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If it means anything to you, the reason why is: Google stack ranks employees regularly. Lowest of a group is always fired. Doesn't matter how good you are or

If it means anything to you, the reason why is: Google stack ranks employees regularly. Lowest of a group is always fired. Doesn't matter how good you are or how much satisfaction you give to your customers, you're basically asked, "what have you built that could be the next billion customer thing?" If you're not answering how you're part of the next big thing, you're going to lose. So, once something is acquired or released, consider it deprecated.

scottlamb 6y ago
This isn't true. I've worked at Google for 13 years and have rarely seen someone fired for performance; it's certainly not automatic based on being at the bottom of a stack rank. Other companies have or had such a system [1] but Google never has. The sliver of truth is that Google's once-or-twice-yearly performance evaluation system asks colleagues to stack rank folks they are reviewing. I wish they'd get rid of it, but it's not used for much. It's only a partial order of folks they're reviewing, nothing really enforces that people actually do it, I suspect some people just rank all the people trying for promo this cycle above the people who aren't, and the many reviewers' stack ranks are never reconciled into one authoritative stack rank of the folks in a group. I don't know why it's still around. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitality_curve https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitality_curve
dbspin 6y ago
This appears to be incorrect - https://www.quora.com/Why-does-Google-stack-rank-its-employees-despite-the-high-rate-of-disapproval-and-controversy-within-the-company https://www.quora.com/Why-does-Google-stack-rank-its-employe... I think you may be confusing the stack ranking at google, that doesn't result in dismissal (Google were in fact, right up until Covid, still on a hiring spree with a shortage of engineers); with what Microsoft historically did (and stopped doing in 2013).
markstos 6y ago
Stack ranking only contributes to planned obsolescence if the company values decisions which contribute to it. If the company high prioritized environmental concerns, stack ranking would reward those who figured how to keep products in service longer.
xenihn 6y ago
Google actually has the reputation of being the hardest FAANG to get fired from for performance reasons. Amazon is the easiest, due to stack ranking. Facebook is sort of a middle-ground where you risk getting fired if you aren't being promoted at the expected rate, but it's not the same as Amazon's stack ranking.

scottlamb 6y ago

This isn't true. I've worked at Google for 13 years and have rarely seen someone fired for performance; it's certainly not automatic based on being at the bottom of a stack rank. Other companies have or had such a system [1] but Google never has. The sliver of truth is that Google's once-or-twice-yearly performance evaluation system asks colleagues to stack rank folks they are reviewing. I wish they'd get rid of it, but it's not used for much. It's only a partial order of folks they're reviewing, nothing really enforces that people actually do it, I suspect some people just rank all the people trying for promo this cycle above the people who aren't, and the many reviewers' stack ranks are never reconciled into one authoritative stack rank of the folks in a group. I don't know why it's still around. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitality_curve https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitality_curve

dbspin 6y ago

This appears to be incorrect - https://www.quora.com/Why-does-Google-stack-rank-its-employees-despite-the-high-rate-of-disapproval-and-controversy-within-the-company https://www.quora.com/Why-does-Google-stack-rank-its-employe... I think you may be confusing the stack ranking at google, that doesn't result in dismissal (Google were in fact, right up until Covid, still on a hiring spree with a shortage of engineers); with what Microsoft historically did (and stopped doing in 2013).

markstos 6y ago

Stack ranking only contributes to planned obsolescence if the company values decisions which contribute to it. If the company high prioritized environmental concerns, stack ranking would reward those who figured how to keep products in service longer.

xenihn 6y ago

Google actually has the reputation of being the hardest FAANG to get fired from for performance reasons. Amazon is the easiest, due to stack ranking. Facebook is sort of a middle-ground where you risk getting fired if you aren't being promoted at the expected rate, but it's not the same as Amazon's stack ranking.