5 ms·

Does Google still do 20% projects? Thought that stopped years ago around the same time as Google X started up.

• beisner 10y ago
  They definitely still do. It's just not necessarily a formal system - there are a ton of projects out there that people work on while at work that aren't directly related to their main responsibilities, and managers generally are fine with employees taking on 20% projects.
• halflings 10y ago
  It's still in place and 20% projects are still advertised internally. I think Google might have made it a bit more formal (requiring manager approval etc.), that's all.
  • saycheese 10y ago
    If it requires manager approval, that's not really 20% time in my opinion based on the founders statesments below; which is to say, an employee doing what they feel would most benefit a company has little to nothing to do with their managers opinion of what's best for the company. Founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin highlighted the idea in Google's 2004 IPO letter: "We encourage our employees, in addition to their regular projects, to spend 20% of their time working on what they think will most benefit Google," they wrote. "This empowers them to be more creative and innovative."
    • eitally 10y ago
      It doesn't (most of the time) require manager approval.
• saycheese 10y ago
  From Wired 2007, covering an 2005 interview of the then Google CEO Eric Schmidt, now Google Chairman: "INTERVIEWER: How do people actually do 20 percent time? How do people actually figure out a way to actually get 20 percent of their time for that without working on weekends? GOOGLE-CEO: They work on weekends." Source: https://www.wired.com/2007/04/my_other_interv https://www.wired.com/2007/04/my_other_interv