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Googler... ex-Googler

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Re: Googler... ex-Googler

#641

Post by swiftcoder »

DannyBee wrote: post #454
abdj8 wrote: post #110

Layoffs are a difficult thing for employees and their managers. I have seen people (one was a VP of Engineering) escorted out of the building, sent in a cab to home along with a security guard (this was in India), not allowed access to computer or talk with other employees. But, recently have had a very different experience. The current company I work for announced 30% layoffs. The list was made public within one hou…

Google is just really bad at this, but seems to think it's not bad at this. It's sad since there is no excuse for it - plenty of companies conduct regular layoffs and role eliminations in more compassionate ways, it would not take much to survey and learn from their practices. Hell, IBM was often more compassionate about layoffs than Google. Some of it they've tried to become more formal about in ways that actually m…

> Google is just really bad at this, but seems to think it's not bad at this

The BigTech firms have been doing this intentionally for a very long time. I started hearing about Microsoft doing the security-escorts-you-straight-out-the-door all the way back in 2012.

It's not that they are bad at this, it's that they think the trade-off works out in their favour. And it probably does - what's a few but-hurt former employees, versus one disgruntled former employee who had enough warning to snag critical data on their way out the door?

Though it's probably our fault, since we're all so trusting of our mega corp employers, and/or so optimistic about our chances of surviving layoffs, that no one is stashing the incriminating data ahead of time.

Re: Googler... ex-Googler

#642

Post by Vegenoid »

Getting laid off sucks, but this comment isn't about that. What I noticed when I read the post is that the website isn't very good. It's laggy, as in slow to load, scroll, and for the mouse-hover stuff to respond, and this is on a fancy modern macbook. It seems to focus on pretty modern web aesthetic over presenting content. This is exactly the kind of website that makes me bemoan the tendency to prioritize looking better than a simple website when comparing 2 static images, and not prioritizing the experience of actually using the website.

I find these things have a real "well it works on my machine" about them. Whereas sites that stick to simple tech (ex. HN) are far more likely to work well on all machines.

Re: Googler... ex-Googler

#643

Post by cmrdporcupine »

slivym wrote: post #448
kouteiheika wrote: post #257

Right, okay, let's look at their most recent SEC filling to see how much money they lost in 2024 to justify layoffs... right, they made 350 billion in revenue (the highest ever in their history from what I can see) with a 100 billion in net income. Yep, this checks out, they definitely need to lay off people, can't afford them.

They're not a charity. What do you want them to do? Hire $100Bn worth of engineers until their net income is 0? The possibly difficult truth at Google is that there's probably <1% of the company that is really essential to their monopolistic search business. The rest are either working on other projects which might be strategically interesting but not essential, or are working on the core product but not in a way tha…

It's a question of what kind of business Google is/wants-to-be.

The one it claimed to be, in the past, with a broader holistic mission, claiming to attract the world's brightest to make information accessible? Using its hoard of cash to do a bunch of neat stuff and hire really smart people do it?

Or is it what we always suspected all along, a cynical money printing machine that turns ad impressions into shareholder value and nothing else?

It's always been a mix of both. Those of us who worked there certainly saw in the inside the gradual transition of the internal discourse from "justifying B to support A" to "who cares about A."

They can do whatever they want, they're a private business. But they still trade on a certain reputation, and have the advantage of a quasi-monopoly status in many things.

I would hope that advancing them any kind of good will as any kind of "special" company (which our profession tended to do, before) and muting criticisms is just over now.

They built their money printing machine in part by swallowing competition and exterminating it.

Re: Googler... ex-Googler

#644

Post by ncr100 »

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,…

Awful experience.

What is interesting is our denial, as (ex-)corporate employees, that the corporation is NOT FAMILY...even though we may feel it is.

> Big companies are soulless.

"And God created the C Corporation" -nowhere in the Bible / Koran / Hinduism / Buddhism / Torah

I feel this lesson keeps being re-learned by us people / workers ...

Re: Googler... ex-Googler

#645

Post by nyarlathotep_ »

Workaccount2 wrote: post #620
nyarlathotep_ wrote: post #495

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is an important point. Especially overt the last two (three now?) years, it's become pretty apparent many software jobs are superfluous, even those that are ostensibly "skilled" or "difficult." I do wonder what the actual "needed" number of technical staff these companies would have in a perfectly "efficient" environment. Let's hope we don't have to find out.

Twitter was the experiment. Elon showed up and started cutting headcount left and right. People were even encouraged to just walk out. On paper this was supposed to lead to the immanent collapse of it's service. That didn't happen and instead every other tech CEO started to wonder about the amount of fat in their org.

Yeah I think people understate how large of an impact this had.

My immediate reaction to that was the "jig is up"--I argued with friends that Twitters functionality would remain intact, there'd be no major outages, etc and they couldn't understand how that'd be possible.

Re: Googler... ex-Googler

#646

Post by spacemadness »

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.

This comment is hilarious. Like someone was placed in a time machine and missed the last few months.

Re: Googler... ex-Googler

#647

Post by b8 »

Vegenoid wrote: post #642

Getting laid off sucks, but this comment isn't about that. What I noticed when I read the post is that the website isn't very good. It's laggy, as in slow to load, scroll, and for the mouse-hover stuff to respond, and this is on a fancy modern macbook. It seems to focus on pretty modern web aesthetic over presenting content. This is exactly the kind of website that makes me bemoan the tendency to prioritize looking b…

The website works smoothly on my Pixel 6A. Not sure if it's JavaScript or some other software issues taking up your Mac's hardware resources.

Re: Googler... ex-Googler

#648

Post by ra7 »

It’s always sad to see people lose their jobs, but it’s telling how often it’s ex-Googlers posting about layoffs. Feels like a lot of the shock is just realizing they’re just as replaceable and as much of a "cog in the machine" as everyone else. Google spent years selling the idea that it was special, but this feels like a real coming back down to earth moment for the employees.

Re: Googler... ex-Googler

#649

Post by bsimpson »

whiplash451 wrote: post #177

« Relationships that took me years to cultivate… mostly going to be gone too » Why? What prevents you from spending time with your ex-colleagues?

A potentially unique feature of Google (at least pre-pandemic/McKinsey) is that it cultivated communities of people in a particular discipline despite being spread across the world.

When I first met Adam, we were both UX Engineers. We'd all gather in NYC in the spring and in the Bay Area in the fall for internal conferences. Adam lives in Seattle. There are plenty of people who adore him who aren't geographically close enough to meet for the proverbial beer. I suspect that's also true for the connections he made outside of Google.

Re: Googler... ex-Googler

#650

Post by the-grump »

Vegenoid wrote: post #642

Getting laid off sucks, but this comment isn't about that. What I noticed when I read the post is that the website isn't very good. It's laggy, as in slow to load, scroll, and for the mouse-hover stuff to respond, and this is on a fancy modern macbook. It seems to focus on pretty modern web aesthetic over presenting content. This is exactly the kind of website that makes me bemoan the tendency to prioritize looking b…

Browses very smoothly on my iPhone and it looks great.
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