This seems like a classic principal-agent problem. I can guarantee you that Google leadership doesn’t want this happening. It’s illegal, it’s possibly more expe

This seems like a classic principal-agent problem. I can guarantee you that Google leadership doesn’t want this happening. It’s illegal, it’s possibly more expensive in the long run, and it leads to PR black eyes like this article. But the executive in charge of the team is motivated to deliver as much as possible without going over budget; gotta get that promotion even if you quietly act against Google’s interests along the way. Designing correct incentives is really hard at Google’s scale and in this case their failure led to really shitty illegal behavior by the management of this team.