Hacker News Reader

Comment by erentz | Hacker News Reader

I'm sure Google has never been perfect, but it used to sound like a great place to work free from much of the bullshit that goes on in other companies. I envied those that got to work there for that reason. I'm sure it's still a long way from turning into an Amazon or Microsoft, but I hope it takes some active measures to avoid sliding down that slope.

View on HN

Is Microsoft still a bad place to work? My impression was that they've gotten their act together over the past decade, and they're near the top of my list for the next time I look for a job. Their strategy and execution seem a lot better from the outside, but I don't personally know any employees to verify what it's like to work there.

(I can personally attest to Google being a demoralizing catastrophe of mismanagement, and many of the colleagues I most respected while I was there have left in frustration or in protest.)

It definitely improved over the past few years. But a lot of the people who made it to the top under the old system of bullying and undercutting your peers are still in positions managing people, so you can still see a lot of capriciousness, bullying, politicians hiring politicians, retaliation, so on. Stack ranking is meant to be long gone but you still see managers handing out zero ratings to teammates that clearly don’t deserve it.

A few millennial classmates of mine (graduated ‘15 or so) say similar things about the company culture. The previous systems in place and the existing old guard have affected their experience working there too.

It's too big to paint all experiences with one brush.

> https://www.businessinsider.com/sex-and-politics-at-google-i...

Umm, Google's got just as much politics as Microsoft, arguably more

> Finally, Page laid down the law: "If you keep fighting, we'll be very happy to send you to the competition."

> During the speech, one of the executives who was in the room turned to a friend and whispered:

> "Did he just say, 'zero tolerance for fighting? I've been here for years. All we do is fight."

> As another longtime Google executive put it: "If the princes [are at] war, it's because the king tolerates it."

Having worked at the others, it's still miles miles ahead. Pay and perks are at the top and there is def more transparency than other companies. Also, the quality of devs doesn't vary a lot across orgs, you're guaranteed to work with really smart people.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com