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1002 points genericlemon24 | 1 comments | 06 Sep 25 13:20 UTC | HN request time: 0.202s | source
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NelsonMinar ◴[06 Sep 25 16:28 UTC] No.45150652[source]▶
One thing I appreciated at early Google (2001) was how folks mostly worked normal hours. Roughly 8 hours a day 5 days a week. Maybe a bit longer if you wanted to stay for the free dinner. Maybe you checked email at home in the evening or had a week of being on call. But in general the company did just fine on a humane schedule.

(There were exceptions, particularly the product folks working on early AdWords partnerships. But even in ads most of the engineers kept to more regular hours. I certainly did.)

replies(2): >>45151335 #>>45157551 #
1. tmoertel ◴[06 Sep 25 17:43 UTC] No.45151335[source]▶
I think that reasonable hours are still the norm at much of Google.

I worked there as a SWE for over decade before I left last year. I never once felt pressured to work long hours or extra days. I do recall several times when management folks emphasized that if you're working long hours, it's a sign that something went wrong in our planning, and we should look into it. The few times I stayed late for dinner, the office was mostly empty.

I understand that others may have had a different experience, but for me Google was way healthier than any previous company I have worked at over my decades-long career, including the two companies that I started myself.