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Sigh. I work at Google, and this is vastly overblown. Larry and Sergey don't work at Google anymore. They're much more laissez-faire, working on special projec

Sigh. I work at Google, and this is vastly overblown. Larry and Sergey don't work at Google anymore. They're much more laissez-faire, working on special projects across Alphabet. They don't make most of the decisions that effect Google employees, and don't have answers to most of the questions that are asked. That was the entire point of promoting Sundar, after all: so Larry could step away from Google. And finally, Larry and Sergey being at TGIF's undermines Sundar's authority. He's the one making decisions, and he's where the buck stops, but having the cofounders there creates an uncomfortable dynamic and makes it seem like they have a larger role than they do. So it's not a matter of "courage" and "accountability" as much as corporate governance and priority changes. There's no drama buried here.

ikeyany 8y ago
Sundar became CEO in 2015, which is when Page/Brin stepped away. So the question is "Why disappear now?", just when there are so many high-profile ethical issues facing the company.
- logicx24 8y ago
  I think now is the best time to step away, so that people know exactly who's in charge at a time of supposed crisis.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
  - ikeyany 8y ago
    Do you think there's a question of who's in charge?
- xiphias2 8y ago
  Page/Brin were on the TGIFs for 10 years when Eric was CEO, so this is not the honest answer. Also they are still the main controlling shareholders, so they are making the real hard decisions.
- ehsankia 8y ago
  Having full town halls leaked to Breitbart definitely didn't help.
- ionised 8y ago
  > So the question is "Why disappear now?", just when there are so many high-profile ethical issues facing the company. So they can lay the responsibility or blame for what comes next on someone else.
ChuckMcM 8y ago
This makes a lot of sense, the question though is whether or not Sundar can make a policy decision that Larry and Sergey disagree with. (not a business decision, but a policy like "bringing back bottled water" or something like that). Were I still there, I would be wondering if there would be a quarterly "Alphabet LMT (Last Month, Today)" where people from all the letters could mingle and ask questions of Larry and Sergey. It would provide both transparency for the conglomeration and a chance for people to compare notes about how things are done in the other business units.
- logicx24 8y ago
  Bottled water is back, and has been back for a while :) That said, I agree. I think a wider town hall on all of Alphabet would be great, and would help employees see how all the pieces fit into a larger strategy.
  - gketuma 8y ago
    What is bottled water? Are you referring to a project at google or just plain ol drinking water?
    - dilyevsky 8y ago
      It’s kind of silly but there was a big controversy at google nearly decade ago when facilities stopped stocking bottled water in the fridges. I know... not as bad as “free tibet” cake tho...
      - manfredo 8y ago
        This must be a "thing" at lots of companies. At mine there was a surprisingly heated thread about getting rid of bottled water, which culminated with the founder and CEO telling everyone to shut up and go back to work (albeit in a more respectful wording, and it had gotten to the point where such action was warranted). The thread essentially became legend.
    - ChuckMcM 8y ago
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
xiphias2 8y ago
I was working at Google at the Eric Schmidt days, Larry Page days and Sundar days (not anymore) and maybe Larry not being on the TGIFs is not that a big thing, and I'm not questioning Sundar's authority, much more his transparency in leadership. Eric Schmidt was by far the most transparent CEO while knowing exactly what secrets he had to keep. He understood how important it is to have some direct communication with all engineers, even if it's just one way (here's a link to a fresh interview with him from yesterday where he talks about the old Google days: https://tim.blog/2019/04/09/eric-schmidt/ https://tim.blog/2019/04/09/eric-schmidt/). With Sundar TGIF questions seem just like a formality: he tries to answer in a way to only tell things that are anyways available to everybody, not helping the employees to understand the strategy of the company and going together. And in reality before I quit, all I saw was team leaders, managers and project managers fighting eachother on who's doing what project, and the engineers being victims of these fights (though still well paid victims). For me the magic of being and working at Google went away.
JumpCrisscross 8y ago
> They're much more laissez-faire They retain their supervoting shares. They choose not to use that authority and choose not to attend these meetings. That choice is fair to criticise.
- maccio92 8y ago
  These meetings are for the employee's benefit. It would be something if they were not involved in board meetings.
true_tuna 8y ago
I’m an ex google employee and came to say this same thing.
jjeaff 8y ago
Google = Alphabet = Google There is absolutely no difference until Google is no longer accounting for 99% of their profits. Until then, alphabet is nothing more than a tax strategy and an attempt to avoid anti-trust regulation against Google.
sonnyblarney 8y ago
Larry and Sergei have all of the actual power, that's why it matters. Power = Responsibility. If it were arbitrary pools of shareholders, they they really wouldn't have direct and material power, only enough really to punt the CEO and influence a few things here and there. Larry and Sergei are sitting on billions, and many more future billions as a result of the machine they have created, if they're going to live up to their own ethos they can't just punt the hard things off. So yes, now 'it's hard' and the externalities are coming home to roost.

ikeyany 8y ago

Sundar became CEO in 2015, which is when Page/Brin stepped away. So the question is "Why disappear now?", just when there are so many high-profile ethical issues facing the company.

logicx24 8y ago
I think now is the best time to step away, so that people know exactly who's in charge at a time of supposed crisis.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- ikeyany 8y ago
  Do you think there's a question of who's in charge?
xiphias2 8y ago
Page/Brin were on the TGIFs for 10 years when Eric was CEO, so this is not the honest answer. Also they are still the main controlling shareholders, so they are making the real hard decisions.
ehsankia 8y ago
Having full town halls leaked to Breitbart definitely didn't help.
ionised 8y ago
> So the question is "Why disappear now?", just when there are so many high-profile ethical issues facing the company. So they can lay the responsibility or blame for what comes next on someone else.

ChuckMcM 8y ago

This makes a lot of sense, the question though is whether or not Sundar can make a policy decision that Larry and Sergey disagree with. (not a business decision, but a policy like "bringing back bottled water" or something like that). Were I still there, I would be wondering if there would be a quarterly "Alphabet LMT (Last Month, Today)" where people from all the letters could mingle and ask questions of Larry and Sergey. It would provide both transparency for the conglomeration and a chance for people to compare notes about how things are done in the other business units.

logicx24 8y ago
Bottled water is back, and has been back for a while :) That said, I agree. I think a wider town hall on all of Alphabet would be great, and would help employees see how all the pieces fit into a larger strategy.
- gketuma 8y ago
  What is bottled water? Are you referring to a project at google or just plain ol drinking water?
  - dilyevsky 8y ago
    It’s kind of silly but there was a big controversy at google nearly decade ago when facilities stopped stocking bottled water in the fridges. I know... not as bad as “free tibet” cake tho...
    - manfredo 8y ago
      This must be a "thing" at lots of companies. At mine there was a surprisingly heated thread about getting rid of bottled water, which culminated with the founder and CEO telling everyone to shut up and go back to work (albeit in a more respectful wording, and it had gotten to the point where such action was warranted). The thread essentially became legend.
  - ChuckMcM 8y ago

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

xiphias2 8y ago

I was working at Google at the Eric Schmidt days, Larry Page days and Sundar days (not anymore) and maybe Larry not being on the TGIFs is not that a big thing, and I'm not questioning Sundar's authority, much more his transparency in leadership. Eric Schmidt was by far the most transparent CEO while knowing exactly what secrets he had to keep. He understood how important it is to have some direct communication with all engineers, even if it's just one way (here's a link to a fresh interview with him from yesterday where he talks about the old Google days: https://tim.blog/2019/04/09/eric-schmidt/ https://tim.blog/2019/04/09/eric-schmidt/). With Sundar TGIF questions seem just like a formality: he tries to answer in a way to only tell things that are anyways available to everybody, not helping the employees to understand the strategy of the company and going together. And in reality before I quit, all I saw was team leaders, managers and project managers fighting eachother on who's doing what project, and the engineers being victims of these fights (though still well paid victims). For me the magic of being and working at Google went away.

JumpCrisscross 8y ago

> They're much more laissez-faire They retain their supervoting shares. They choose not to use that authority and choose not to attend these meetings. That choice is fair to criticise.

maccio92 8y ago
These meetings are for the employee's benefit. It would be something if they were not involved in board meetings.

true_tuna 8y ago

I’m an ex google employee and came to say this same thing.

jjeaff 8y ago

Google = Alphabet = Google There is absolutely no difference until Google is no longer accounting for 99% of their profits. Until then, alphabet is nothing more than a tax strategy and an attempt to avoid anti-trust regulation against Google.

sonnyblarney 8y ago

Larry and Sergei have all of the actual power, that's why it matters. Power = Responsibility. If it were arbitrary pools of shareholders, they they really wouldn't have direct and material power, only enough really to punt the CEO and influence a few things here and there. Larry and Sergei are sitting on billions, and many more future billions as a result of the machine they have created, if they're going to live up to their own ethos they can't just punt the hard things off. So yes, now 'it's hard' and the externalities are coming home to roost.