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Comment by LMYahooTFY | Hacker News Reader

As of now the most popular comments here seem to decry the notion that anyone making six figures could ever relay an experience of misery. This is utterly non-sensical.

The article, to me, seems to imply that perhaps working at a radically free corporation doesn't yield pure bliss and benefit.

Is there some reason this article needs to balance out any possible misery with all the luxurious amenities Googlers enjoy? Does anyone actually think that it's not possible someone could have a miserable experience at Google?

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I have to say, I think the article has a very poor title. Most of the people discussed said they really liked working at Google, most of the time. They felt their jobs were interesting, did important work, and had impact.

The "misery" I think is talking about the company, not the employees per se. None of the employees in the article claimed they were miserable... and as you can see the simple word "misery" has totally allowed the conversation to bypass anything substantive about Google's policies and focus only on feeeeeelings that aren't even in the article.

I think someone could be miserable at Google. Humans have a remarkable capacity for misery in all sorts of circumstances!

> None of the employees in the article claimed they were miserable

Not in so many words, but many quit for cultural reasons and (at least perceived) retaliation. Others are engaged in lawsuits, presumably not out of pure joy.

What's interesting is that the folks in the article who quit are about half on the 'right' and half on the 'left'. Does this mean Google is doing things well.... or not?

Reading the article, I got a sense that the ones who quit seem to be the outliers who were more interested in pursuing non-work related goals rather than focusing on work. Good for Google, it seems!

> that it's not possible someone could have a miserable experience at Google?

I think that. Google employees are at the top of the pyramid, so if the article was true, they would have left for an almost identical salary nearby. The fact that they don't means that either google pays way above its direct competitors (it doesnt) or these people are outright lying, and their actions speak louder than 12k words

I disagree. Concluding that because they don't "just switch jobs" means they're being dishonest seems very flippant.

In fact, the idea that any organization on the planet could be exclusively a place where only happiness exists, and no one could be misfit, is patently absurd.

I see an implication in your response that money buys happiness and there are no other significant factors worth mentioning. Am I wrong?

If you are the sort of person who enjoys bringing your politics to work then naturally you will stick around as long as possible at a company that permits or at least tolerates it.

Fong-Jones, Whittaker, and Stapleton did resign as per this story.

hi, I'm at honeycomb.io now, and having a blast! :)

Where in the article does anyone say they're miserable, though?

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