Submitted 9 months ago by 1984@lemmy.today to technology@lemmy.world
https://www.sfgate.com/tech/article/google-workers-company-culture-pichai-18653877.php
The Verge reported that CEO Sundar Pichai defended the layoffs and claimed that workers sometimes reach out to express gratitude for the cuts. “And I just want to clarify that, through these changes, people feel it on the ground and sometimes people write back and say, ‘Thank you for simplifying.’ Sometimes we have a complicated, duplicative structure,” he said, per the Verge.
Chalmers: People send thank you’s for laying them off?
Pichai: Yes.
Chalmers: May I see one?
Pichai: No.
I’m guessing it’s not your rank-and-file type “people”.
Managers from unaffected departments who are glad they have less internal competition. And that’s pretty much it.
Certainly only certain people have email addresses that can even send to his inbox. Everyone else would be blocked.
“This is a conversation I could imagine happening if I spoke to my employees directly, and that’s as good as an actual conversation.”
Expect this from corporate and political types alike.
Yeah that whole line smells like pure bullshit. I’ve never seen anyone be grateful for having their coworkers laid off.
We had a coworker that got fired a while back, man that was a relief for the entire department. That person was absolutely toxic to work with, or even near.
I can imagine it, but just a few really awful people. Google, like any company, will have some extreme right-wingers working for it. And, working for Google tends to go with big egos. I can imagine some dude looking at his stock options thinking “yes, all those useless people were holding down the value of my options, now that they’re gone I’m going to be rich”.
“a lot of people are saying” = the voices in my head are telling me
No mother it’s just the simplification
[…] Sundar Pichai defended the layoffs and claimed that workers sometimes reach out to express gratitude for the cuts.
“It appeared that there had even been demonstrations to thank Big Brother for raising the chocolate ration to twenty grams a week.”
Those workers are kissing ass to make their careers.
Even the press isn’t fooled. Sundar isn’t fooled. The other employees aren’t fooled. You have to wonder what the point of all this was.
Managers are also ‘workers’ according to people like this guy, so they’re the ones saying thanks (because they are kissing ass.)
Yeah, I thought his clueless reaction not only didn’t dispel but just confirmed the problem.
He’s in a bubble, clueless that Google is now staffed by up-managing promo-seekers and not people who care about solving problems in a “googly” way like it was 10 years ago. His toadying to Wall Street and corporate culture shift did that, and now he doesn’t even notice that people are telling him what he wants to hear and complimenting his policies even when they don’t work.
Google employs, what, hundreds of thosuands of people now? All of them have stock options, many are millionaires from their Google stock. They also have big egos, and are often engineers (i.e. not very empathetic).
I can imagine a few people not caring about co-workers they never met being let go, and believing management’s story that they were letting go people who weren’t needed and were just a drag on the company. Some, especially right-wingers, probably look at their options, see the share price going up, and are happy about the layoffs. They mistakenly believe it wouldn’t happen to them because they’re much more valuable, and they see themselves more as Google stockholders rather than employees.
Still, a competent CEO knows that those kinds of employees are terrible for the culture of the organization. Rather than admitting that some employees like it their fellow employees are let go, he’d be smarter to say “it’s tough for us because we’re a family, so nobody likes it when we have to lay people off, but sometimes business realities make it necessary.”
LOL I bet he believes that.
I feel like the editor that wrote the headline missed the main point of the article. The headline makes the article sound like there are a bunch of dumb and boring middle managers at Google. The actual article has nothing to do with people’s direct bosses or even their bosses’ bosses. The article was about how Google execs are ruining the company to appease the shareholders. Best quote from the article is:
“We get that execs are excited about Google’s future,” another question reportedly said. “Why should we be excited, when we might get laid off and not be around to share in that future? If we lose our jobs and equity grants, it’s cold comfort that Google is succeeding off our hard work, and we don’t get rewarded for it, but you do.”
IMO one thing I think should be made into law is that if a company grants invested equity, everything granted will automatically vest when you get laid off.
If you decide to quit before they vest, I understand that those grants should be forfeited. If you get fired for not doing your job, I also get forfeiting them.
But if the company lays you off, that’s on their side, so I think the opposite (automatic vesting) should be guaranteed by law.
I had to verify the current situation in the United States is what you stated because it’s intuitively so wrong. I can’t believe an employer can set terms for compensation and, through no fault of the employee, legally prevent that employee from completing those terms.
Land of the free!
Yeah, my company just re-organized their shares and reset my vesting schedule after 5 years. And are trying to get rid of me.
It’s the same everywhere. Companies will kick people out when they want to. Any talk of family or loyalty is extreamly manipulative.
Can’t think why just can’t open contractor positions and keep things honest. "This is a year contract " great, pick if that’s your path and move on when it’s over.
You’re right. Google employs over 140k people.
If the average team is 8-10 people, this article is kinda complaining about 10000+ people being shitty at their jobs.
When really, middle managers are also part of the same worker class.
AI will replace middle management.
This has been a huge problem for Google for several years now. Under Sundar, Google implemented several regressive “un-Google” policies like Unregretted Attrition (URA) to reduce worker numbers, shifting responsibility to managers and senior leadership to determine technical vision, and promoting people who are solely focused on “empire building” over delivering the best products. The result is a management-heavy structure where policies like “put AI in everything” and “display more ads” are likely to be a business driver over making the best products.
Pretty good case study for how unregulated capitalism ruins everything.
Layoffs will continue until morale improves.
This is why companies should be run by their workers. Even places that start out with a good culture get taken over by the business school blob whose only job is to get promoted and loot the company.
There are some folks that know both how to run a business well and are passionate about the technology, but they are rare unfortunately. More common in smaller organizations at least.
They’re common in small orgs. Once you go public and the only thing that matters is the quarterly bottom line, you almost have no choice but to replace them with people whose only though is “make number go up”
From the article:
“And I just want to clarify that, through these changes, people feel it on the ground and sometimes people write back and say, ‘Thank you for simplifying.’ Sometimes we have a complicated, duplicative structure”
Employees think leadership is out of touch. This statement from the CEO proves this problem exists and starts at the top.
Glassy eyed: drunk or high as fuck.
Workers: “our bosses are inept”
You: “the gays are making their lives worse!”
This is what Fox News does to people’s brains. Truly sickening.
The Tesla board is definitely glassy eyed.
Quick! Somebody order more pizza and ping pong tables…
VR ping pong can be played from cubicles, or VR cubicles in a Matrix style bioenergy plant
I heard 9^th of February is world pizza day, so… makes total sense
Fuck Scott Adams.
Scott Adams is a complete piece of shit
Sounds like they’re still wearing Google Glass.
This is what happens when entitled business bros take over. The sort of person who is uninterested in tech but is interested in quarterly bonuses will be inept and glassy eyed.
Only Google? Management is forged on that mostly
Yeah the problem will disappear by hiring more third worlders
Says the three day-old account with net negative votes on a handful of comments. But tell us more about how Apple customers will be calling people “poors”.
I wish I could be an inept and glassy-eyed boss.
Haha yeah some days it sounds pretty good. :)
To be fair most of them are likely wearing glasses. 😏
datendefekt@lemmy.ml 9 months ago
Who could’ve imagined that Google is becoming just as mediocre and boring as any other large corporation. What a surprise!
Reverendender@sh.itjust.works 9 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 9 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
Crackhappy@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Good luck.
SlopppyEngineer@lemmy.world 9 months ago
A few years ago the MBA suits took over from the nerds and it became inevitable.
UNWILLING_PARTICIPANT@sh.itjust.works 9 months ago
I’m not sure the nerds ever really had the best intentions, so were probably really easy to buy off
Aceticon@lemmy.world 9 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 9 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.
stoly@lemmy.world 9 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.
Reverendender@sh.itjust.works 9 months ago
What’s a technical architecture? Serious question.
Psyduck_world@lemmy.world 9 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 9 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
ShepherdPie@midwest.social 9 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 9 months ago
Unregulated capitalism ruins everything if given enough time.
stoly@lemmy.world 9 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 9 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
ObviouslyNotBanana@lemmy.world 9 months ago
When times are tough
Work environment gets rough
I guess.
Deceptichum@kbin.social 9 months ago
Tough times create rough workplaces, rough workplaces create strong employees, strong employees create unions, unions create better workplaces.
TheBat@lemmy.world 9 months ago
When times are tough Work environment gets rough Delete stuff from prod To keep things interesting enough
not_again@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Burma Shave
BearOfaTime@lemm.ee 9 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 9 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.
merc@sh.itjust.works 9 months ago
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.