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Google to cut down on employee laptops, services and staplers

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Re: Google to cut down on employee laptops, services and staplers

#51

Post by mindcrime »

If I owned any Google stock right now, I'd be thinking hard about selling it. Not because everything here is silly, but just because:

A. over the course of 20+ years in this industry I've noticed a trend that when companies start worrying about things like tape dispensers or staplers (or the free coffee in the cafeteria, or the cost of the subsidized sodas in the breakroom, etc) it's almost always a Really Bad Sign for their future.

B. (related to A of course) when this stuff starts happening, it tends to send the best employees heading for the doors, either because they feel slighted, and/or because they assume (rightly or not) that the company is spiraling the drain. And the best employees leaving can have exactly the effect of sending the company spiraling down the drain...

These things have a way of becoming self-fulfilling prophecies (or at least self-reinforcing negative feedback loops). At best, it's vanishingly rare for this to be harbinger of anything good.

Re: Google to cut down on employee laptops, services and staplers

#53

Post by mikestew »

rwmj wrote: post #49
mikestew wrote: post #26

Surely I can't be the only HN reader that thought, "I can't remember the last time I touched a stapler." Frankly, I think the headline writer threw staplers in there just for the sizzle. If I might so boldly suggest reading TFA, staplers are just one example of other things that made a lot of sense. Yoga classes on a Friday afternoon when a lot of folks WFH (or not at all on a Friday afternoon)? Handing out multi-cor…

How do you attach multiple pages together? I use a stapler about as often as I use a printer, which is to say about once every month or two.

Fine, you get a stapler. In five years at my current company, I don't know that I've even (literally) touched the one I was given. You could have mine, assuming I could even find it. It's probably right next to that tape dispenser and the stack of sticky notes that are still in the cellophane.

Re: Google to cut down on employee laptops, services and staplers

#54

Post by cscharenberg »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #8

Wow, just wow. I have no doubt that Google has a lot of excess to cut, but IMO I always see it as the death knell for large companies when they start a nickel-and-dime approach to cost cutting. I can certainly see the argument for cuts where they are needed to improve focus, and lots of the FAANGs had too many "frilly" expenses in the past 5-10 years, but cutting expenses that improve your employee's productivity is…

Indeed. At a former employer, when they announced removing free soda, I assumed they were about to stagnate very hard. Compared to the costs and profits of flying hundreds of sales engineers around weekly and any executive-level expenses the cost rounded to zero. It was routine to hear about the $200/person dinners for big groups of leaders when courting visiting customers. So when they start cutting something as cheap as soda maintenance, they're definitely desperate and going to cut all the wrong expenses.

Coincidence or not, their stock has slowly fallen and they've lost their shine since then.

I think "broadly cutting tiny costs" means the company is done believing in itself.

Re: Google to cut down on employee laptops, services and staplers

#55

Post by [deleted] »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #8

Wow, just wow. I have no doubt that Google has a lot of excess to cut, but IMO I always see it as the death knell for large companies when they start a nickel-and-dime approach to cost cutting. I can certainly see the argument for cuts where they are needed to improve focus, and lots of the FAANGs had too many "frilly" expenses in the past 5-10 years, but cutting expenses that improve your employee's productivity is…

[deleted]

Re: Google to cut down on employee laptops, services and staplers

#56

Post by ghaff »

rwmj wrote: post #49
mikestew wrote: post #26

Surely I can't be the only HN reader that thought, "I can't remember the last time I touched a stapler." Frankly, I think the headline writer threw staplers in there just for the sizzle. If I might so boldly suggest reading TFA, staplers are just one example of other things that made a lot of sense. Yoga classes on a Friday afternoon when a lot of folks WFH (or not at all on a Friday afternoon)? Handing out multi-cor…

How do you attach multiple pages together? I use a stapler about as often as I use a printer, which is to say about once every month or two.

Or a paper clip or a binder clip. But, yeah, although I do print more than one a month is not something I do on anything like a daily basis.

Re: Google to cut down on employee laptops, services and staplers

#58

Post by yashg »

mikestew wrote: post #26

Surely I can't be the only HN reader that thought, "I can't remember the last time I touched a stapler." Frankly, I think the headline writer threw staplers in there just for the sizzle. If I might so boldly suggest reading TFA, staplers are just one example of other things that made a lot of sense. Yoga classes on a Friday afternoon when a lot of folks WFH (or not at all on a Friday afternoon)? Handing out multi-cor…

When I joined a new job about 7 years back I was given a brand new stapler, a roll of tape and other office supplies on the joining day. When I left 4 years later I hadn't even finished one cartridge of stapler lins. Tape was unused as well. A company of Google's size must be wasting a non trivial amount of money on things nobody uses as frequently anymore.

Re: Google to cut down on employee laptops, services and staplers

#59

Post by marcosdumay »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #8

Wow, just wow. I have no doubt that Google has a lot of excess to cut, but IMO I always see it as the death knell for large companies when they start a nickel-and-dime approach to cost cutting. I can certainly see the argument for cuts where they are needed to improve focus, and lots of the FAANGs had too many "frilly" expenses in the past 5-10 years, but cutting expenses that improve your employee's productivity is…

> Obviously I don't believe the fraud aspect applies to Google

Not literally fraud, but that headline makes me wonder what Google is hiding and if they are close to failure.

Up to now, I assumed all the acting was there to prop the stock prices. But the nickel-and-dime things can't save enough to impact anything.

Re: Google to cut down on employee laptops, services and staplers

#60

Post by influx »

cscharenberg wrote: post #54
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #8

Wow, just wow. I have no doubt that Google has a lot of excess to cut, but IMO I always see it as the death knell for large companies when they start a nickel-and-dime approach to cost cutting. I can certainly see the argument for cuts where they are needed to improve focus, and lots of the FAANGs had too many "frilly" expenses in the past 5-10 years, but cutting expenses that improve your employee's productivity is…

Indeed. At a former employer, when they announced removing free soda, I assumed they were about to stagnate very hard. Compared to the costs and profits of flying hundreds of sales engineers around weekly and any executive-level expenses the cost rounded to zero. It was routine to hear about the $200/person dinners for big groups of leaders when courting visiting customers. So when they start cutting something as che…

Reminds me of this article:

https://steveblank.com/2009/12/21/the-elves-leave-middle-ear...

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