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Google chief warns bloated staff of ‘real concerns’ over productivity

26 points by i0exception 4y ago

gsatic 4y ago
The real concern is they think showing more toothpaste ads to grandma is a "mission". "Its not about the money, its about the mission guys". Corporate robots should be classified as a separate species at this point.
- ageitgey 4y ago
  I think they've pretty much completed the toothpaste mission at this point: https://twitter.com/ageitgey/status/1483410675548495874 https://twitter.com/ageitgey/status/1483410675548495874
- nebula8804 4y ago
  That corporate nonsense sounds more like Elon Musk companies to be honest. I guess the running joke from the world of Silicon Valley (TV Show) is that all companies say they are "making the world a better place" The real question is: Are they SoMoLo or MoSoLo or LoMoSo? [1]:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8C5sjjhsso https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8C5sjjhsso
jimbob45 4y ago
There are real concerns that our productivity as a whole is not where it needs to be for the headcount we have Why would you say something so stupid? Has the most powerful CEO in the world really never heard the adage, "Praise publicly, criticize privately"? Criticism is fine but blanket criticism of staff is virtually never the right move.
- nh23423fefe 4y ago
  Why is lying in public a good idea? The memo was "leaked" by cnbc, so Pichai wasn't even doing what you say he did anyway.
  - jimbob45 4y ago
    At a meeting between executives and Google employees, Pichai said that the company’s productivity has fallen behind its targets considering its number of employees, CNBC reported, after speaking with attendees and reviewing internal documents. My initial impression was that this was a memo that had been fanned out to the majority of Googlers, which is the sin I was referring to. Now that you mention it, though, it's possible that the "Google employees" the above quote is referring to is actually just select members of management, which would be much better.
  - chrismcb 4y ago
    The memo wasn't "leaked"by cnbc. Unless it was given to cnbc confidentiality. It was either leaked by an employee to cnbc, or more likely it was given to cnbc by an executive.
- _jal 4y ago
  You say things like that to set a mood in the workforce. The desired mood here is fear, to provoke pliancy. If people are worried about their jobs, they are less likely to whine about other things and keep their heads down when axes start swinging.
devchix 4y ago
An HN user's unforgettable description of Google: "At least when I was there, google seemed like an island with melancholic, but smart and kind pandas who never had to compete for food, for the food was brought to them by a ferry, and never had to do any work, unless they had a spark of curiosity that made them explore an interesting rock or mess with sand on the beach. All pandas were consistently exceeding expectations, even if they slept on a tree most of the day." https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25609594 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25609594 Now, whenever I read "Google", my mind instantly sub "Island of melancholy pandas."
- geniium 4y ago
  Thanks for the comment, made my day
dang 4y ago
Related: Google CEO tells employees productivity and focus must improve - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32300444 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32300444 - Aug 2022 (99 comments)
elteto 4y ago
They are just paving the way for a reduction in force.
kernal 4y ago
>We should think about how we can minimize distractions and really raise the bar on both product excellence and productivity Google needs to do what Coinbase did and give an ultimatum to their woke social justice warriors.
harveywi 4y ago
Could Kubernetes have anything to do with the decrease in productivity?
- relueeuler 4y ago
  You mean not wanting to work with it? Or lost time debugging it?
PaulKeeble 4y ago
Having been the company of determining that high performance teams needing psychological safety he has decided the best course of action is to threaten them all to work harder or get made redundant. I am sure that will have the desired effect. In every business I have ever worked in the sniff of redundancies and the threats that came from management were devastating to creativity and productivity and caused a mass exodus of talent.
- bogantech 4y ago
  If I was one of the few productive people in a company of lazy slobs the prospect of the dead weight being cast off would make me happy
  - salawat 4y ago
    Counterpoint: All that dead weight still, nevertheless, represented work that ultimately needed to get done. That work is now your problem. Tut, tut, Bogantech.
  - brnt 4y ago
    You are assuming those that lay off are able to discriminate what's useless busywork and what's true innovation. Or that the latter is in fact what they are truly after. Google makes money with ads. Tons of Google's engineering is utterly besides that core business. Productive might mean an excellent ad salesperson, and lazy slob a programmer only working on irrelevant efficiency.
  - dvfjsdhgfv 4y ago
    It looks like you've never experienced office politics.
  - birdyrooster 4y ago
    Given that you start with a straw man of “company of lazy slobs” which is an obvious exaggeration, your conclusion is hardly useful.
  - candiodari 4y ago
rich_sasha 4y ago
Here's an idea: let people go to 4 days work for 80% pay (big saving). I'd generally take that in a heartbeat.
- anonporridge 4y ago
  Google already has a policy for that. With manager approval, you can go down to as low as 60% time (and equivalent total comp reduction). I believe it's called flextime internally. Amazon has also been experimenting for years with teams of 32 hour/week SWEs. https://www.amazon.jobs/en/landing_pages/part-time-tech https://www.amazon.jobs/en/landing_pages/part-time-tech Interestingly, when I was at Amazon, I talked to one of the part time SWE managers. I expressed my surprised that the program wasn't more popular. He said most engineers just aren't that interested in the idea unless they're going through some major life event that requires their time, like a new baby or sick relative. Perhaps only a cultural shift of the entire company to 4 day weeks would get everyone on board with the idea, without feeling like they're risking getting left behind and jumping to the top of the future layoff list.
- birdyrooster 4y ago
  How about 3 days for 80%
Apreche 4y ago
If Google is so concerned with productivity maybe they should stop having people work on products that they are just going to shut down a month after launching them.
chrismcb 4y ago
So we worked at home for nearly two years, and productivity increased. Then we were forced back to the office, and productivity decreased?

26 points by i0exception 4y ago

The real concern is they think showing more toothpaste ads to grandma is a "mission". "Its not about the money, its about the mission guys". Corporate robots should be classified as a separate species at this point.

ageitgey 4y ago
I think they've pretty much completed the toothpaste mission at this point: https://twitter.com/ageitgey/status/1483410675548495874 https://twitter.com/ageitgey/status/1483410675548495874
nebula8804 4y ago
That corporate nonsense sounds more like Elon Musk companies to be honest. I guess the running joke from the world of Silicon Valley (TV Show) is that all companies say they are "making the world a better place" The real question is: Are they SoMoLo or MoSoLo or LoMoSo? [1]:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8C5sjjhsso https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8C5sjjhsso

jimbob45 4y ago

There are real concerns that our productivity as a whole is not where it needs to be for the headcount we have Why would you say something so stupid? Has the most powerful CEO in the world really never heard the adage, "Praise publicly, criticize privately"? Criticism is fine but blanket criticism of staff is virtually never the right move.

nh23423fefe 4y ago
Why is lying in public a good idea? The memo was "leaked" by cnbc, so Pichai wasn't even doing what you say he did anyway.
- jimbob45 4y ago
  At a meeting between executives and Google employees, Pichai said that the company’s productivity has fallen behind its targets considering its number of employees, CNBC reported, after speaking with attendees and reviewing internal documents. My initial impression was that this was a memo that had been fanned out to the majority of Googlers, which is the sin I was referring to. Now that you mention it, though, it's possible that the "Google employees" the above quote is referring to is actually just select members of management, which would be much better.
- chrismcb 4y ago
  The memo wasn't "leaked"by cnbc. Unless it was given to cnbc confidentiality. It was either leaked by an employee to cnbc, or more likely it was given to cnbc by an executive.
_jal 4y ago
You say things like that to set a mood in the workforce. The desired mood here is fear, to provoke pliancy. If people are worried about their jobs, they are less likely to whine about other things and keep their heads down when axes start swinging.

devchix 4y ago

An HN user's unforgettable description of Google: "At least when I was there, google seemed like an island with melancholic, but smart and kind pandas who never had to compete for food, for the food was brought to them by a ferry, and never had to do any work, unless they had a spark of curiosity that made them explore an interesting rock or mess with sand on the beach. All pandas were consistently exceeding expectations, even if they slept on a tree most of the day." https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25609594 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25609594 Now, whenever I read "Google", my mind instantly sub "Island of melancholy pandas."

geniium 4y ago
Thanks for the comment, made my day

dang 4y ago

Related: Google CEO tells employees productivity and focus must improve - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32300444 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32300444 - Aug 2022 (99 comments)

elteto 4y ago

They are just paving the way for a reduction in force.

kernal 4y ago

>We should think about how we can minimize distractions and really raise the bar on both product excellence and productivity Google needs to do what Coinbase did and give an ultimatum to their woke social justice warriors.

harveywi 4y ago

Could Kubernetes have anything to do with the decrease in productivity?

relueeuler 4y ago
You mean not wanting to work with it? Or lost time debugging it?

PaulKeeble 4y ago

Having been the company of determining that high performance teams needing psychological safety he has decided the best course of action is to threaten them all to work harder or get made redundant. I am sure that will have the desired effect. In every business I have ever worked in the sniff of redundancies and the threats that came from management were devastating to creativity and productivity and caused a mass exodus of talent.

bogantech 4y ago
If I was one of the few productive people in a company of lazy slobs the prospect of the dead weight being cast off would make me happy
- salawat 4y ago
  Counterpoint: All that dead weight still, nevertheless, represented work that ultimately needed to get done. That work is now your problem. Tut, tut, Bogantech.
- brnt 4y ago
  You are assuming those that lay off are able to discriminate what's useless busywork and what's true innovation. Or that the latter is in fact what they are truly after. Google makes money with ads. Tons of Google's engineering is utterly besides that core business. Productive might mean an excellent ad salesperson, and lazy slob a programmer only working on irrelevant efficiency.
- dvfjsdhgfv 4y ago
  It looks like you've never experienced office politics.
- birdyrooster 4y ago
  Given that you start with a straw man of “company of lazy slobs” which is an obvious exaggeration, your conclusion is hardly useful.
- candiodari 4y ago

rich_sasha 4y ago

Here's an idea: let people go to 4 days work for 80% pay (big saving). I'd generally take that in a heartbeat.

anonporridge 4y ago
Google already has a policy for that. With manager approval, you can go down to as low as 60% time (and equivalent total comp reduction). I believe it's called flextime internally. Amazon has also been experimenting for years with teams of 32 hour/week SWEs. https://www.amazon.jobs/en/landing_pages/part-time-tech https://www.amazon.jobs/en/landing_pages/part-time-tech Interestingly, when I was at Amazon, I talked to one of the part time SWE managers. I expressed my surprised that the program wasn't more popular. He said most engineers just aren't that interested in the idea unless they're going through some major life event that requires their time, like a new baby or sick relative. Perhaps only a cultural shift of the entire company to 4 day weeks would get everyone on board with the idea, without feeling like they're risking getting left behind and jumping to the top of the future layoff list.
birdyrooster 4y ago
How about 3 days for 80%

Apreche 4y ago

If Google is so concerned with productivity maybe they should stop having people work on products that they are just going to shut down a month after launching them.

chrismcb 4y ago

So we worked at home for nearly two years, and productivity increased. Then we were forced back to the office, and productivity decreased?