https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2022-01-20/inside-google-s-brewing-mental-health-crisis-claims-of-toxic-work-environment When Chewy Shaw left Google’s site reliability group in April, he told colleagues in a memo that interactions with his managers had made him depressed and suicidal. “I no longer feel psychological safety on this team,” wrote Shaw, who is Black and had accused his leaders of racism. “I no longer have a manager focused on treating me in a ‘Googley’ manner,” he added, using his own shorthand to describe respect and fairness. “And so, with many tears, I am now looking for a Googley manager at the company who will take me.” Shaw, who is 29, worked at Borg SRE, which plays an essential role for Google, and the broader internet, by keeping the tech giant’s global network online, allowing billions of people to use the company’s websites, such as YouTube and Gmail. He acknowledges that the job is hard and can be stressful. Site reliability engineers like him—whether at Google, Amazon or Microsoft—are expected to solve thorny problems that can pop up at any moment, from outages to shoring up complex digital infrastructure. But Shaw and several other employees say their bosses made working at Borg SRE that much harder. They say managers, including the team’s leader Pierre Aubert, fostered a work culture where discrimination and termination threats were tolerated, if not encouraged. Several members of the 100-person group, they say, took leaves to preserve their well-being. An internal “Googlegeist” survey that tracks employee sentiment found in January 2021 that just 49% of the 76 Borg team members who responded had a favorable view of what their work group was doing to help their well-being, 12 percentage points lower than employees companywide, according to documents reviewed by Bloomberg. In November, “team temperature” surveys found dissatisfaction among Borg employees. Out of a top score of 10, Borg’s three sub-teams scored 5.07, 6.5 and 6.73—all short of the 7.5 rating Google considers satisfactory. In meetings with human-resources officials, some Borg employees described a toxic and overwhelming work environment, according to notes HR shared with the team that were reviewed by Bloomberg, but Google left the management team in place and promoted Aubert. The atmosphere at Borg SRE reflects a broader erosion of what was once attractive about Google, according to three current and four former employees. For many of the Generation Xers who joined the search giant in the last 20 years, a Google gig was akin to being recruited for the U.S. space program in the 1960s. They toiled away on world-changing technology, freely exchanged ideas with some of techdom’s brightest minds and believed in the righteousness of their mission. While Google has always been a hard-charging, Type-A kind of place, most of the rank-and-file commanded a level of respect that was uncommon in less egalitarian workplaces. But the culture was changing. In 2017, engineer James Damore fired off a manifesto dismissing Google’s efforts to close the gender gap and arguing that women were less able technologists than men. He was fired, but a significant minority of Googlers agreed with his views, according to several current and former employees. A year later, staff were disturbed to learn that, in an effort to find new growth opportunities, Google parent Alphabet Inc. was bidding on U.S. military contracts and secretly working on a censored search engine for the Chinese market. Employees were also dismayed that executives accused of sexual misconduct received generous exit packages, a controversy that prompted a shareholder lawsuit and, ultimately, a $310 million settlement. Like employees at other tech companies, Googlers began speaking out—creating a quandary for executives. Should they honor Google’s open culture or crack down on what some viewed as damaging dissent? They chose the latter approach, according to several current and former employees, preventing staff from asking unfiltered questions at all-hands meetings, policing virtual spaces where workers convene, monitoring and enforcing content rules for email lists and taking down posts on internal boards. In the process, the employees say, Google’s leadership ushered in a culture where bosses felt empowered to put results ahead of comity. David W. Baker, a former Google engineering director, said the company’s attempt to impose order has had “a lot of negative consequences” for employees. “Since the Damore memo, Google has tried to tamp down on outrage and to get individuals less preoccupied to address societal issues,” said Baker, who left Google to protest the treatment of Timnit Gebru, a prominent Black artificial intelligence researcher who said the company fired her for criticizing its technology and diversity practices. “Google unfortunately tends to want to be wishy-washy and avoid controversy,” he said. Google declined to comment on specific employee complaints. In an emailed statement, a spokesperson said: “At Google, creating a respectful, safe and inclusive workplace is our top priority. We recognize we will not always get it right, and there will be situations where disagreements may arise. While we can’t speak to individual circumstances, we thoroughly investigate employee concerns and take appropriate action when our policies are violated. We also have programs and resources in place to support employees and managers with coaching, culture building, career development, conflict resolution and more.” The spokesperson also said Googlegeist surveys highlight both managers’ strengths and areas needing improvement. Borg SRE chief Aubert declined to comment, but in a Nov. 16 presentation to his team reviewed by Bloomberg he acknowledged workplace challenges. “You all have seen the note from Chewy which was a trigger point for me realizing that our culture has to change,” Aubert wrote. He pledged to promote racial equity, listen to team members and accept their feedback. Shortly before publication, Google provided three members of Borg SRE to discuss their experiences on the team. Two requested anonymity. All three occupy more senior roles on their subteams than rank-and-file site reliability engineers. The employees said that they and many of their colleagues had positive experiences on the team and with Aubert. When asked about HR’s efforts to improve the team’s culture last year, Nejc Trdin, who is based in Zurich, said, “The culture is not perfect. I think it's fairly good, by the standard of what we want to strive for, but it not being perfect, I guess there is room for improvement.” A Zurich-based technical lead who declined to be named said efforts to improve the culture and team happiness happen “continuously,” and that he had only heard of “minor” complaints from team members before and after Shaw’s memo. The third employee, a U.S.-based senior site reliability engineer, says he introduced team temperature surveys on Borg SRE, after finding them a useful way to get feedback when he was a manager on his last Google team. On Jan. 18, after Bloomberg had requested comment, Google sent employees an email announcing a Black executive named Felicia Guity had been named chief of staff chief to Ben Treynor Sloss, the executive who oversees SRE. Guity said she has a passion for understanding emotional intelligence in the workplace and helping people meet their full potential, according to the email, which was reviewed by Bloomberg. (There is more, but I'm too lazy to copy it) #borg #google #tech #wlb
Neither is going to HR since HR doesn’t have employees best interests at heart
Tech Industry
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The man I love hates me because I’m Vietnamese
India
Yesterday
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Ideal indian parents
Tech Industry
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Married or people who have a partner, do you still feel bored?
Software Engineering Career
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L4 Google -> 45 interviews, 5 offers, AMA
Tech Industry
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What happens when most of your team is Indian?
ROFL @ Google’s reaction on Jan 18 🤣
Why can’t the diversity chief ever be Asian?? Racism!