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“I don’t want the message to be we are doing this because the ads team needs more revenue” …but then that is exactly why they are doing it. Sales team needs to

by elteto 3y ago

“I don’t want the message to be we are doing this because the ads team needs more revenue” …but then that is exactly why they are doing it. Sales team needs to reach their bonus quota! They can’t be demoralized! This is a rare glimpse at the enshitification process _actually_ happening. I can almost read the above in David Attenborough’s voice. Feels like a documentary.

bitwize 3y ago
"Here we observe the marketroid in its natural habitat. Note the ruthless, predatory behavior..."
- klabb3 3y ago
  “…counting their beans, realizing it’s not enough to last through the winter of Q1”
BlackNitrogen 3y ago
That's just such an example of how it works. "Our employees are in high cost of living areas, missing earnings will be demoralizing". If you worked in a large corp for a while, you notice this happening. Everyone is incentivized to hit short term goals.
- einpoklum 3y ago
  These days, I work for (some part of) a large corporation. In my anecdotal experience, the people who get upset about missing earnings are managers, not regular employees nor even tech leads. And even that is at the annual level or longer-term; quarterly results are considered quite ephemeral.
  - ethanbond 3y ago
    Regular employees definitely notice when they don’t get raises or bonuses. Whether they draw the line to quarterly results…
    - lazide 3y ago
      Usually corporate is more than happy to draw the connection, hah.
    - einpoklum 3y ago
      1. "noticing" and "caring" is not the same thing. They notice it like they notice the rain. 2. Our (*) raises are only very partially affected by company results, and probably not by the quarterly ones. 3. Our bonuses are affected by annual results, nor quarterly ones. Also, they're not so large as to corrupt professional-ethical motivation ("if we cripple the product then the company would make money and we'd get a larger bonus"). AFAICT of course, I'm not a mind reader and only know a small part of the thousands and thousands of employees. 4. There are no result targets with some kind of discontinuous effect on bonuses and raises. At least not that employees know about. Of course, this could be very different at Google. ----------- (*) - I actually work for a subcontractor so I should probably not even use the first person plural, but let's not complicate the anecdote even further.
      - yunwal 3y ago
        At google, a substantial amount of employee comp is in equity so any drop in share price would lower morale.
- zeruch 3y ago
  This is basically the entire industry now. Even firms that aren't public operate as if they are.
hn_throwaway_99 3y ago
> This is a rare glimpse at the enshitification process _actually_ happening. Love this. For some reason I thought of those science experiments along the lines of "Our super powerful microscopes and cameras can now record chemical reactions in real time!" This is a case of "Yes, right there! 'If we don't make this shitty change we all miss our bonus' is exactly how enshittification happens!".
rdtsc 3y ago
> “I don’t want the message to be we are doing this because the ads team needs more revenue” That's pure gold. When people start with "I don't want to / I am not ..." and then proceed to say or do exactly that. - "I don't want to be the asshole here" /proceeds to be an asshole. - "To be perfectly honest" /starts making stuff up Jerry is really pushing there and the goal is clear: "Long-term: It feels like through some deliberate efforts we can actually use entry points like Chrome to drive query growth... we should explore this aggressively." None of this is surprising but it's interesting to have it right from the horses' mouths, so to speak.
- FireBeyond 3y ago
  Well, to be "fair", he never said he wanted to not do it... They just don't want that to be the message that accompanies it.
  - saghm 3y ago
    Yeah, this is the key insight IMO; the implication is that everyone knows that's the real reason, and the only question is whether to be honest or not.
- solardev 3y ago
  Translation: You need to do this so we get paid. Same team, right? But don't make us look bad. Spin it so we don't get the blame.
cj 3y ago
This is a great example of corporate politics. Author clearly states in the email that the he’s not saying X. But every single word around “I’m not saying X” is clearly saying X.
60secs 3y ago
I want to hear Attenborough annotate Jerry's morning today.
jeroenhd 3y ago
"I don’t want the message to be" is like the corporate version of "I'm not racist, but". You don't say "I'm not racist, but this cheese tastes really good" just like you don't say "I don't want the message to be that we like hugging puppies". These words in any corporate environment are always a sign that someone knows that what they're doing is ethically wrong or will at the very least piss off customers.

by elteto 3y ago

bitwize 3y ago

"Here we observe the marketroid in its natural habitat. Note the ruthless, predatory behavior..."

klabb3 3y ago
“…counting their beans, realizing it’s not enough to last through the winter of Q1”

BlackNitrogen 3y ago

That's just such an example of how it works. "Our employees are in high cost of living areas, missing earnings will be demoralizing". If you worked in a large corp for a while, you notice this happening. Everyone is incentivized to hit short term goals.

einpoklum 3y ago
These days, I work for (some part of) a large corporation. In my anecdotal experience, the people who get upset about missing earnings are managers, not regular employees nor even tech leads. And even that is at the annual level or longer-term; quarterly results are considered quite ephemeral.
- ethanbond 3y ago
  Regular employees definitely notice when they don’t get raises or bonuses. Whether they draw the line to quarterly results…
  - lazide 3y ago
    Usually corporate is more than happy to draw the connection, hah.
  - einpoklum 3y ago
    1. "noticing" and "caring" is not the same thing. They notice it like they notice the rain. 2. Our (*) raises are only very partially affected by company results, and probably not by the quarterly ones. 3. Our bonuses are affected by annual results, nor quarterly ones. Also, they're not so large as to corrupt professional-ethical motivation ("if we cripple the product then the company would make money and we'd get a larger bonus"). AFAICT of course, I'm not a mind reader and only know a small part of the thousands and thousands of employees. 4. There are no result targets with some kind of discontinuous effect on bonuses and raises. At least not that employees know about. Of course, this could be very different at Google. ----------- (*) - I actually work for a subcontractor so I should probably not even use the first person plural, but let's not complicate the anecdote even further.
    - yunwal 3y ago
      At google, a substantial amount of employee comp is in equity so any drop in share price would lower morale.
zeruch 3y ago
This is basically the entire industry now. Even firms that aren't public operate as if they are.

hn_throwaway_99 3y ago

> This is a rare glimpse at the enshitification process _actually_ happening. Love this. For some reason I thought of those science experiments along the lines of "Our super powerful microscopes and cameras can now record chemical reactions in real time!" This is a case of "Yes, right there! 'If we don't make this shitty change we all miss our bonus' is exactly how enshittification happens!".

rdtsc 3y ago

> “I don’t want the message to be we are doing this because the ads team needs more revenue” That's pure gold. When people start with "I don't want to / I am not ..." and then proceed to say or do exactly that. - "I don't want to be the asshole here" /proceeds to be an asshole. - "To be perfectly honest" /starts making stuff up Jerry is really pushing there and the goal is clear: "Long-term: It feels like through some deliberate efforts we can actually use entry points like Chrome to drive query growth... we should explore this aggressively." None of this is surprising but it's interesting to have it right from the horses' mouths, so to speak.

FireBeyond 3y ago
Well, to be "fair", he never said he wanted to not do it... They just don't want that to be the message that accompanies it.
- saghm 3y ago
  Yeah, this is the key insight IMO; the implication is that everyone knows that's the real reason, and the only question is whether to be honest or not.
solardev 3y ago
Translation: You need to do this so we get paid. Same team, right? But don't make us look bad. Spin it so we don't get the blame.

cj 3y ago

This is a great example of corporate politics. Author clearly states in the email that the he’s not saying X. But every single word around “I’m not saying X” is clearly saying X.

60secs 3y ago

I want to hear Attenborough annotate Jerry's morning today.

jeroenhd 3y ago

"I don’t want the message to be" is like the corporate version of "I'm not racist, but". You don't say "I'm not racist, but this cheese tastes really good" just like you don't say "I don't want the message to be that we like hugging puppies". These words in any corporate environment are always a sign that someone knows that what they're doing is ethically wrong or will at the very least piss off customers.