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Google's new culture: Perks are out. Being grateful you have a job is in

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Re: Google's new culture: Perks are out. Being grateful you have a job is in

#91

Post by nikolayv »

ulf wrote: post #4

Some day people will look back and pinpoint that the day the free snacks were taken away was the day that Google started to be just like every other company...

In the end, it was inevitable. It was part of my reason to turn down their full-time offer and accept another company's. Last summer when I was an intern at Google, free cookies at 3pm were discontinued. By the time I got back in June 2009, we didn't even have a Tech Stop in my building anymore. No dance party, etc. Still, to me at least, this is not yet the time when Google became just another company. The stuff you learn there, the technology at your fingertips, and the capable co-workers are still amazing.

But it's headed that way. In the next 5-10 years, I predict the following will happen to Google. Most of it is quite obvious: a. a major PR disaster, such as significant cloud data loss, or poor availability numbers for a day or week, something like that b. stock will not have the same phenomenal growth c. loss of search market share (of which a big deal will be made, but really, soon it will have nowhere to go, but down)

For me the deciding factors in choosing another offer were: a. bigger company size => little chance to "change the world" like Eric Schmidt still likes to say b. much better stock packages from my other options (Facebook's was essentially 4 times Google's at the latest valuation, and I do understand that's because of the higher risk, but for a college grad, that should be a no-brainer). c. bonus perk I believe Google never had: 21 business days of vacation.

Re: Google's new culture: Perks are out. Being grateful you have a job is in

#92

Post by nikolayv »

mvgoogler wrote: post #33
brown9-2 wrote: post #14

The worker bees must be thrilled to hear this The tightening that [CFO] Patrick [Pichette] in particular did, who I think is the current Google hero

The free snacks, drinks, food are most definitely NOT gone. Have there been some cut-backs? Sure. So now the perks are merely incredible instead of ridiculous-verging-on-embarassingly-good. So yeah, the micro-kitchens now have ~75 types of snacks instead of 100+ and we are now limited to 40-ish types of free drinks in the cooler instead of twice that. And now we drink filtered water instead of Smart-Water. Life is ha…

Would have to strongly disagree on the snacks. In 47, our snacks disappear very quickly, and there's definitely not 75 different types. There's maybe 10. Tech Stops have disappeared, they run out of bikes for interns, don't even get me started on how crowded the gyms have become, it's definitely worse than before. Perhaps I'm bitter because I got no annual bonus as an intern :)

Re: Google's new culture: Perks are out. Being grateful you have a job is in

#93

Post by acg »

ulf wrote: post #4

Some day people will look back and pinpoint that the day the free snacks were taken away was the day that Google started to be just like every other company...

I would like to think that the people who really made Google into the company it is now aren't really in need of free snacks.

Re: Google's new culture: Perks are out. Being grateful you have a job is in

#94

Post by tybris »

apr wrote: post #20
stcredzero wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Extreme Programming advocates readily available snacks in the workspace as an effective productivity and morale boost!

Readily available snacks make people obese.

Just use this 1 weird old tip.

Re: Google's new culture: Perks are out. Being grateful you have a job is in

#95

Post by axod »

gonzopancho wrote: post #78
white_eskimo wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know if you were making a direct reference to Salesforce.com's "Employees have fun in the office, participating in foundation/volunteer activities with their peers and wearing Hawaiian shirts on Aloha Fridays." ( http://www.salesforce.com/company/careers/culture/ ) I consider the whole Hawaiian shirt thing to be a "gateway" perk. If the company promotes wearing fun attire, then you can be sure to expect other…

I think it was an Office Space reference.

It was. I didn't know anywhere actually did it :/

Re: Google's new culture: Perks are out. Being grateful you have a job is in

#96

Post by stcredzero »

stcredzero wrote: post #55
staunch wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I imagine people might say they prefer salary over the equivalent in perks, but that doesn't mean they actually do. Getting paid 50% of market rate, but your boss flies the whole company to Europe for a week? Awesome company!

your boss flies the whole company to Europe for a week? I actually worked for a company that chartered the Concord for its 25th anniversary. That happened before I worked there. A decade or so after that, we all find out how unsafe that actually was!

What, voted down!? This actually happened, you fool!

http://imgur.com/RqyXB

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