The conversation

Lessons learnedExperience excerpt · English

Not sure what the author expected Google to do

Not sure what the author expected Google to do. Are they supposed to have individual meetings and a farewell party with 10K (ex) employees? My dad worked for the same company for 35 years then retired. In my 20 year career I have worked for at least half a dozen companies. There's no such thing as job security anymore, as long as you are employed by someone else you are disposable, no matter how hard you work and how loyal you are to your employer. If investors want more dividends they will let people go, doesn't matter if you are sick or just bought a new house. Actually the person making the decision to fire you probably doesn't even know your name. Think about how depressing that is. For that reason I became a consultant. It sounds harder and scarier than it actually is, but once you figure it out you realize how much more enjoyable working for yourself is and there's absolutely no way you will ever work anyone else again. I hope some of these ex Google folks take this opportunity to do something on their own.

Original discussionGoogle was beloved as an employer for years. Then it laid off thousands by email137 source comments · at import
5

Community replies 0

No community replies yet. Add your perspective.

Replies from the source 5

Direct replies available in this import. Original-language excerpts.

JD

> Are they supposed to have individual meetings Yes? Surely they have managers proportional to their employees - I certainly don't expect the CEO to have the meetings but having their direct or skip level manager meet with them is the right way to do it.

Full original
BL

> Not sure what the author expected Google to do. Don't get that either. The company is not my mother or my wife, it's just a professional relationship; they buy my hours to produce what they want me to. If they don't want my services anymore, of if I don't want to provide my services to them, it's fine, life goes on. Now, there's this sad article, with a sad lady framed like she has just cried, like if it's the end of world. Yeah, Google was the best company once, Rome was the most powerful nation once, things change and get over it. Sorry for the rant.

Full original
KA

"How do you maximize talent preservation and minimize morale loss when firing employees from a tree structure with height O(15), where each level under SVP (2) may have layoffs?" Feels like the execs didn't answer this interview question well. There were better ways to accomplish this.

Full original
CR

I doubt that these 10k all have the same supervisor, so it's totally possible to tell everyone in person.

Full original
OP

Are you aware that developers have 1:1 meetings with their manager, regularly? It's entirely practical for them to schedule meetings and tell people in person.

Full original
Continue on Hacker News

Respect different perspectives. Share concrete experiences.

Sign in to post, reply, repost, and quote.