3 ms·

According to the media, Google essentially shut down 20% time years ago, and forced all employees to work only on official company-approved product teams. This

• InclinedPlane 14y ago
  My understanding from various folks who work at Google is that 20% time is not something that you just "get", you have to fight for it generally, you have to have real projects to work on, etc.
  • nostrademons 14y ago
    Only in the sense that to do anything self-directed, you have to fight for it. It wouldn't be self-directed otherwise. Basically, that means that your manager is not going to nag you to take 20% time, and it's your responsibility to come up with a 20% project that's both tractable and useful to Google, and you're still responsible for pulling your own weight on your 80% project. If you can balance those concerns, nobody's going to stop you from working on a 20% project (and there're escalation paths if they do). It's just that many Googlers are not accustomed to situations where they can work on something of their own initiative but nobody's asking them to work on something of their own initiative.
    • InclinedPlane 14y ago
      Yes. It's not just goof off time that you can spend willy nilly until you figure out a productive project. I imagine that the problem isn't just lack of self-direction it's work saturation. If you set your coworkers expectations based on your level of effort sans 20% time and you set your work-load the same then even if you come up with a good idea it might be difficult to carve out enough cycles to work on it without letting obligations drop on the floor in the short-term. And then that situations persists indefinitely.