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For anyone who hasn't seen it yet, there's an article on the second page of HN right now (458 votes last I checked) by Google's former Head of International Rel

For anyone who hasn't seen it yet, there's an article on the second page of HN right now (458 votes last I checked) by Google's former Head of International Relations about why he left the company. I think it's very worth reading. There's some extremely interesting (and damning) stories about his experience at Google since 2008. Here's the article: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21935446 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21935446 While this might (and almost certainly should) hurt Google's brand, I think this issue applies to any big for-profit company. I doubt that Amazon or Apple are much different.

microtherion 7y ago
I was thinking along the same lines. Any sizable company is going to have thousands of people quitting each year, and it would be exceedingly unlikely that none of these left on unfriendly terms. "Why I left [FAANG of choice] / stopped using their products" is a staple of HN article titles. But of course, none of this anecdotal evidence is proof that everything is FINE with these companies, either. Many of these complaints may be entirely justified.
- akhilcacharya 7y ago
  Strangely I don’t think I’ve ever seen an Amazon one, save for Dan Vassalo which was more of a fatFIRE/entrepreneurial (folks, follow him on Twitter) article than just a stream of elitist, first world complaints. I think I read one from Facebook that blamed the OP quitting on how parking worked (??)
  - a3n 7y ago
    Did Amazon put nets on the building after that one guy jumped off? https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-employees-share-thoughts-about-suicide-survivor-2016-12?op=1 https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-employees-share-thoug...
    - trenning 7y ago
      No but they did promote his manager the next promo cycle. Just normal Amazon things.
      - winrid 7y ago
        That's terrifying.
  - jorblumesea 7y ago
    There's literally entire websites and hundreds of articles written by ex-employees and journalists about how badly Amazon treats its employees. I've never worked there so I can't say for certain, but "don't work for Amazon" it's pretty much a meme at this point.
    - akhilcacharya 7y ago
      Oh? Then why do thousands of engineers do then? Are you trying to imply something about them or am I reading too much into this?
      - jorblumesea 7y ago
        > Then why do thousands of engineers do then? Ignorance of Amazon culture and practices, greed, visa issues, many don't believe it's as bad as it is until they experience it. Many use Amazon as a stepping stone because it looks good on your resume and will guarantee you an interview at most places. For the fulfillment centers folks and blue collar ops; desperation. Retention for engineers is really low, some say as low as 12 months. So thousands work there, but many do not stay. Also the reason why their compensation is mostly in stock. They know you won't last. This is all gleaned from friends who work there or have worked there. It's a place you want to be seen working, but doesn't work out for many.
        amznthrowaway5 7y ago
        Tenure at Amazon is like a battle scar that proves you are tough.
        pas 7y ago
        Plus it's not thaaat bad. (Eg. any big enterprise where IT is just a cost-center will be much worse.) Simply other FAANG places are more feely-goody.
      - catalogia 7y ago
        > 'Oh? Then why do thousands of engineers do then?' Because they offered me more money than anybody else, and because I liked the mentor I had when I was an intern there. Not having to re-interview for a fulltime job after my internship was nice too. As to why I took the internship... because the money was good and I like ebooks. Not very good reasons, but those were my reasons. (I've since quit, after readjusting my priorities in life.)
- mkolodny 7y ago
  To be clear, I don't think the issue is that people leave Google on unfriendly terms. I think there are a few other issues: - Once a for-profit company gets to a certain scale, you're going to have people who care more about profit than any original noble intentions (ex. "Make knowledge universally accessible"/"Don't be evil") - At a certain size, no one person knows everything that's going on at the company. That makes it extremely difficult to make sure everyone is on the same page. It also makes it very hard to police everything that's happening
paganel 7y ago
Thanks for the link. I refresh the HN front-page quite frequently (too frequent, I would say) but somehow I had missed that entry.
- cvhashim 7y ago
  Try the hckrnews client which is kinda of better for ranking
- username90 7y ago
  You can always look at the /active tab, I think it sorts by how many comments stories got the past 24 hours: https://news.ycombinator.com/active https://news.ycombinator.com/active
- Mauricio_ 7y ago
  You can use hntoplinks.com
punnerud 7y ago
https://hckrnews.com https://hckrnews.com and it’s on the Top10 of the day.
- ghostpepper 7y ago
  What is this site?
  - punnerud 7y ago
    Aggregation from HN

microtherion 7y ago

I was thinking along the same lines. Any sizable company is going to have thousands of people quitting each year, and it would be exceedingly unlikely that none of these left on unfriendly terms. "Why I left [FAANG of choice] / stopped using their products" is a staple of HN article titles. But of course, none of this anecdotal evidence is proof that everything is FINE with these companies, either. Many of these complaints may be entirely justified.

akhilcacharya 7y ago
Strangely I don’t think I’ve ever seen an Amazon one, save for Dan Vassalo which was more of a fatFIRE/entrepreneurial (folks, follow him on Twitter) article than just a stream of elitist, first world complaints. I think I read one from Facebook that blamed the OP quitting on how parking worked (??)
- a3n 7y ago
  Did Amazon put nets on the building after that one guy jumped off? https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-employees-share-thoughts-about-suicide-survivor-2016-12?op=1 https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-employees-share-thoug...
  - trenning 7y ago
    No but they did promote his manager the next promo cycle. Just normal Amazon things.
    - winrid 7y ago
      That's terrifying.
- jorblumesea 7y ago
  There's literally entire websites and hundreds of articles written by ex-employees and journalists about how badly Amazon treats its employees. I've never worked there so I can't say for certain, but "don't work for Amazon" it's pretty much a meme at this point.
  - akhilcacharya 7y ago
    Oh? Then why do thousands of engineers do then? Are you trying to imply something about them or am I reading too much into this?
    - jorblumesea 7y ago
      > Then why do thousands of engineers do then? Ignorance of Amazon culture and practices, greed, visa issues, many don't believe it's as bad as it is until they experience it. Many use Amazon as a stepping stone because it looks good on your resume and will guarantee you an interview at most places. For the fulfillment centers folks and blue collar ops; desperation. Retention for engineers is really low, some say as low as 12 months. So thousands work there, but many do not stay. Also the reason why their compensation is mostly in stock. They know you won't last. This is all gleaned from friends who work there or have worked there. It's a place you want to be seen working, but doesn't work out for many.
      - amznthrowaway5 7y ago
        Tenure at Amazon is like a battle scar that proves you are tough.
      - pas 7y ago
        Plus it's not thaaat bad. (Eg. any big enterprise where IT is just a cost-center will be much worse.) Simply other FAANG places are more feely-goody.
    - catalogia 7y ago
      > 'Oh? Then why do thousands of engineers do then?' Because they offered me more money than anybody else, and because I liked the mentor I had when I was an intern there. Not having to re-interview for a fulltime job after my internship was nice too. As to why I took the internship... because the money was good and I like ebooks. Not very good reasons, but those were my reasons. (I've since quit, after readjusting my priorities in life.)
mkolodny 7y ago
To be clear, I don't think the issue is that people leave Google on unfriendly terms. I think there are a few other issues: - Once a for-profit company gets to a certain scale, you're going to have people who care more about profit than any original noble intentions (ex. "Make knowledge universally accessible"/"Don't be evil") - At a certain size, no one person knows everything that's going on at the company. That makes it extremely difficult to make sure everyone is on the same page. It also makes it very hard to police everything that's happening

paganel 7y ago

Thanks for the link. I refresh the HN front-page quite frequently (too frequent, I would say) but somehow I had missed that entry.

cvhashim 7y ago
Try the hckrnews client which is kinda of better for ranking
username90 7y ago
You can always look at the /active tab, I think it sorts by how many comments stories got the past 24 hours: https://news.ycombinator.com/active https://news.ycombinator.com/active
Mauricio_ 7y ago
You can use hntoplinks.com

punnerud 7y ago

https://hckrnews.com https://hckrnews.com and it’s on the Top10 of the day.

ghostpepper 7y ago
What is this site?
- punnerud 7y ago
  Aggregation from HN