https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6839578952244310016/ LinkedIn Bernie Innocenti Expand search * Jobs * People * Learning [Bernie ] Dismiss [Innocenti ] Dismiss [ ] Dismiss [Wyoming, MI ] Dismiss [ ] Dismiss Join now Sign in Bernie Innocenti Linux Systems Engineer 8h * Report this post Today was my last day at Google On my first day, 10 years ago, Google was an unconventional company: peer-to-peer decision making, approachable leadership, permissive rules, institutional transparency, a noble mission and solid ethical principles. New hires like me were advised by company veterans to "think like an owner". Back in 2011, Google had ~35K employees, and Larry Page had just taken the helm from Eric Schmidt. Today Google counts 140K employees, and has become more hierarchical and conventional in the name of "scaling". The three founders have disappeared, along with the iconic "Don't be Evil" motto. Too often, being a Googler felt like working in a giant government - minus the transparency and voting. HR used to be a person you could talk to. Now it's a ticket system which usually responds by copy-pasting a snippet of policy back to you. One day, an accountant demanded that I refund Google $25 for purchasing a neck pillow on a red-eye economy flight. They insisted that I could fly business, but pillows are "personal items" and thus can't be expensed The code that runs Google itself is not publicly reviewed. There are no commit messages, no attribution and no version history. How can a Googler "think like an owner" when they're being told to follow inflexible rules even when they're so clearly against the company's best interest? And then there are all the little mishaps and unethical decisions... it's painful and embarrassing. Hopefully, the fledgling Alphabet Workers Union will succeed in keeping leadership accountable, but it's sad that we felt so unrepresented within our company that we had to organize externally. Google is still capable of making formidable products: I couldn't imagine using the Internet without Chrome, Google Search, YouTube... traveling without Maps, Translate, Photos.... and working without Docs, Calendar, Gmail, Hangouts Ch... err... maybe not that last one! While Google remains a decent employer and one of the best engineering shops on the planet, the negative trend is evident and concerning. Can organizational entropy be reversed, or is it an intrinsic property of scale and aging? Nadella proved to the world that even a company as toxic as Ballmer's Microsoft could be turned upside down. Employees I spoke with seem pleased with their new leadership, and Microsoft's new products don't suck at all! In fact, I'm loving VSCode, and if I had to write a web application today, I'd probably go with TypeScript. Microsoft went from calling Linux "a cancer" to being a positive actor in the opensource ecosystem... and still turning a profit. And so, come on Google, Don't be Evil! Or at least Do the Right Thing. Whatever. Don't you want to be back at the top of those Best Places to Work rankings? If Microsoft could overhaul its corporate culture, so can anyone! Until then, I want to remember Google as it was on my first day of work rather than my last one. # google #microsoft #leadership #tech #culture * 28 8 Comments Like Comment [ ] Share * LinkedIn * Facebook * Twitter Sean Lynch This is a very well-written critique. My reasons for leaving were similar, and what's happened since has only served to further affirm that decision. I almost left Google my first week due to the amount of arrogance I saw during orientation. For example, a very senior engineer, upon being asked if Google intended to open source its severs like Facebook had, answered "Open source is for the company in second place". I wondered if this engineer was aware that they were also referring to Google at multiple points in its past, when it had started out open and then locked everything down as soon as they became the dominant player. Embrace, extend, extinguish. FWIW, I use Firefox, DuckDuckGo, Fastmail, a Garmin Drive 50 for navigation, Signal for chat, CryptPad for collaborative editing, and LibreOffice. I do still end up using Google Docs a bit, but it's only gotten worse over the past several years, for example it's completely lost the ability to import any kind of vector graphics except Google Drawings. I watch the occasional video on YouTube, but only rarely, and without logging into a Google account. Which, incidentally, is an experience Google seems to go out of their way to make as painful as possible. Like Sign in to like this comment Reply Sign in to reply to this comment 2 Likes 6h * Report this comment Truman T. So *finally* I can recruit you for my next startup as real owners! 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