1y ago

'Morale is at an all-time low': Ex-Googler writes scathing latter slamming layoffs and 'eroded' culture

www.businessinsider.com 'Morale is at an all-time low': Ex-Googler writes scathing letter slamming layoffs and 'eroded' culture

An ex-Googler wrote a 1,500-word letter criticizing the firm and CEO Sundar Pichai's lack of "visionary leadership."

'Morale is at an all-time low': Ex-Googler writes scathing latter slamming layoffs and 'eroded' culture::An ex-Googler wrote a 1,500-word letter criticizing the firm and CEO Sundar Pichai's lack of "visionary leadership."

158 comments

Is anyone surprised? Brilliant engineers going to work at Google expecting to work on world changing software and instead work on selling more ads.
How miserable.
- Selling more ads can actually be engaging to work on even if it's not world changing, if you're given things you actually need to think through
  Unfortunately I can't really see Google being the type of place that lets people think for themselves, they're far too busy trying to please the shareholders for that
  
  Oh agreed, the scale and performances requirements to serve ads on the modern internet is a really challenging problem.
  My point was simply that these brilliant minds are being wasted on this objective.
  
  Ugh I’d feel so fucking gross is I somehow contributed to the proliferation of MORE advertising in our world. Like talk about an absolute waste of your talent and contribution to the world.
  Laying there on your deathbed someday and looking back on what you did in the time you were given…and it was making more ads, like how disgusted I feel about it all.
- The single worst decision they made was rolling back the 20% of work time being dedicated to side projects. That’s where all their good early ideas came from. It was replaced by politics instead.

"Decisions went from being made for the benefit of users, to the benefit of Google, to the benefit of whoever was making the decision,"
That's a bar.
- The googlers i know spend a lot more time than I'd expect on performance reviews. Not really on like... Doing shit. Just reviewing and selling what little is done to get that next pay bump.
  
  These recent months it seems the reviewing and selling, the hype-mongering, is more about remaining employed than it is a pay bump.
  It's a sad state of affairs when the inexperienced code-olympiads you hire need to transition partially from devs-as-engineers to introverts-as-showmen. It's like they hired apples, made them work like oranges, and now only keep the ones who can also be dolphins.

Google's decisions in the time Pichai has been CEO, have been anti-consumer all the way. Not the fun conpany it used to be, now users are being forced out of adblockers and a products promise is abandoned way too often.
- I am probably the perfect google customer. I used google search when it still had an exclamation point. I got my gmail account by invite in ‘04. Downloaded chrome on day one. I used nexus/pixel phones almost exclusively
  Today, ddg search on Firefox. I am using an iPhone. I still have the gmail account but I am slowly migrating away from it. I am done with google. They don’t produce anything that has any value for me anymore.
  
  Big oof on the iphone, mate. You can have an android phone with CFW that doesn't have all of the google telemetry and bloatware.
  
  Same, but opera/firefox, Zenfone, and proton Mail. Not really a fan of apple either
  
  I'm doing all the same as you
  What I'm not moving away from though is Google Maps and Photos. No good alternatives exist
  
  What are you switching to for email?
  
  Same. I have my name as my gmail and get an absurd amount of missent emails.
  
  Hey twin!!

Sundar Pichai has got to be the worst CEO in the silicon valley period
Google has managed to produce next to nothing of value with a dreamteam of engineers the likes of which no one else had access to
From one uninspired leadership decision to the next they've just been sitting there bolstering what's already there while every once in a while adding a new product to the Google graveyard
- Google is one of the most engineer driven companies out there. Their engineers are simply massively overrated. A ton of leetcoder kiddies got into FAANG companies over the years and a lot of them are just plain shit as professional developers.
  Edit: also the way they evaluate engineers drives them to create half-baked products that get abandoned. It's incredible how they still haven't figured out that people want stable, maintained products, not "innovation" that doesn't actually help anyone and never turns into a finished product.
  
  Their hiring process is the reason why leetcoder kiddies get in there in the first place. 3 seperate coding rounds with questions not even related to the domain that you need to solve in a timer of 45 mins.
  
  This has long been my impression. It’s a plaything for the “elite” engineers aka former children of wealthy people who grew up with tutors but never developed as people.
  IRTc innovation, I’ve also long felt this way. There are so many good products out there but most seem like the software equivalent of As Seen on TV plastic crap that solves some problem that nobody has.
- They did produce something of value, Stadia, but instead of investing in it further with some exclusive games to show off its capabilities and lure more people and developers in ... or just outright signing a deal to paying for the development cost to port some hits or Call of Duty to Stadia, they wrote it off, refunded everything, and shut it down.
  It's a major fail, they tried next to nothing to fix their messaging issues, failed to invest in areas that would've made a difference, and didn't stick with it to challenge people's beliefs that Stadia was going to be shut down.
  They should've:
  Made a guarantee that if they shut down within the next 10 years, every game you play will be refunded in full.
  Did a hardware upgrade to bring Stadia past consoles.
  Never shut down their in house studios and invested even more into bringing other studios in.
  Really upsold the cheat free experience (with no client side anticheat spyware necessary) and the ability for the platform to make even the games with the worst netcode stable multiplayer experiences.
  Made something like steam workshop for Stadia and worked with at least one developer to prove that it works (they said they were open to mods, but they needed developers to take interest)
  Potentially resolved the "you have to buy all your games again" concern by offering to buy everything on the platform in your steam, xbox, or PlayStation library 1 time (so you couldn't "import" multiple times or buy new games on another platform and then import them for free).
  Imagine if people literally just pressed a few buttons on their old gaming computer and suddenly could play a bunch of their steam library in the cloud with better graphics for free on any device they wanted. I can't imagine folks wouldn't have stuck around with that kind of a deal.
  
  Made a guarantee that if they shut down within the next 10 years, every game you play will be refunded in full.
  This would have given people confidence, but really doesn't reflect on Google as a whole, and just reinforces that they as a company will kill things at a moment's notice.
  I think in addition to all your points, they could have distanced Stadia from Google, and announced a new gaming company under the Alphabet umbrella. The hardware bundles they were selling with Chromecasts probably wouldn't have been a thing, but I'm not sure if that would have been a bad thing. Having stadia as a completely separate entity from Google may have given it the breathing room it needed to get a good user base, without the stigma of google killing products.
  
  with some exclusive games
  Sweetie, you don't just get heavy-hitting exclusives right out the gate.
  In what world does Google shell out enough cash for a game that's so good it pulls people to Stadia when the developers can just sell their good game on already-proven platforms?
  They'd have to make their own studio or contract it out. I never saw Google shelling out $50m for a AAA game, and small-time shit is stuff people can just get on their phones.
- As a counter-point, what new services or products have any of the FAANG companies released that the average person uses, over the last few years?
  Big tech was built on a handful of runaway successes, and building on moonshot ideas, allowing engineers to work on "the next big thing" without fear of liability.
  Now, if it doesn't work, you get laid off. At least if you worked for a startup, you'd get enough equity to make a ton of money if it works out...
  Pichal is shit, but so are Zuck, Tim Cook, Andy Jassy, and the two at the helm at Netflix.
  
  You mean MAANA? I genuinely don't know why Netflix is included, it should just be MAAA...
  
  Facebook: messenger for kids, which is messenger but with good parental controls. Believe me as a parent I want more products to look at this.
  Also Threads. Jury's still out if it wins but it's a good product.
  Netflix buying the long tail of excellent old Android Indie Games to offer as a platform benefit is a fun idea, jury's still out on that one too.
  But imho the one that's winning at product development isn't faang, it's Microsoft.
- Yup, he's the absolute worst. I can't think of a single product that Google has even improved during his tenure as CEO... let alone a product that he successfully launched on his own. All he can do is make existing products more expensive.
  Look at how he completely lost his shit when chatgpt was released - probably a huge part of the reason he lost it is cause he realized he'd have to actually do something useful instead of just squeezing more blood from the collective stone of all Google's existing products. His claim to fame is creating Chrome. What fucking good is that? Web browsers have existed since the time he was born. There's nothing to innovate there, and there never has been. It's clear: he's not an innovator.
  Whoever takes over after he's gone is going to be in for a hell of a time. The only thing he's created for Google is a shit-ton of anti-trust lawsuits. The company is an empty husk at this point. There's nothing left for them to become.
- From a shareholder's perspective, which is the only perspective C suite executives care about, he's been the best CEO of all time for Google.
  
  Sure, in the short term. I've switched to DDG and I'm not getting another Pixel when I need a new phone, and hoards of tech savvy people are feeling the same way. Dissatisfaction is causing them to lose customers and talent.
  Eventually, they'll start feeling it in their bottom line. And by then it might be too late to change course.
- Has he increased short term profitability?
- Google became Apple
- Was GO made during Pichai's tenure? I don't use GO but apparently they got the guy who wrote C on it so...?
  
  No, Go dates back to when Eric Schmidt was running things.

LoL no shit. You don't even need to be an employee to figure this out. Even as a customer I feel that way. I'm looking to leave Google altogether.
- I went to modify my 2018 Google Wi-Fi router to add a simple port forwarding rule, and the functionality is completely GONE from their already shitty Google Home app. It used to be so easy and simple on the old Wi-Fi app. I’m never buying another Google device.
  This company has reached enshittification nirvana.
  
  Google home has become an absolute shit show. It has awful UI and UX. Truly an amazing feat.
  
  It's still there for me in "Advanced networking"->"Port Management".
- I left Google 5-6 years ago. I do occasionally use YouTube, but that’s about it.
  It’s surprisingly easy to get used to once you do it.
  
  What did you do about email?
- I've switched to Kagi for search, and Fastmail for email. Though a bit more difficult to escape Google when you've got a pixel 8 pro ;)
  
  Let me introduce you to graphene os :)
  
  Rather easier I'd say, as it has an unlockable bootloader, unlike most other phones. I have a pixel 7 on Graphene, but there's a bunch of other versions you can try.
  
  If you have a pixel phone, there are completely de-Googled android operating systems available for them with full hardware support.
  
  Actually, it's easiest to escape google with a Pixel, even more than an iPhone with GrapheneOS (only if not a carrier phone though).
- I've switched to duck duck go and I'm working on leaving Gmail, but damn it's taking a while to update my email address everywhere, hoping after couple of months I won't have any Google products left in my name.
  
  Yeah I've been using Gmail and Google Drive since the early 2000's. I have a lot of stuff on there. All my life photos, a whole lot of documents and almost my entire adult life in emails.
  It's going to be a very long and complicated process.

I would disagree and say that Pichai is a visionary, in turning Google into a monopolistic dystopian megacorporation.

Yep, layoffs tend to hurt culture and trust.
- Some companies seem to thrive on regular culls in the name of operational efficiencies. All that happens is talent leaves the organisation and then those left behind struggle because expertise has gone.
  It erodes good will and good will is something you can't win back.
  By the time things look like they are normalising, in comes another cull!
- Layoffs while at the same time handing the CEO $200 million for a single year.
  
  Yep, that will definitely help employee morale.

Yeah Google kind of sucks now and everyone paying attention knows. They kill a lot of products and don't really make anything new and good.
Their search returns too many ads and SEO garbage sites.
They can't unify on messaging. Talk, hangouts, allo, duo, meet... Just pick one. But I guess that doesn't look as good on someone's resume.
- Frustrating part is how G+ coulda gone somewhere if they'd not been dumbasses rolling it out
  Literally even the circles feature would have been so great

It's been a long time brewing with how Google manages projects and people, and Sundar is just the dipshit who's been helming it. Google needs a rethink, because once the ad market collapses (and it will collapse, they're helping it along with their crusade against YouTube) they will be rudderless and moneyless.
I really wish I was motivated to finish my transition off Google because right now, storage and email are the two things left to address. And without funding, I can't keep investing in NAS storage, or be bothered to move off Gmail for a new email vendor (which has its own problems with any non-Google email sinking into someone's XBL).
- What are you paying for Google storage that it's cheaper than NAS storage?
  
  Maybe they're still on a G Suite Business / Workspace with the storage quota exceeded. Until earlier this year, Google didn't do anything about exceeded quotas, and many had more than the included 5TB stored in their drive. I've seen people who had 100s of TB! I myself "only" have _{25TB, which I'm finally downloading to my local storage these days. When Google began caring about the storage quotas, they froze all accounts with exceeded quotas, blocking any new uploads – but if you keep paying the subscription (}20€), they'll retain the frozen files for an extended time period of a year or two (don't remember) after they gave the first notice.
- google owns youtube bro. you mean crusade against adblockers on youtube i suppose

The letter is a post on his own blog . Hard to distill into a summary so I recommend reading it get more context. But it seems to have boiled down to:
How It Was:
Strong adherence to the "don't be evil" ethos, focusing on societal good over profits.
Open, transparent communication and decision-making processes.
High morale, with a culture of learning from successes and failures.
Work focused on benefitting the web and users, rather than Google's immediate interests.
Collaboration and lack of internal silos, encouraging innovation and autonomy.

How It Is Now:
Shift from user-centric to Google-centric, and then to individual-centric decision making.
Eroded transparency and increase in organizational silos.
Decline in morale and a culture of distrust between employees and management.
Focus on short-term financial gains leading to layoffs and defensive employee behavior.
Lack of clear vision and leadership, resulting in confused and ineffective management.
Overall deterioration of Google's unique, innovative culture and values.

I’m sure the MBA’s will starting taking the opinions of the worker bees seriously any day now. /s

This is the best summary I could come up with:
An ex-Google employee has published a highly critical letter attacking the firm's "eroded" culture and accusing CEO Sundar Pichai of lacking "visionary leadership."
Posting on his blog, Hickson said he was "very lucky" to have experienced the early days of the company, where executives were candid with staff and ambitious experimentation was encouraged — but said the search giant's culture had since "deteriorated."
And he is far from the first employee who has criticized the company's increasing bureaucracy since founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin stepped away.
Since then it has been making smaller, quieter cuts across the company, to the point employees are now tracking layoffs in an internal document, Business Insider reported.
BI has previously reported tension between the rank-and-file and managers at Google over, for example, practices around labelling employees as low performers.
Hickson suggests there should be efforts to move power "from the CFO's office back to someone with a clear long-term vision for how to use Google's extensive resources to deliver value to users."
The original article contains 580 words, the summary contains 169 words. Saved 71%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

No shit that moral too is all time low

Google has completely lost its way. On my Pixel 6 recently the voice typing doesn't even work correctly. Although it works sometimes it tends to cut me off where is it worked perfect a few weeks ago. Google is constantly introducing new bugs into Android and into their native apps. I can tell morale must be very low because shit doesn't work.

When there is this much money involved nothing can survive. Greed is the most pervasive evil there is.
- [mispost]

On a completely unrelated matter, can Lemmy topic post titles be edited?
- The randomness of this comment actually fucked me up for a good minute 🤣
- Should be scolding latte slamming layoffs.

The fuck is a Googler?
- It's a grown up Noogler.
- Google employee
- The fuck is a scathing latter?
- It's a cult where members think they are special because they know algorithms.
  They pay good salaries to grab people who could otherwise create something worthwhile. Now they do shit for Google, like ads.

Who would have thought that overtly replacing your motto in such a way that everyone knows the new default is now "Be Evil" would have a negative effect on morale? Shocking
But hey, they can take the credit for the beginning of modern enshittification, so they've got that going for them anyways. Because their IPO was the death of the good version of the internet and everything they've done since has just made everything shittier and shittier. Almost like basing the entire society around greed is a mistake or something. whooda thunkit except literally everyone
- It was never the official motto.

the clock is ticking
Down to what? In order for Google to fail in the short term, it would take some really big event. It would have to be something at the level of "Google banned from EU after..." to make Google unprofitable. I'm sure Google can afford losing 500M customers in a short timespan, but not if they reside in an economic region that has great influence over others.
For Google to fail in the long term, its ad business would have to fail. I imagine a few more antitrust cases to make google lose its search dominance would be a big domino.

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