FAQ on Leaving Google

How did this person work here for so long and not understand the function of googles special Executive Board — it’s literally three people that control the entire company.

It’s absolutely a person — well 3 to be exact.

But since about 2017 or so L&S just seemed completely absent. Maybe they're making the choices behind the scenes, that Sundar & Ruth are executing, but it feels like ... not really?

Even the last few TGIFs where they properly attended they seemed very much spaced out of things.

The execs are merely the hired minds and hands. They only do what the capital owners want. If you keep a wild dog, you are still responsible for its behavior.

Well, yes, here I agree. I think that in the earlier days Google could remain insulated from that because the returns it was getting were so high, and Capital didn't know what to do with it, and didn't want to do anything to stop the goose from laying golden eggs.

I think now we're seeing a concerted effort across the tech industry to instill labour discipline, and break the relative power that our profession has had. Started with Twitter, then MS, then Google, and it's not going to stop until they get our salaries down, and get these businesses operating like more traditional exploitative organizations where we are disposable "resources".

The threat of "AI" is one tool among many to make that happen, along with layoffs, etc.

My read was L and S were spaced out because the issues googlers kept ranting about were so outside the scope of issues the company was facing.

Workers became increasingly obsessed with political and social issues while the company was dealing with an ultra hostile administration.

Yea I don’t get why so many people ignore this: the layoffs were to send a message to labor in conjunction with the Fed. Stop wanting more more and stop moving jobs. We need to get inflation under control and return the worker class to their jobs.

It’s an intense reevaluation of the American dream by the last class that was experiencing it

Nah, L&S got bored running an advertising company and moved on. Around the time when they did the Alphabet transition, I attended a few TGIFs where S was there and speaking, and people had tough questions about the whole Alphabet thing (in particular the PA I was a part of, Access & Energy [which included Fiber and what became Google WiFi] had been spun out as a "bet" but nobody could answer basic questions like: how will perf, payroll, GSUs, transfers, etc. work. And S just seemed like a deer in headlights about all this stuff people were asking about. He seemed to think the only things being spun off into bets were groups building rockets or doing genetics and stuff.

Anyways, that's about when they started moving on. They got bored.

Nothing about whatever social/woke stuff you're intimating here. Sounds like you have a hammer and you're looking for nails to hi.

huh? This got a bit attacking for no reason...

Sorry, maybe I misread what you were intimating with the social issues stuff. I didn't really get the sense of that from the inside. Not then, anyways.