expected to work very long hours (60-80 hours per week) and get basically no time off In my current position I'm hired for an expected 37 hours per week. This can be more if I'm asked to work overtime, but my weekly hours cannot exceed 45 hours per week on average in a 3 month window without additional compensation Additionally I have six weeks of paid…

never worked more than 40hr/week (including hellhole amazon). i get 28 days pto now and unlimited sick days.

> If I calculate my hourly salary it's better than what I was paid by US companies

prbly not.

Re: Googler... ex-Googler

#413

Post by yesimahuman »

javawizard wrote: post #396

That was painful to read. I had a very similar experience at Google about a year ago, and the worst part of it was that they did it 2 weeks before I was set to receive a 6-figure retention bonus for sticking around for 2 years after an acquisition. Several other members of my team got the boot at the same time. All of us had come in via that acquisition and were set to receive that bonus, and because of the layoffs,…

Might be worth talking to a lawyer. Sorry to hear that, absolutely maddening

Re: Googler... ex-Googler

#414

Post by Spooky23 »

scarface_74 wrote: post #372
hnlmorg wrote: post #329

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've heard this type of comment a lot but in my experience there isn't any shortage of tech companies in the EU. What EU regulations hamper isn't job creation, it's employee and customer exploitation. The distinction between "job creation" and "employee exploitation" is important. What the former means in practice is that there is a massive contractor market in the UK and EU. So if companies need temporary staff, the…

I doubt the tech workers making three to four times EU wages in the US feel “exploited”. My job is purely transactional. I’ve worked for 10 companies in almost 30 years. I gave them labor and they gave me money. Whenever one side decided the arrangement wasn’t working, I moved on to another job.

Tech is always boom/bust. We’re lucky to have had a long boom.

I’m personally well acquainted with many people in tech, especially big tech. Many of them are doing little or nothing, certainly not justifying $300k+ salaries.

What you do has risk but is fundamentally more honest - your skills are around technology and output, not navigating corporate bureaucracy.

Re: Googler... ex-Googler

#415

Post by friendzis »

jkaplowitz wrote: post #385
gnfargbl wrote: post #326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, sure, but unless the US company is willing to set up an EU subsidiary and employ you via that then you'll be working as an independent contractor. That status gives you zero employment rights, because you're explicitly not an employee.

Many cases where someone is in practice functioning as a full-time employee are legally employment relationships according to both US and EU law even if the contract and payroll procedures say otherwise, and even if the contractual relationship is directly between a US entity and a worker in the EU. This includes whatever employment rights are supposed to exist, for the number of employees (whether or not misclassifi…

In practice, US tech companies literally buy their way out. They pay such a premium for those independent contractors that there would be no such complaints in the first place.

Re: Googler... ex-Googler

#416

Post by jrockway »

sublimefire wrote: post #378
windward wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>job security is an illusion It really is. Even government and blue chips aren't safe. In fact, those are where you'll find it's the most disconnected from your own agency.

Government jobs are safe because rarely if ever people get fired.

Except for like the last 3 months!

Re: Googler... ex-Googler

#417

Post by JKCalhoun »

kopirgan wrote: post #122
sudomateo wrote: post #116

> But I was also immediately ripped away from my calendar, docs, code, and more. Layoffs are never easy. I've been through a few myself and it really takes the wind out of your sails. That being said, this sentence made me pause a bit. None of these things mentioned are actually yours. They are the property of Google. One thing that helped me immensely in my career is understanding that my relationship with a company…

Exactly.. Many see it as some sort of marriage in an age where even marriages are contractual relations

I hope you're not suggesting that you approach your marriage the way you approach your relationship with a corporate partner.

Re: Googler... ex-Googler

#418

Post by weatherlite »

azangru wrote: post #324

I've skimmed through the comments; and seen that most people have commented on the cog in the machine thing, or on layoffs in general and how they suck. To me, the shock from this blog post was about seeing a Chrome developer relations engineer whom I have grown to admire and who has been doing a stellar job educating web developers on new html and css features, get the sack. He was one of the best remaining speakers…

It probably just didn't have enough economic value for the company, from your explanation of the role I'm not sure I see the value either. The guy probably earned enough money in a few years that would take me 15 years of work, I'm not sure this as a "personal tragedy".

Re: Googler... ex-Googler

#419

Post by arccy »

YZF wrote: post #154
cadamsdotcom wrote: post #126

Yep, it sucks. Speaking from experience - I was laid off a few years ago. I was sad my time ended, but my path forward was to leave SF with money and time to visit countries I'd always wanted to see. It's a trend away from the post-WW2 "promise of lifetime employment". Over the decades, companies have crept toward "human autoscaling" so slow no one noticed. You're far from alone - every other company is doing it. Go…

Human autoscaling. That's a good one. I mean it's not good. We live in weird times. Companies are drowning in earnings. Their stock sky rockets. But they are unable, or not interested, to put people to work to grow their business. Because they are so big it distorts the entire economy. Because they are so big and so entrenched it's also hard to compete with them. Less people makes the stock goes up? And then AI too i…

recently their stocks have gone down...

and when you're large, it takes much more effort to grow at the same %, and maybe it's not worth it?

Re: Googler... ex-Googler

#420

Post by bigfatkitten »

Scandiravian wrote: post #229
apexalpha wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Weird, as someone from Europe I've never experience anything else. Layoffs here are always done in conjunction with the unions. People are moved to different jobs, helped with training etc... Only in very critical jobs they'd walk you out immediately but then you still get the pay.

Having experienced layoffs in both US and EU companies, the difference is massive. In my experience there is very little respect for "the human" being laid off in US companies People literally would just disappear day to day. I've had several instances where I only found out a colleague had been fired because I tried to write them on Slack only to find that their account had been deactivated Personally I felt constan…

Layoffs in US companies are a BCP event. It's like an earthquake or a tsunami. Weeks of chaos while you figure out who survived, and who's now doing the work previously done by a team that no longer exists.

I watched a layoff take out half the security team during an incident. That was fun.

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