4 ms·

I was there 2013->2015. It was not viewed as "beloved" in my eyes; more like a benevolent, paternalistic overlord. There were certainly negatives. It was near

I was there 2013->2015. It was not viewed as "beloved" in my eyes; more like a benevolent, paternalistic overlord. There were certainly negatives. It was nearly impossible to concentrate at work, due to being in a large open space with many teams, and they would not let me be full-time remote (even as an L6 "staff" SWE), crowded bathrooms, crowded cafes, etc. However, they put a lot of effort into the endless perks, and the feeling of job security. It really felt like they cared about you, and your career development. I was shocked by the layoffs. My old group's PM, who was fantastic (and well connected) was let go in the purge.

cromwellian 4y ago
If you remember, there was the great "de-frag" at one point, where they wanted to reduce # of satellite offices, and tried to move everyone into a few big HQ, this resulted in overcrowding, and one aspect of that was "no remote work". (post-pandemic, this sounds bizarre now). The closing of some of the satellite offices resulted in some of the first shocking "layoffs", for example, the Google Atlanta office was shuttered, most of the former couldn't move, and so left for other companies. (technically not a layoff, but if you can't relocate, it's basically the same) :(
- drewg123 4y ago
  The defrag was a year or two before I joined, as I recall. The remote work policy seemed to go by org. I worked in platforms, and our VP was old-school, adamantly opposed to remote work. He'd proudly walk around the office, surveying his domain. He was rather like a proctor in an exam. Meanwhile, I worked closely with several folks in the kernel team who were allowed to work remotely. One of them was very interested in what we were doing, was a luminary in his field, and wanted to transfer to our group, but worked remotely, and didn't want to give that up. Similarly, I left for Netflix because they allowed remote work in the Open Connect kernel group.

cromwellian 4y ago

If you remember, there was the great "de-frag" at one point, where they wanted to reduce # of satellite offices, and tried to move everyone into a few big HQ, this resulted in overcrowding, and one aspect of that was "no remote work". (post-pandemic, this sounds bizarre now). The closing of some of the satellite offices resulted in some of the first shocking "layoffs", for example, the Google Atlanta office was shuttered, most of the former couldn't move, and so left for other companies. (technically not a layoff, but if you can't relocate, it's basically the same) :(

drewg123 4y ago
The defrag was a year or two before I joined, as I recall. The remote work policy seemed to go by org. I worked in platforms, and our VP was old-school, adamantly opposed to remote work. He'd proudly walk around the office, surveying his domain. He was rather like a proctor in an exam. Meanwhile, I worked closely with several folks in the kernel team who were allowed to work remotely. One of them was very interested in what we were doing, was a luminary in his field, and wanted to transfer to our group, but worked remotely, and didn't want to give that up. Similarly, I left for Netflix because they allowed remote work in the Open Connect kernel group.