3 ms·

When i was there in 2006-2009, it only existed in theory. Sure, you could do a 20% project, but you would still be judged only on what you accomplished in you

When i was there in 2006-2009, it only existed in theory. Sure, you could do a 20% project, but you would still be judged only on what you accomplished in you regular role.

sokoloff 5y ago
Are you saying that anything positive that came from a 20% time project would not be added to the judgment of what you accomplished? That seems terribly short-sighted (and unwise on Google’s part).
- ChrisMarshallNY 5y ago
  I seem to remember a couple of fairly major initiatives (was Go one?) that Google proudly said came from "20% time." It seems insane that they would not recognize it.
  - sokoloff 5y ago
    I’d read that GMail also originated from it. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Side_project_time#Google_implementation https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Side_project_time#Google_imp... > Founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page advised that workers “spend 20% of their time working on what they think will most benefit Google”. I can’t imagine the founders would encourage that line of thinking and then not reward people who created benefit for Google from it. I can believe that if you worked your regular role at 80% and did a 20% project that yielded no benefit that you would be judged only on your regular role (which also seems “whelp, that’s fair enough; no sense penalizing someone for trying. We’ll just judge them on what they did accomplish.”)
  - BurningFrog 5y ago
    Sure, but when did you last hear that?
- BurningFrog 5y ago
  I mean, if you invent Gmail, sure, you'll be richly rewarded. But the average engineer working on an average side project will not do something like that. Especially not during a quarterly review cycle. So then your accomplishments working 80% are compared to those working 100%. I never worked with someone who had a 20% project during my 3 years. I did try to start one myself, but gave up after 1 day.

When i was there in 2006-2009, it only existed in theory. Sure, you could do a 20% project, but you would still be judged only on what you accomplished in you regular role.

sokoloff 5y ago

Are you saying that anything positive that came from a 20% time project would not be added to the judgment of what you accomplished? That seems terribly short-sighted (and unwise on Google’s part).

ChrisMarshallNY 5y ago
I seem to remember a couple of fairly major initiatives (was Go one?) that Google proudly said came from "20% time." It seems insane that they would not recognize it.
- sokoloff 5y ago
  I’d read that GMail also originated from it. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Side_project_time#Google_implementation https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Side_project_time#Google_imp... > Founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page advised that workers “spend 20% of their time working on what they think will most benefit Google”. I can’t imagine the founders would encourage that line of thinking and then not reward people who created benefit for Google from it. I can believe that if you worked your regular role at 80% and did a 20% project that yielded no benefit that you would be judged only on your regular role (which also seems “whelp, that’s fair enough; no sense penalizing someone for trying. We’ll just judge them on what they did accomplish.”)
- BurningFrog 5y ago
  Sure, but when did you last hear that?
BurningFrog 5y ago
I mean, if you invent Gmail, sure, you'll be richly rewarded. But the average engineer working on an average side project will not do something like that. Especially not during a quarterly review cycle. So then your accomplishments working 80% are compared to those working 100%. I never worked with someone who had a 20% project during my 3 years. I did try to start one myself, but gave up after 1 day.