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Sounds like Googlers spoiled the well. I'm not sure exactly why but Google employees always seem to be in the news about something and have leaked conversations

Sounds like Googlers spoiled the well. I'm not sure exactly why but Google employees always seem to be in the news about something and have leaked conversations that management had with them. In some instances the controversy is warranted (Rubin Payout, etc.) but it must be annoying from a management perspective.

shadowgovt 7y ago
When you sign up to manage a company that's been on the Fortune 500 for over a decade, I imagine you're being paid to tolerate and manage some amount of annoyance.
brown9-2 7y ago
I think it’s interesting that people absolve management from blame, when they actively hid details of military contracts with employees.
- Aeolun 7y ago
  Can’t really blame them for that given the reaction. You can blame them for taking those contracts in the first place.
  - rexpop 7y ago
    Of course we can blame them for hiding their abusive, violent behavior. It's never too late to come clean, and embrace accountability.
  - PavlovsCat 7y ago
    By what principle could one blame them for one thing and not the other?
compiler-guy 7y ago
Pichai is making over $100,000,000 a year. That is more than enough to deal with all the annoying crap that goes on.
- bborud 7y ago
  It is enough to expect him to perform better as a leader at least.
rexpop 7y ago
What a distasteful sentiment. Management is punishing workers with their silence, and their lack of transparency, and you have the gall to suggest these workers deserve it? That they brought it upon themselves? It's our right to speak up about our experiences, even if that means "leaking" our bosses words. In a sense, it's our duty–Google's actions impact us all, and we're owed transparency with which management's not forthcoming.
- seraphsf 7y ago
  I mean this respectfully - why are you owed transparency? Google is a company, not a collective. Companies typically have various controlled ways of disseminating information, both internally and externally. Internal transparency (at a company of Google’s size) effectively means public transparency... ie all of the inner workings are known to everyone. I’m not aware of any for-profit organization that can function effectively that way.
  - xiphias2 7y ago
    Googlers are owed transparency because that's what we were promised when we were hired. It was the reason we were working over time (nights, weekends). I stopped doing that when I saw that the promise was broken, as a promotion without making something amazing together just doesn't worth to give away a part of my life.
  - rexpop 7y ago
    I am not owed transparency. I am making a threat. If Google does not become more transparent–allowing me to make better-informed decisions to protect myself from their policies–I will fight them until it does. I am subjected to negative externalities of Google's Surveillance Capitalist practices. I consider their business practices to be abusive, coercive, manipulative, and exploitative. I resent them. I recognize that I, as an individual, have very little leverage over firms such as Google. I am not, however, an original thinker: if I am pushed to this perspective by forms in the zeitgeist, I am not alone. > I’m not aware of any for-profit organization that can function effectively that way. Neither, frankly, am I. Even those firms which claim to be "radically transparent" are, in my esteem, doing so largely as a PR front. If "the client owns the interface," then transparency should be implemented not a curated blog posts, but as something akin to FOIA requests. I should like to see enormous innovation in terms of corporate transparency in my lifetime, or else I–and many others–will be defecting from our collusion with such firms. If you find my perspective difficult to sympathize with, perhaps I have done a poor job of communicating it. Hopefully, you will recognize it as codified by better writers: 1. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26195941-the-age-of-surveillance-capitalism https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26195941-the-age-of-surv... 2. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37830765-ten-arguments-for-deleting-your-social-media-accounts-right-now https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37830765-ten-arguments-f... 3. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41963432-ghost-work https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41963432-ghost-work 4. https://crimethinc.com/books/no-wall-they-can-build https://crimethinc.com/books/no-wall-they-can-build
bborud 7y ago
Leaving Google it became clear how extremely entitled the culture was. People lose perspective when embedded in a culture that is permissive about entitlement. Management will always attract its share of assholes, and enablers of assholes. And while I don't mean to excuse behaviors in management that are inexcusable, I think the sense of entitlement and overinflated egos of the rank and file did much to improve company culture.
- bborud 7y ago
  s/did much to improve/did little to improve/ (Not sure why I can't edit the comment)

shadowgovt 7y ago

When you sign up to manage a company that's been on the Fortune 500 for over a decade, I imagine you're being paid to tolerate and manage some amount of annoyance.

brown9-2 7y ago

I think it’s interesting that people absolve management from blame, when they actively hid details of military contracts with employees.

Aeolun 7y ago
Can’t really blame them for that given the reaction. You can blame them for taking those contracts in the first place.
- rexpop 7y ago
  Of course we can blame them for hiding their abusive, violent behavior. It's never too late to come clean, and embrace accountability.
- PavlovsCat 7y ago
  By what principle could one blame them for one thing and not the other?

compiler-guy 7y ago

Pichai is making over $100,000,000 a year. That is more than enough to deal with all the annoying crap that goes on.

bborud 7y ago
It is enough to expect him to perform better as a leader at least.

rexpop 7y ago

What a distasteful sentiment. Management is punishing workers with their silence, and their lack of transparency, and you have the gall to suggest these workers deserve it? That they brought it upon themselves? It's our right to speak up about our experiences, even if that means "leaking" our bosses words. In a sense, it's our duty–Google's actions impact us all, and we're owed transparency with which management's not forthcoming.

seraphsf 7y ago
I mean this respectfully - why are you owed transparency? Google is a company, not a collective. Companies typically have various controlled ways of disseminating information, both internally and externally. Internal transparency (at a company of Google’s size) effectively means public transparency... ie all of the inner workings are known to everyone. I’m not aware of any for-profit organization that can function effectively that way.
- xiphias2 7y ago
  Googlers are owed transparency because that's what we were promised when we were hired. It was the reason we were working over time (nights, weekends). I stopped doing that when I saw that the promise was broken, as a promotion without making something amazing together just doesn't worth to give away a part of my life.
- rexpop 7y ago
  I am not owed transparency. I am making a threat. If Google does not become more transparent–allowing me to make better-informed decisions to protect myself from their policies–I will fight them until it does. I am subjected to negative externalities of Google's Surveillance Capitalist practices. I consider their business practices to be abusive, coercive, manipulative, and exploitative. I resent them. I recognize that I, as an individual, have very little leverage over firms such as Google. I am not, however, an original thinker: if I am pushed to this perspective by forms in the zeitgeist, I am not alone. > I’m not aware of any for-profit organization that can function effectively that way. Neither, frankly, am I. Even those firms which claim to be "radically transparent" are, in my esteem, doing so largely as a PR front. If "the client owns the interface," then transparency should be implemented not a curated blog posts, but as something akin to FOIA requests. I should like to see enormous innovation in terms of corporate transparency in my lifetime, or else I–and many others–will be defecting from our collusion with such firms. If you find my perspective difficult to sympathize with, perhaps I have done a poor job of communicating it. Hopefully, you will recognize it as codified by better writers: 1. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26195941-the-age-of-surveillance-capitalism https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26195941-the-age-of-surv... 2. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37830765-ten-arguments-for-deleting-your-social-media-accounts-right-now https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37830765-ten-arguments-f... 3. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41963432-ghost-work https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41963432-ghost-work 4. https://crimethinc.com/books/no-wall-they-can-build https://crimethinc.com/books/no-wall-they-can-build

bborud 7y ago

Leaving Google it became clear how extremely entitled the culture was. People lose perspective when embedded in a culture that is permissive about entitlement. Management will always attract its share of assholes, and enablers of assholes. And while I don't mean to excuse behaviors in management that are inexcusable, I think the sense of entitlement and overinflated egos of the rank and file did much to improve company culture.

bborud 7y ago
s/did much to improve/did little to improve/ (Not sure why I can't edit the comment)