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Google was beloved as an employer for years. Then it laid off thousands by email

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Re: Google was beloved as an employer for years. Then it laid off thousands by email

#61

Post by ahsteele »

dack wrote: post #7
SQueeeeeL wrote: post #2

Was Google really a beloved employer? I feel like that was vapor marketing hype most real people saw through as bs, you'd pretty much see constant stories of overwork and toxic teams run by incompetent "project managers" just like every other overvalued Silicon Valley FAANG shop

it was definitely a great place to work in it's heyday 10+ years ago, as I believe most of the FAANG companies were. It was so nice back in the day having companies you knew would be great if you could just get into them. Are there any companies like that these days?

Yes I would say that working in the United States at a Federally Funded Research and Design Center https://www.nsf.gov/statistics/ffrdclist/ are great companies if only you can get into them.

Re: Google was beloved as an employer for years. Then it laid off thousands by email

#62

Post by aseerdbnarng »

deltree7 wrote: post #35

The only thing that matters in a layoff is "severance package" Everything else is useless. If your co-workers liked you and wanted to say goodbye, they will call and throw a party. If I'm fired, there is no reason for me to log on to my workstation. All relevant documents are given to you anyway. Your personal items will be shipped to you.

How is this the top comment

Re: Google was beloved as an employer for years. Then it laid off thousands by email

#63

Post by sawyna »

Shish2k wrote: post #52
aix1 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Overwork? Toxic teams? Project managers running teams? I've been at Google for a very long time, in quite a few orgs, and none of those things ring any bells. (Some probably exist in some pockets, though the last one sounds particularly implausible. It's just not how Google job ladders and the management structure work.) Now, I have to admit to having not read the article, but the headline does resonate. I've spoken…

I’ve been at Meta for a few years and would say similar - I’m pretty sure that at any company with tens or hundreds of thousands of employees, you are going to get some horror stories - but in general it used to be an amazing place to work (ranked #1 on glassdoor for several years for good reason), but now… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I currently work at Google and my take is that it really depends on the team. If an IC is toxic, the effect of it isn't terrible. If a manager is, the effect spreads and if a manager of managers is toxic, that's a recipe for disaster and so on.

I personally am in a situation where nasty politics are being played out just for the sake of getting promoted. It's fine to focus on your promo, but not at the cost of your colleagues or the environment.

That being said, the broader google ecosystem and culture holds on a macro level. It really is the people that work there who define and uphold it. A couple of rogue high level folks are enough to destroy it.

Re: Google was beloved as an employer for years. Then it laid off thousands by email

#64

Post by mwest217 »

deltree7 wrote: post #35

The only thing that matters in a layoff is "severance package" Everything else is useless. If your co-workers liked you and wanted to say goodbye, they will call and throw a party. If I'm fired, there is no reason for me to log on to my workstation. All relevant documents are given to you anyway. Your personal items will be shipped to you.

I have lots of coworkers for whom I don't have personal contact information. It's very common to just use work email or work phones.

Re: Google was beloved as an employer for years. Then it laid off thousands by email

#65

Post by jimjimjim »

SQueeeeeL wrote: post #2

Was Google really a beloved employer? I feel like that was vapor marketing hype most real people saw through as bs, you'd pretty much see constant stories of overwork and toxic teams run by incompetent "project managers" just like every other overvalued Silicon Valley FAANG shop

As a viewpoint from outside of the fang(whatever), I've always felt (and heard) that google was the best of the bunch in terms of employee opinion of the organization.

Re: Google was beloved as an employer for years. Then it laid off thousands by email

#66

Post by cmrdporcupine »

SQueeeeeL wrote: post #2

Was Google really a beloved employer? I feel like that was vapor marketing hype most real people saw through as bs, you'd pretty much see constant stories of overwork and toxic teams run by incompetent "project managers" just like every other overvalued Silicon Valley FAANG shop

As a Googler for 10 years, I'd say -- on the whole, yes, well loved. But steadily worsening over that 10 year period. And, no, most people I knew were not overworked. Not at my site, anyways. And certainly not compared to what I saw from people I knew at Apple or Amazon.

I had my beefs with the place always, and I was like a square peg round hole there -- BUT ... Not even talking about the pay -- above average -- benefits were amazing. Culture when I started was very engineering driven. Mostly a very respectful professional environment apart from one asshole TL I had to deal with, but I was able to route around him after a few months. Good mix of age ranges and not biased against middle aged or older like many other workplaces in our industry.

I didn't like the work / projects I had to do there. I didn't like the promo process. I didn't like the way projects were managed. But I liked the company ethic overall (obviously I always had issues) -- but it degraded every year I was there. But not because of overwork etc but because of bureaucratic dysfunction and ethical lapses.

Re: Google was beloved as an employer for years. Then it laid off thousands by email

#67

Post by kcmastrpc »

TremendousJudge wrote: post #54
deltree7 wrote: post #35

The only thing that matters in a layoff is "severance package" Everything else is useless. If your co-workers liked you and wanted to say goodbye, they will call and throw a party. If I'm fired, there is no reason for me to log on to my workstation. All relevant documents are given to you anyway. Your personal items will be shipped to you.

I think many people would disagree with this assessment. It's akin to saying that the only thing that matters in a job is "compensation", and everything else is useless. While some people hold this view, many others like to be treated nicely in other ways: good working facilities, nice colleagues, fun perks, etc. Same thing about getting laid off: it's never nice to lose your job, but even if the severance is good it…

It's not that the things you mentioned don't matter, it's that employeeemployer relationships are transactional. While I maintain a friendly relationship with all the people I work with, very few are actually friends. If they are, we'll still talk after the relationship with my employer ends.

Unless you have a contract with your employer around the severing of that relationship, neither parties are beholden to each other and any expectation of such behavior is ultimately unproductive and quite unhealthy (mostly for you, $bigTech doesn't care).

Re: Google was beloved as an employer for years. Then it laid off thousands by email

#68

Post by smith7018 »

kernal wrote: post #56

Apple is Next.

Apple was never viewed as an ideal place to work. They don't have the "amenities" that other FAANG companies have (had?), generally pay less, and their employees are forced into secrecy even amongst their coworkers. People work at Apple because they want to work at Apple, not because Apple provides a cushy work environment.

Re: Google was beloved as an employer for years. Then it laid off thousands by email

#69

Post by Animats »

drstewart wrote: post #42
newaccount2023 wrote: post #6

the employees were fools for falling in love with their employer, not sure how else to say it they should be grateful they were paid so well for so long to do so little...chances are they will never see comp like that for work like that again ...and hopefully no one is naive enough to think Google is "done"...after next earnings I expect an even bigger round the same thing is happening all over tech - go down to a re…

>the same thing is happening all over tech - go down to a reduced staff of essential contributors and re-hire later for much lower comp If supply and demand stay the same, then why do you think the price will change?

>If supply and demand stay the same, then why do you think the price will change?

Fear. Much of this layoff activity is intended to induce fear. Employees were getting too uppity. Talking back to management. Doing side projects. Talking with each other about wages and working conditions. Even forming unions. That had to be stopped.

"A touch of the lash will keep them in line."

Re: Google was beloved as an employer for years. Then it laid off thousands by email

#70

Post by jchw »

super256 wrote: post #57
aix1 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Overwork? Toxic teams? Project managers running teams? I've been at Google for a very long time, in quite a few orgs, and none of those things ring any bells. (Some probably exist in some pockets, though the last one sounds particularly implausible. It's just not how Google job ladders and the management structure work.) Now, I have to admit to having not read the article, but the headline does resonate. I've spoken…

> Overwork? I don't know anyone working at Google, nor anyone who worked at Google in the past (except a single intern). Hell, I don't even live anywhere near a Google campus! But I always assumed that Google wants you to spend your whole day there, from morning until evening. Because big tech is usually implicitly aiming at that. - Serve three major meals a day, + you can bring your dog to your office, which elimina…

I worked at Google for three years. It was a great experience and I mainly left because I had grown accustomed to remote work and was planning on moving back to live closer to family after having a falling out with the bay area.

I do get the impression that people have had vastly differing experiences at Google, but the culture was very laid back. Deadline pressure existed, but ultimately it never felt that bad: if we weren't going to hit it, we weren't going to hit it. It happened.

>Get the promotion in 2 years or get fired

I don't think this is true. I'm pretty sure once you're L4 or so you can pretty much coast. I heard a similar thing when I was at Google, but knew of many counter examples within my circle of coworkers.

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