Working at Google has been utterly depressing for over a year

41 points by amusable 2 years ago | 20 comments

I've been at Google for nearly a decade as a SWE, and internally it's the most depressing it's ever been. Some symptoms come to mind:

- constant rounds of layoffs

- morale is terrible; everyone is overworked and burnt out

- perks constantly being cut

- suddenly extremely hard to get promoted

- executives are suddenly micromanaging teams

- general atmosphere of culture decay and leadership disconnect

I think these are probably just the vibes at MOST companies, but among several competing offers I initially joined google FOR its good culture, so this hits me especially hard. Are all tech companies like this? Some companies prioritize employee well-being and maintain a better atmosphere...but I have no insight into who those companies are. Anyone have thoughts?

zer00eyz 2 years ago |

I was here for the 2000 bubble and recovery.

It's gonna get worse still. In fact the AI bubble is bad for programers in general. Much like the original dot com rush this one is "capital intensive", just more so.

Working for a FAANG is how they keep the competition to a minimum. Cushy job, support, free shit good pay... then indoctrinate you into that companies "way" and your gonna have a rough time doing a "start up".

Now they dont need to have all the perks, they just need to be better than "Not them" cause you aren't going to raise enough to compete in AI.

I assure you that in 2-4 years when the next interesting market segment picks up that this will all change again.

brutus1213 2 years ago |

I think this disease is pretty prevalent in tech these days. It has become untenable. I can imagine lots of folks with FU money (presumably folks with the most experience) are considering retiring out of the rat race. I'm not at G but have seriously started to calculate what my number would be (sadly, nowhere close).

zer00eyz 2 years ago | |

>> seriously started to calculate what my number would be

It's about 5 million. You can live on part of the gains and keep rolling over the rest.

brutus1213 2 years ago | | |

Haha .. that is exactly the number I was thinking of. I was mulling whether that includes the house or not. According to the definition of net-worth, of course, a house should be counted. But for the magic retirement number, it doesn't make sense to include the house (just as long as you have shelter that is paid off).

I do have kids and was also starting to think about college costs (or just let them pay it off).

shalmanese 2 years ago | | |

Five million will drive you un poco loco, my fine feathered friend.

hi-v-rocknroll 2 years ago |

Similar at Meta. (AWS and Microsoft have always been moderately shitty.) Pennywise pound-foolish tactics lead to a decline of magic and cool some companies once had, now creating and becoming megacorp cliches unnecessarily. Competitive, ostentatious cuts are business theater and herd mentality that undermines the fabric of a company's culture. And maximum uncertainty leads to many times more stress.

Is it as bad at Netflix or Apple? IIRC, Apple maintains more cultural stability than vacillating with the whims of investor pressures hand-wringing about "macro conditions".

Perhaps an inescapable conclusion is that megacorps were always, and always will be, too risky to work for. Us tech people should eschew megacorps and find alternative profitable products/services paths by forming many worker-owned co-ops that replace the functions of a MAANG, and organize into a confederation of loosely-coupled businesses able to compete with them with shared marketing, advertising, distribution, etc. infrastructure.

aappleby 2 years ago |

I was there 12 years, left a year ago. Sounds like it kept going in the same trajectory as when I left.

cft 2 years ago |

As a former heavy user of Google search, I hardly did any Google searches in the last 6 months. Copilot for the current / day to day stuff, and GPT4 + Claude combo for technical stuff.

reify 2 years ago |

A great quote and great book from Kierkegaard

Either/Or: A Fragment of Life by Søren Kierkegaard

My depression is the most faithful mistress I have ever known. No wonder then, That I return the love.

underseacables 2 years ago |

I was a contractor for Google from 2017 to 2019. I didn't have really any concerns about working for the company itself, they treated me pretty well, but the employee culture was oppressive. A lot of overpaid, coddled entitlement.

racional 2 years ago | |

Do elaborate, please.

rvz 2 years ago |

Google is well past the “good times” period and is now in survival wartime mode.

Good times exposes the very weak folks when the company starts to fight for its own existence.

I expect this to happen to all companies where the perks, free money, etc begin to disappear.

hnthrowaway0328 2 years ago |

I bet there are a bunch of PMs that simply push papers around.

joshxyz 2 years ago |

i find it funny you didnt mention the constant sunsetting of different products.

but i realize you mentioned similar ones. maybe consequences of google just being too big?

i worked at huge company before, i dreaded it too for the same reasons and i quit.

ddgflorida 2 years ago |

Understandable but they need to do better. Generative AI is making content always worthless. Advertising is changing. AI is making search almost obsolete too. Microsoft once lost it's way and is now back, so maybe Google can do the same.

ChrisArchitect 2 years ago |

Tell HN:

moneycantbuy 2 years ago |

same at a big pharma company. I'm guessing the ruling class either deliberately colluded or it was simply in their ruthless capitalist nature to quickly take power back from workers after we had a brief taste of a slightly better life during the "great resignation"

lobito14 2 years ago |

Why would someone want to work for such an evil company is beyond my understanding.

lotsoweiners 2 years ago | |

I’d work for puppykillingmachine.com if you paid me enough.