Google is watching you! A Culture of Backstabbing, Blackmailing and Underhandedness
Gut am Arbeitgeber finde ich
Barely anything besides flexibility and a salary above market average.
Schlecht am Arbeitgeber finde ich
Horrible management, lots of micromanagement. A culture of fear and backstabbing instead of encouraging others to learn from their mistakes.
Worst onboarding I have ever had (and I have experienced many)! You have to trudge through more than 25 web-based trainings that all look alike and swamp you with information you either never require or not until several weeks or months. By then you barely remember the details. Instead of shadowing someone else and learn by their example, you have to huddle through everything all by yourself!
And you will have the pleasure to go through trainings every other month. At some point I prefered learning by doing and got more experienced in operating with new systems than others.
They do not even reply to applicants by sending out emails to inform them that their application is not considered. If Microsoft is able to sent out rejections automatically, why does Google refuse to do so? How snobby is that?! Applicants are left in the dark after submitting their application, unless they are invited for an interview. Promoting diversity and always prefering internal applicants or those with an internal referral is also kind of a double standard (that nobody likes to speak about).
Verbesserungsvorschläge
It is all about honest communication and respect. If you feel somebody is underperforming, stop complaining and digging in the past and rather start focusing on the future for fast improvement by having an upfront conversation about how to prevent this in the future. If somebody is not achieving his tasks in the required amount of time, question yourself: Is it due to work overload? Instead of blaming someone to better organize themselves, consider if this person is handling the double amount of work. Start appreciating people for their efforts. I was never a day sick, I never complained about too much pressure and always tried my best. But here only statistics and results count, even if they are out of your hands which is typical in recruiting - especially when you do it within Google and its ludicrous hiring processes: Long processes with 6-7 inteviews that raise the chance of failure, difficult markets in smaller countries and hiring managers who are never satisfied and even reject candidates that successfully completed the whole process. What a shame!
Arbeitsatmosphäre
Google has a problem with its culture. Your evaluation and your career are 100% in the hands of a single person: the individual who is managing you. And if that person is not a good manager then you might be in trouble. After I was told the areas I needed to improve on, supervisors were unwilling to accept invites from me to any meetings to discuss my improvement. At the same time you are being told to become better. You are criticized every week for little things like sending a chat instead of an email or for asking team colleagues for their input, guidance, or help. Long-term employees will follow up with supervisors when you ask them for information or confirmation about correct procedures. This is not a culture that fosters knowledge gathering or learning by doing mistakes. Even little failures like not responding to an email within 24 hours can get you into trouble. This can be very pressuring in an emotional way, but I saw it as a challenge. Other colleagues stated to get tired and demotivated by the constant pressure and criticism of supervisors. When you would ask female superiors for help, they often replied like "Why do you think that things work like this?"
Kommunikation
Whenever there is a complaint, project managers will not follow up with you directly, but will report it to supervisors. And it may be even something simple like you sending project updates via email instead of scheduling a video call. Whenever something went wrong, superiors would start a conversation over chat to address an unpleasent topic which is not a suitable way of delivering feedback. But apparently I was not worth more time. Same thing the other way round: Whenever I had a manager not abiding by deadlines or missing out on important actions, I was supposed to report this to supervisors like a snitch. I do not feel comfortable to treat superior colleagues like that. But I was explicitley adviced to do so in a team meeting with 20 Googlers by completing a form. If this is the kind of culture Google is promoting, then their employer brand is advertising BS. When I reached out to ask colleagues for guidance after working there for 2-3 months only, they often replied with "You're supposed to know that." Funnily the same colleagues with several years of experience also asked many basic things that even I as a Noogler could answer. This creates a culture of fear and degradation!
Kollegenzusammenhalt
When colleagues report your questions to supervisors and twist your words to give a false impression of your lack of knowledge, then you do not feel like you can trust the friendly co-worker you had so many laughters with. And if you make this experience with several long-term colleagues, then you come to the conclusion that this is part of the Google culture. While you are up for termination, colleagues reach out to to you to ask basic things like how many days of vacation Google grants and then you will observe how they get promoted instead of you because you asked the wrong person. I was always happy to answer every basic question, while I could not help but wonder how they hire people who ask me things like that after working there longer than I did. People who were unable to do basic operations on the system themselves (like finding applications or applicants) or people who chewed their fingernails during video calls. You work with a lot of smart people here, but also with a lot of cheap staff from far abroad who are barely able to speak proper English. And then you will be held accountable for their mistakes when you do not ensure that you will clean up their mess afterwards.
Work-Life-Balance
Do not trust those colorful and lively images you see on social media of Googlers working from anywhere in the world. Google is choosing to go for a hybrid model, forcing employees to come to the office from Tuesday to Thursday. Several applicants withdrew their application after finding out that a company that is actually producing technology for remote work is not living up to this culture. There are only a few people who were eligible to work fully from remote. After joining the team, several new joiners left right away for several months for parental leave or due to sickness. So after I joined, my projects doubled from 8 to 16. I received complex cases that were out of the norm and even my supervisors did not know about the legal singularities that I was confronted with. Each project contained different guidelines and handling everything on time and without any mistake as a recent new joiner was completely unrealistic! While other colleagues had the same staffing position over and over again, I was dealing with all sorts of positions. I never complained about this and enjoyed the variety, but soon I realized that the workload was not bearable without extra hours.
Vorgesetztenverhalten
Never in my life have I been so mismanaged! While handling 16 projects as a new joiner, they noticed that I was making crucial mistakes or responding slower to requests. I suggested to get faster by asking for the permission to do extra hours, but whenever I did that I only heard: "No one on the team is asking for extra hours so often as you do." Well, no one on the team was handling 16 projects simultaneously! Actually, not even anyone else on the other recruiting teams could top this amount. Usually they were handling 6-12 projects. Whenever I was closing a project, they assigned me for another project right the next day instead of distributing work more wisely among us. I never complained. I never stated to get tired or begged for help and I did not receive any acknowledgement for it. There has never been a positive word or thankfulness for the majority of things that I was managing correctly. There have only been harsh words and investigations for further mistakes. And there is always a new failure, because nobody works flawlessly. They would even criticize my wording on mails stating "Please excuse the late response, it was a busy week." Micromanagement at its best! Horrible.
Interessante Aufgaben
Depending on your projects, you have a lot of routine, because they are all alike or you have a lot of pressure, because each role is handled differently. The company's motto is "Thrive in ambuigity", but not until you have worked there, you will understand what this really means. It means that you are always missing necessary information to guide your projects successfully. This is the case, because Google is sharing all the information on a need-to-know basis. That frequently leads to you reading through guidelines and then finding out that you do not possess access to the additional resources or the second part of it. Each process consists of many pieces of information and it will take you quite a while until you receive access to all of them. By the time you have gained acces, they might be revised and replaced by new ones that are locked. Apparently they might think your work is too boring and then they change the previous guidelines by increasing the number of process steps. Even a reduction of the process itself is a new process you need to learn first. This results into constant chaos. Each role requires different amounts of interviews or specific interviewer requirements.
Gleichberechtigung
When work is being distributed unevenly, than I do not get the feeling of equality. Every quarter you would watch people exceed at their OKRs, because they operate solely within the same business, fill one pipeline for several projects and never have to deal with internal transfers. But if you have to staff a variety of roles with individual pipelines, this requires more time and effort. I do NOT understand why the work was distributed so unevenly? I had to deal with several internal applicants and they can turn your work life into a living hell, because they do not shy away from contacting you constantly or putting pressure on you. They might even complain to superiors. They will burry you with daily calls, chat messages and emails longer than a great tome. Same for hiring managers: Even if the candidate cannot relocate or join the business earlier than in 3-4 months, they will pressure you with daily mails to fasten the process, although this will not enable the candidate to start one day earlier. Especially some female hiring managers were acting very aggressively: Whenever something did not suit their will, they would immediately prompt an escalation without further discussion.
Umgang mit älteren Kollegen
Google is making a very big deal about diversity. However, the majority of colleagues is in their late 20s or 30s. I had barely worked with anyone over 40 or 50. They want people in their 20s and 30s who always exceed expectations, who are keen to do the double amount of work and who are constantly seeking a promotion. If you haven’t been promoted for the past 5 years and are no longer young, then they will look for someone who they think of having more potential. I do not think they would like to hire anyone older there. Most of the open position suggest 10-15 years of work experience, but the most people that actually own the necessary skills, have significantly more than 15 years of experience, but are often not considered. Think about it: Have you ever seen a middle-aged new joiner being promoted at LinkedIn (as Google loves to protray every other week)? I haven't. They are always young, riding their bycycle to work or run to the office with their dog.
Arbeitsbedingungen
You receive a lot of autonomy and freedom to accomplish your work. However, since you work internationally, project leaders kind of expect you to be available anytime: Early in the morning, late in the evening. Responsiveness is a plus. I tried to live up to that expectation by prolonging breaks. But even then you end up checking your inbox every hour, otherwise you will end up with receiving a complaint that "you have not made yourself available to the business". There have been several times, where I answered calls around 7 pm from people with technical issues and I came online to fix them immediately saving some candidates their day. I never received acknowledgement for that from superiors. And when I missed to do that just once, it lead to a huge complaint by superiors. If you are operating in EMEA and a quarter of your project leaders are based in the US, you do feel the need to align to their working hours by starting and finishing later, but then you might receive a complaint from superiors when your status is not up-to-date, even though other colleagues or new joiners on the team are always appear as absent while working. This appears like unequal treatment to me.
Umwelt-/Sozialbewusstsein
If you would care about the environment and the reduction of emission, you would not ask people to come to the office for no reason! All my colleagues were spread across Europe. Everyone was in a different European country. So even if I would go to the office, I would not meet any single one of them! Furthermore, you cannot work from every office. We have colleagues that needed to relocate from Hamburg to Munich and got paid for this, although both cities have an office. This is so ridiculouss.
Gehalt/Sozialleistungen
That's what keeps people here. There are several people who are not satisfied with their role, but instead of leaving the company, they seek an internal transfer to maintain their salary. I have also seen colleagues leave, because they received a better offer from other companies. For other areas of responsibility, we often have candidates who receive offers below their current salary depending on their location.
Image
Employer branding is doing its best on social media, but wait until you look behind the curtain.
Karriere/Weiterbildung
Fixed-term employees do not have any perspective on joining the business in the long run. And my team consisted of 70% of fixed-term employees. What a promising prospect! In order to be hired, you have to prove that you are willing to take over further projects beside "just recruiting". And when you observe how the same fixed-term employees take over one project after another by leading initiatives while oneself never gets the chance to do so, you feel pranked. Especially, when they barely express a sufficient level of language skills while doing so. But apparently this is not what Google values that much.