I skipped to the ending
Experiences from current and former Google employees highlight how incentives around headcount, performance reviews and internal politics can lead to bloated teams, low-impact work and managers tolerating “do-nothing” roles. Commenters debate whether this reflects Google’s broader culture or just specific teams, contrasting horror stories with more positive accounts and noting strong selection bias toward negative anecdotes. The thread widens into a critique of FAANG-style corporate environments in general, questioning whether high pay and prestige compensate for bureaucracy, misaligned incentives and a perceived decline from earlier, more mission-driven tech culture.
Workload, “Do-Nothing” Roles, and Performance Cycles
- Several describe how big-tech performance systems make it possible to “do very little” for long periods: first-cycle leniency, slow HR processes, and overstretched managers.
- Others push back: at scale companies do remove low performers and it takes more than “lifting a finger” to pass.
- Many stress that “do nothing” in practice means low-impact busywork (meetings, monitoring, reports), not literal idleness.
- Some would happily take such a year to work on open source or side projects; others see it as demoralizing, a trap, or ethically dubious.
Google Culture: Wide Variance and Selection Bias
- Repeated theme: experiences at Google vary drastically by team, org, and manager; it’s meaningless to talk about a single “Google culture.”
- Multiple commenters report good or “just ok” experiences; others recount bureaucracy, slow decision-making, weak onboarding, and toxic promotion games.
- People note strong selection bias: horror stories get blog posts and HN upvotes; “it was fine” stories don’t.
Open Source and Side Projects
- Google is described as relatively permissive about OSS and side projects, including some for-profit work, as long as IP rules and non-compete constraints are respected.
- Apple is cited as comparatively restrictive.
- Commenters suggest joining major OSS communities (LLVM, Rust, Linux, Postgres, etc.) for social/learning value if one had spare time on salary.
Management Incentives and Headcount Empire-Building
- Many argue that tying leadership success to headcount drives pointless projects and “empire-building.”
- Examples include large teams spending a year on trivial internal work, apparently to pad a manager’s org size for promotion.
- Goodhart’s Law is invoked: measure headcount, get headcount, not value.
- Some defend slack as “insurance capacity” and a way to keep people employed; others see it as wasting human potential and company resources.
Productivity, Performance, and Politics
- Measuring individual engineering productivity is seen as inherently hard; any proxy (LOC, tickets, PRs) can be gamed.
- Promotion systems that reward visibility and self-promotion are criticized for sidelining quiet but impactful work.
- FAANG-adjacent employees note that “performance packet” thinking dominates task choice.
FAANG vs Smaller Companies and Hacker Ideals
- Several say the best IC experience is mid-sized companies (roughly 50–500 employees): enough stability and benefits, less bureaucracy.
- Some lament that “hacker culture” has shifted from building things and startups to optimizing for FAANG employment, compensation, and status.
- Others respond that for most developers it’s simply a job; high pay and security are rational goals, especially for those with families or health issues.
Macro View: Late-Stage Google and Big Tech
- Commenters compare Google’s internal drift to other “disruptors” becoming the incumbents they once opposed.
- Search/Ads cash flow is seen as enabling bloated orgs and weak discipline, while stock buybacks and investor pressure drive layoffs rather than structural reform.
- There is disagreement over whether Google is merely slowing, or already in steep cultural/organizational decline.