NYT: Google’s Once Happy Offices Feel the Chill of Layoffs
Job cuts, which could continue throughout the year, have created a glum mood at what was arguably Silicon Valley’s most exuberant workplace. The layoffs have slowed down projects and prompted employees to spend working hours trying to learn which work groups have been hit and who could be next, said 10 current and former Google employees, including some who asked for anonymity so they could speak candidly about their jobs. What’s more, the layoffs have shifted the narrative that long defined working at Google; that it was more of a tinkerer’s community than a workaday office, where creativity and thinking out of the box was encouraged. That it was a fun, different kind of place to work. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/05/technology/google-layoffs-work-culture.html
The New York Times
They are the new Yahoo!. No doubt about it. Did an internship in Yahoo and saw the same vibes. There were coasters who demanded out of the world perks while never producing anything great. That is happening to Google today. Unless they have a satya nadella moment, they are dust
Yahoo doesn’t have the kinds of diverse viable revenue streams Google has though. Google’s real money makers these days are advertising, Android and somewhat GCP. All their other offerings are loss leaders subsidized by those three categories.
It hasn't been fun since the pandemic. Really even before then they had started phasing out 20% projects and ramping up expectations for perf.
The whole “tinkerer’s community” thing was always just a facade to attract talent. Literally the “I’m not like those other girls” of companies.
Except that it was largely true until somewhere between 2010 and 2016 depending on how exactly you define tinkerer's community. It was very idealistic and the culture/pay/etc backed this point of view. It's not that much different than MSFT with stack ranking and inept middle management now but while MSFT people hired in the last 10 years expect this shitty work environment, GOOG people hired in the last 10 years did not.
Any other source? I hate paywalled articles.
At least they returned to the office