4 ms·

A lot of Googlers report 20% time is a bit of myth, because many engineers end up struggling more than 100% time to deliver their principle project.

plinkplonk 17y ago
"A lot of Googler reports 20% time is a bit of myth," I thought it could be accumulated and taken at at a stretch.
- stcredzero 17y ago
  I used to do that at my old company! And it was definitely an old company!
  - CamperBob 17y ago
    Hewlett-Packard?
    - stcredzero 17y ago
      That level of old, but not HP. It was actually the first company to exist off of 100% software sales/licensing revenue. (Not hardware sales, with accompanying software, like IBM in those days.)
      - blasdel 17y ago
        SPSS?
    - tesseract 17y ago
      Does anyone know whether HP had anything like 20% time in its earlier days? I've never heard that they did, but now that you mention it it does seem like the kind of thing that HP might have done.
      - CamperBob 17y ago
        Old-school HP was so awesome it would have made Google look like a Communist labor camp. As long as you did what they paid you to do, your time basically was your own, along with a key to the company stockroom. One (admittedly high-level) guy built a stereo amp -- http://www.hpmemory.org/news/barney_ampl/barney_page_00.htm http://www.hpmemory.org/news/barney_ampl/barney_page_00.htm -- and the company indulged him by allocating some surplus factory capacity to a limited production run.
        philwelch 17y ago
        I remember reading that Woz used his time at HP to invent the first Apple computer. (Then HP decided that microcomputers were a silly waste of time so they gave Woz back the rights to it.)
- pwmanagerdied 17y ago
  I'm pretty sure the major factor is your project manager; some are very liberal with how their managees spend their time, others require 20% can only be used for approved projects and set the bar higher than one would hope.
chollida1 17y ago
It really depends on what team you work for. Lots of people I know are too busy on their main project to even think of 20% time. It's nice to know that you have 2 months of 20% time booked but it's not feasible for most people to bank it and then use it later. I'd say that unless your 20% project is a pet management project then the chances of you working on it 20% of your time is pretty small:(
smokey_the_bear 17y ago
Most of the people that I knew who had 20% projects, it was something like getting unit test coverage up for their main project. Mine was maintaining my previous project for years. Some people do have cool ones, but it wasn't common.

plinkplonk 17y ago

"A lot of Googler reports 20% time is a bit of myth," I thought it could be accumulated and taken at at a stretch.

stcredzero 17y ago
I used to do that at my old company! And it was definitely an old company!
- CamperBob 17y ago
  Hewlett-Packard?
  - stcredzero 17y ago
    That level of old, but not HP. It was actually the first company to exist off of 100% software sales/licensing revenue. (Not hardware sales, with accompanying software, like IBM in those days.)
    - blasdel 17y ago
      SPSS?
  - tesseract 17y ago
    Does anyone know whether HP had anything like 20% time in its earlier days? I've never heard that they did, but now that you mention it it does seem like the kind of thing that HP might have done.
    - CamperBob 17y ago
      Old-school HP was so awesome it would have made Google look like a Communist labor camp. As long as you did what they paid you to do, your time basically was your own, along with a key to the company stockroom. One (admittedly high-level) guy built a stereo amp -- http://www.hpmemory.org/news/barney_ampl/barney_page_00.htm http://www.hpmemory.org/news/barney_ampl/barney_page_00.htm -- and the company indulged him by allocating some surplus factory capacity to a limited production run.
      - philwelch 17y ago
        I remember reading that Woz used his time at HP to invent the first Apple computer. (Then HP decided that microcomputers were a silly waste of time so they gave Woz back the rights to it.)
pwmanagerdied 17y ago
I'm pretty sure the major factor is your project manager; some are very liberal with how their managees spend their time, others require 20% can only be used for approved projects and set the bar higher than one would hope.

chollida1 17y ago

It really depends on what team you work for. Lots of people I know are too busy on their main project to even think of 20% time. It's nice to know that you have 2 months of 20% time booked but it's not feasible for most people to bank it and then use it later. I'd say that unless your 20% project is a pet management project then the chances of you working on it 20% of your time is pretty small:(

smokey_the_bear 17y ago

Most of the people that I knew who had 20% projects, it was something like getting unit test coverage up for their main project. Mine was maintaining my previous project for years. Some people do have cool ones, but it wasn't common.