A few years ago the MBA suits took over from the nerds and it became inevitable.
Comment on Google workers complain bosses are 'inept' and 'glassy-eyed'
datendefekt@lemmy.ml 4 months ago
Who could’ve imagined that Google is becoming just as mediocre and boring as any other large corporation. What a surprise!
SlopppyEngineer@lemmy.world 4 months ago
UNWILLING_PARTICIPANT@sh.itjust.works 4 months ago
I’m not sure the nerds ever really had the best intentions, so were probably really easy to buy off
psivchaz@reddthat.com 4 months ago
TBH I don’t get why people criticize selling out as if they wouldn’t do it, too. I don’t want to sit and amass wealth indefinitely, if I have a company and someone comes along and offers “retire rich forever” money, I’m taking it and fucking off to somewhere fun. Especially if we’re talking billions, no one will ever hear my name again.
Aceticon@lemmy.world 4 months ago
They’ve long been quite mediocre judging by the incredible long hours of those working there and shit quality of basically any technical framework they put out.
They have shoved tons of resources into some things (such as Android) and thus succeeded, but in terms of quality from a technical point of view (i.e. software design, technical architecture) their stuff looks like it was hammered together by a bunch of junior devs.
Lucky timing followed by some smart strategical decisions (and, seemingly, a throw everything at the wall and see what sticks management strategy) are what made Google, not excellence.
psivchaz@reddthat.com 4 months ago
It’s unfair to discount Google’s early days. They DID have technical excellence. Search was leagues better than the competition. Gmail was an amazing leap from other providers. Android started as trash but improved rapidly. The Nexus line of phones was amazing. Google Maps was a huge improvement over what else existed. They did a lot right.
I can’t pinpoint exactly when the fall started. Was it when Pichai became CEO? When they removed “don’t be evil?” I remember a speech Pichai gave where he talked about “more wood behind fewer arrows” as why they were getting rid of employee child projects, so maybe it was that.
baltakatei@sopuli.xyz 4 months ago
I can’t pinpoint exactly when the fall started.
In my opinion, it was when anti-trust laws did not trigger upon Google acquiring YouTube because Google Video couldn’t compete. That meant it was open season on start-ups that otherwise might have grown to kill Google or other big tech companies like Apple, Facebook and Microsoft.
TwilightVulpine@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Oh yeah, I even forgot Google Video used to be a thing.
chunkystyles@sopuli.xyz 4 months ago
Android started as trash
It started off by beating the pants off of iOS in terms of features, but was not nearly as polished.
Definitely not trash. But also not polished for the masses.
BearOfaTime@lemm.ee 4 months ago
And they acquired it in the first place.
To their credit (or at least the Android team), they quickly moved it from Linux-on-a-handheld to a real thing.
Android still isn’t as polished as iOS, but it’s a far more capable system.
And that’s good. iOS has it’s place, as does Android.
merc@sh.itjust.works 4 months ago
Gmail was an amazing leap from other providers.
Gmail really wasn’t any better than Hotmail at first, it was just that they gave you a huge (at the time) amount of storage, when Hotmail users regularly had to delete old mail or attachments.
stoly@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Notable: Google Home can no longer set timers and does not understand what “stop playing” means. It’s basically only usable for asking for music to be played since it has declined so heavily.
WhiteOakBayou@lemmy.world 4 months ago
I just tried to reproduce your comment. Google home set a timer for me and play/paused my TV (chromecast with google tv) I don’t have streaming music to test it on. I do agree that the quality of Google home has gotten terrible though. It takes a lot more prompting to do simple things and has stopped some scheduling tasks as far as I can tell.
stoly@lemmy.world 4 months ago
When I ask it to set a timer, it tells me that it doesn’t understand me. If I ask it to stop playing, it tells me that it doesn’t understand me. I have to just say “stop”. It also used to transfer whatever you were listening to between speakers, but cannot understand me anymore if I ask for that.
Reverendender@sh.itjust.works 4 months ago
What’s a technical architecture? Serious question.
Aceticon@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Coding standards, library standards (stuff like naming conventions), software development processes, higher level software design concerns (for example, take in account the need for change in the future as part of a software design), design libraries taking in account extrenal concerns (say, how 3rd parties actually work with them) and so on.
It’s basically the next level from software design, which in turns is the next level from coding.
The most senior position one can have in the technical career track in programming is Technical Architect.
As far as I can tell, Google doesn’t really have any of those (or they’re not at all good at their job).
RedstoneValley@sh.itjust.works 4 months ago
Having a dedicated technical architect who hovers above the dev team handing architectural decisions down is also not always seen as an ideal construct in software development.
BearOfaTime@lemm.ee 4 months ago
They probably do, but with how expansive they are, the massive variety of acquisitions, and not being clairvoyant, it’s gotta be like herding cats.
I’ve worked in tech companies (systems management, telecom, etc) and in conventional businesses (manufacturing, distributing, production, reselling, banking, etc).
The arch teams in conventional business are more structured, formalized, as their remit is to ensure infrastructure is stable, predictable, and to practically eliminate risk.
The tech companies have arch teams whose focus is interoperability between business units, high communication, maximize utilization, etc. Risk is still a concern, but it’s not primary (unless you fuck up). Tech orgs are about flexibility.
Psyduck_world@lemmy.world 4 months ago
I am old enough to remember that Apple was the pirate of Silicon Valley, and then it became the most “cooperation” company in the industry. Then it’s Google then there will be a next one. It’s probably inevitable for any company to go this route.
TheBat@lemmy.world 4 months ago
It’s cute that you think any new corporation of that calibre will be born in near future. It will get bought out before that happens
UNWILLING_PARTICIPANT@sh.itjust.works 4 months ago
It be the age of pirates no morrre? Arr… :C
ShepherdPie@midwest.social 4 months ago
It’s a well travelled path for any company in the tech sphere. Start out as a disruptor and breath of fresh air in a stagnant industry and then slowly crank the dial toward enshittification over time hoping that the reputation you previously built will keep your customer base from jumping ship too quickly.
prole@sh.itjust.works 4 months ago
Unregulated capitalism ruins everything if given enough time.
stoly@lemmy.world 4 months ago
It became this in approximately 2009 - 2010, around when the founders left and the business bros took over. We’ve been seeing the slow decline since then, though it may be accelerating now.
Chocrates@lemmy.world 4 months ago
I loved Google for so long, but they have really lost it. I switched back to Firefox last year as a meek sign of protest. My work still uses Gmail and my personal email is still Gmail, it’s gonna be rough to extricate myself. My fucking phone number is Google voice
stoly@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Yep. Gmail is the final piece for me. Everything else has been migrated at this point.
I will keep YouTube sadly. Sad because it’s Google.
ObviouslyNotBanana@lemmy.world 4 months ago
When times are tough
Work environment gets roughI guess.
Deceptichum@kbin.social 4 months ago
Tough times create rough workplaces, rough workplaces create strong employees, strong employees create unions, unions create better workplaces.
TheBat@lemmy.world 4 months ago
When times are tough Work environment gets rough Delete stuff from prod To keep things interesting enough
prole@sh.itjust.works 4 months ago
Oof. The syllable count… Well I guess they’re not paying you to be a poet.
not_again@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Burma Shave
BearOfaTime@lemm.ee 4 months ago
“Becoming”?
“Don’t be evil”. Not-evil people don’t need to say such things.
Also, any large organization is a shit show, regardless of what it’s organized for. It’s the nature of humanity.
A (former) boss used to say “if you have 3 employees you have nine problems”.
xantoxis@lemmy.world 4 months ago
They famously threw out “Don’t be evil” when they formed Alphabet, a move that was, I have to admit, surprisingly honest of them.
postmateDumbass@lemmy.world 4 months ago
It was a Warrant Canary
merc@sh.itjust.works 4 months ago
“Don’t be evil”. Not-evil people don’t need to say such things.
That was a reference to Microsoft. They were on trial / convicted for abusing their monopoly in awful ways to screw over any potential competitors, and making the experience terrible for Microsoft users. As bad as Google might be today, they’re nowhere near as bad as Microsoft was. And, in the early years, they were definitely the anti-Microsoft in the tech world.
Reverendender@sh.itjust.works 4 months ago
It’s happening at my company right now. We just merged. I got a taste of power, performed well, then got written up for spending too much time on my power project. Now they have neutered any power I had, and I’m now a glorified babysitter and messenger. The hunt now begins in earnest.
UNWILLING_PARTICIPANT@sh.itjust.works 4 months ago
Damn that sucks. I’ve been laid off before, and I was lucky enough to have a bunch of references and ins at other jobs right away.
Just keep making friends and building marketable skills on the company dime, is what I am doing anyway
Reverendender@sh.itjust.works 4 months ago
Yes, I’m in no danger of being fired it doesn’t seem. I’ve been there 6 years and have an enormous amount of knowledge of our product and operations. And it was just a ‘verbal counseling’ (which is written down, sent to HR, and added to your record; totally verbal though). So I’ll just keep on project managing timelines and crap, and collecting my Pacheck. But now I have like 8 months of successful product management under my belt to add to the resume
UNWILLING_PARTICIPANT@sh.itjust.works 4 months ago
I thought the same thing at 5 years, and everyone I heard from said it was a mistake to lay me off. Last I heard, my responsibilities were being split up between 3 people. On top of that I found out I was getting underpaid, so I was a good deal on top of that :p
Anyway despite all that, I still wasn’t part of whatever vision upper management had going forward, so they gave me a sweet severance and sent me on my way. I’m not mad, but it’s definitely made me careful not to expect my job to be safe.
BearOfaTime@lemm.ee 4 months ago
I’ve watched entire teams of people with 15+ years at a company get decimated. All firedwith made-up BS. From director level down.
All because a bean counter told senior management they weren’t firing enough people (their firing stats were below some metric).
Maybe that’s because, somehow, you did a good job hiring and on boarding people?
stevehobbes@lemy.lol 4 months ago
Not for nothing, it doesn’t sound so successful.
Working with people is a very core skill. You suggest that this came out of the blue - but I would bet that there were a lot of missed signals on the way. Escalating straight to verbal warnings and demotion in role or responsibility means you’re missing something very fundamental in what wasn’t working or was missed.
Crackhappy@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Good luck.