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Internal Microsoft Email about Life at Google
Posted by
CmdrTaco
on Wed Jun 27, 2007 09:26 AM
from the i-wish-i-had-a-cafeteria dept.
from the i-wish-i-had-a-cafeteria dept.
An anonymous reader wrote in to give us "An interesting perspective on Google, from an internal email sent around Microsoft. Basically an interview that provides analysis about how Google compares to Microsoft from an employee perspective. Included are suggestions for what Microsoft might copy in order to stay competitive in the job market and criticisms of Google's "college kid" atmosphere."
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Internal Microsoft Email about Life at Google
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isn't this normal? (Score:5, Insightful)
"People are generally in the building between 10am and about 6pm every day, but nearly everyone is on e-mail 24/7 and most people spend most of their evenings working from home."
Wow - I dunno about the rest of the world, but for our company that's the norm and we're all in our 30s/40s working for a marketing company
Re:isn't this normal? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:isn't this normal? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:isn't this normal? (Score:5, Interesting)
I have no problem with keeping an eye on email every time I walk by my computer, and responding or fixing a problem or 2 here and there. It keeps Everyone (including my co-workers) happy, and generally doesn't cost me much. There's only been a few times when I had to put something fairly important (to me) away, and almost never that I had to stop something -very- important. (Usually someone else will step in and do it, instead.)
One of my co-workers DOES spend a ton of time at home working, and I kick myself for lack of work ethic whenever I realize he's spent time working at home. I then realize that I already over-work anyhow, so no biggie.
I think a lot of the people that complain about these working conditions have never actually experienced them. I've been in the cube farm of a major OEM and a major telecommunications company, and I've done retails in different stores, and I -far- prefer to work a little harder here and know the people around me are doing the same, for the good of ourselves and the company. It's a completely different feeling and I don't ever think, 'Man, if I have to deal with that lazy bugger again today...' Every other job I've had, I've had to do someone else's work because they were too lazy. I'm not saying that'll never happen here, but it hasn't so far (near 2 years now).
My point: Don't judge a book by its cover. Just because 1 aspect of the job seems to suck doesn't mean there aren't 2 others that make up for it.
Re:isn't this normal? (Score:5, Insightful)
You have to draw a line between work and life, before work takes over your life. If these guys have to stay in tune with what is going on at work all the time, they are setting themselves up for less enjoyment of life.
Re:isn't this normal? (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://slashdot.org/ | Last Journal: Thursday May 12 2005, @09:37AM)
In other words, you have to set your limits, because many employers will be happy to take all they can get from you, without thought to the future.
Unfortunately, in an employment situation like we have now in the US, there is little-to-no disincentive for employers to put workers on the burnout track, as a matter of course.
Re:isn't this normal? (Score:4, Interesting)
(http://plane-disaster.sf.net/ | Last Journal: Monday March 25 2002, @08:01PM)
In other words, you have to set your limits, because many employers will be happy to take all they can get from you, without thought to the future.
Unfortunately, in an employment situation like we have now in the US, there is little-to-no disincentive for employers to put workers on the burnout track, as a matter of course.
There seem to be plenty of places to go after google, or any other "burnout track" job. Although you are kinda like an abused foster kid at that point. It takes you a while to learn to behave in "normal" manner, at least that was my experience. Granted I didn't work at MS or Google, but a place that qualified as "not normal" in many regards. I think in the long run it was a beneficial experience, as it has made me better at what I do. I'll never be a manager, but I am happier that way.
Re:isn't this normal? (Score:5, Insightful)
I know so many people in IT that work more, 8 or 9am to 7pm, or more, and often work from home too...
I was approached by Google, got interviewed, and at the end declined because I wasn't technical enough to be the Director of Engineering (or something like that as a tittle). Which is utter bs. There was not a single question about management. It was 100% technical, which is fine, I am very technical and have always been, and in all my reviews at all my jobs was/am always told one of the most technically savy person. Their style of questions was grilling you more and more and going deeper and deeper into the questions and technicalities until you failed. Started as what is TCP and UDP to going down and down and down the stack, syncookies, handshakes, how it works, to how sequence numbers are generated and more to more obscure points... At one point I couldn't answer anymore.
I used to know but not anymore. I told them, and I told them a 2 minute search on google itself will turn up the results so there is no need to know that by heart. In all my previous jobs, and that is my way of thinking, initial knowledge is not what gets the job done. Ability to do research and learn quickly IS the most important thing.
In my opinion people there at google tend to be pretentious and full of themselves. But that is my personal opinion and I am glad I don't work there in fact, sure there are some nice benefits and all, but it isn't everything. I got a few job offers and work for one of the best company around, and in my mind a much better company than Google...
Re:isn't this normal? (Score:5, Insightful)
I thought the US had abolished slavery. Why on earth does anyone put up with that??? Is the job market really that bad?
I can accept a few days of overtime pending product launch, but if a company expected me to me available like that I would tell them to go f*** themselves.
Re:isn't this normal? (Score:4, Insightful)
(http://www.edgiardina.com/)
I haven't made the mistake because it is true.
The definition I am using is: a person who is the property of and wholly subject to another; a bond servant. This is from dictionary.com . The closest definition I can find to the way you are using the word is: a person entirely under the domination of some influence or person . Even if we use the more generous second meaning; it simply does not apply, because one can simply be undominated by work by simply not showing up or doing it.
When the alternative is starving in the gutter, that's close enough to coercion for most people.
Let me ask you this: Imagine we are 8000 years in the past. An prehistoric farmer is carving out a meek farming existence. He carefully tills the soil with hand tools and scratches out a basic existence on what little he can cull from the soil. Is he then a slave to his farm? Is he a slave to the fact that he is an animal, and must, from time to time, feed his belly? What is coercing him to farm?
The answer is, he is not coerced. There is no force. He is free to starve. Just because men must provide for their own survival does not enslave them. If that were the case, using that definition, under no circumstances could a man *not* be a slave. And in which case, all men are slaves and then there's no such thing as slavery.
Re:isn't this normal? (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://www.lazylightning.org/)
I hate this. When did people become so obsessed with work? I've posted my feelings about doing work on "personal time" before and I'm going to restate it here: When you leave the office, you're done. Regardless of how the company decides to pay you and regardless of your own warped feelings about how you should operate, you should NOT work once you leave.
Leave work at work even if you LOVE your job. You should LOVE your personal time a ton more.
In my opinion people there at google tend to be pretentious and full of themselves.
I feel the same way about people that feel that they are so important that they must work from home... It's as if the world will stop turning if they take vacation or have personal time. I work with a woman like that and being that she spends most of her day taking personal phone calls and playing Hearts, I have a real problem with her telling everyone how important her job is to the institution.
Re:Who died and made you boss? (Score:5, Insightful)
As long as it doesn't intrude on my life, I'm all for that. However, if you work 24/7 and our mutual boss wants to know why I'm not accomplishing 20 tasks a day, that gets annoying and your work habit is affecting me. If our mutual boss decides to make you the "norm" and expects everyone to follow suit, then you've created an environment for burnout and your work habit is affecting me. If you get in the habit of working 24/7 and you catch a cold and come in to work anyway, and I catch your cold, your work habit is affecting me. You infect me with a cold and I'm staying home, dammit. You infect other, saner, people and they'll stay home too.
Allowing someone to behave detrimentally in a work environment sets a dangerous precedent because nobody works in a bubble; it changes the work culture to one that benefits the organization unequally over the individual, it creates health risks, and combined, potentially skews a society's economy. That's why I care if *you* work yourself to the bone. You're not only my colleague but you're a barometer of the world around me.
Re:Who died and made you boss? (Score:4, Insightful)
Not if he dies before you get to know him.
Not being dramatic, just pointing out the flaw in the argument.
Re:isn't this normal? (Score:5, Insightful)
(Last Journal: Tuesday June 27 2006, @08:05AM)
The thing that really, really bothered me about the interview process was that if they are hiring for a "senior level" position (in my case they were), basing their hiring decision on whether you know which bit is flipped on or off in a TCP header is more likely to favor the recent college graduate who happened to memorize his textbook and has no real world experience, than the experienced career veteran that has probably forgotten more than the college grad ever knew. That's most likely why the workforce is "just like college" and "work experience doesn't matter." Like I said, Google has a lot of bright people, but they lack a lot of real world experience. Maybe that's a good thing (look at problems from a new perspective), but there's something to be said for experience.
Marketing had their fun in college (Score:4, Funny)
From the perspective of someone on the outside... (Score:5, Interesting)
(http://theravensnest.org/ | Last Journal: Sunday October 07, @07:05AM)
Re:From the perspective of someone on the outside. (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://www.josephguhlin.com/blog/)
You can argue it any way you like, Microsoft is a little more agressive in the industry and Google believes if you build a great product people will come(and with their name they believe everything they do is a great product whether it is or isn't because they get people just because of their name). Microsoft has given up on better/quicker and gone for "How to make this necessary?"
Lost me in the first para (Score:3, Insightful)
Ya, right.
Re:Lost me in the first para (Score:4, Informative)
(http://seenonslash.com/ | Last Journal: Friday May 11 2007, @04:02PM)
Biased?
Re:Lost me in the first para (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://evil.google.com/)
College Kid Atmosphere (Score:1, Interesting)
I heard... Over at Google (Score:5, Funny)
My guess is with an army of brain dead Steve Balmers...
Re:I heard... Over at Google (Score:5, Interesting)
That said, give me a Natalie Portman clone and im in! Who needs family time when you have Natalie Portman?!?!
the moment I heard... (Score:3, Insightful)
Why negative responses? (Score:3, Interesting)
(http://www.domainkain.com/)
New Communism? (Score:1, Flamebait)
(Last Journal: Friday June 02 2006, @09:34AM)
Since most of this sounds a bit non-standard with companies, it will be interesting to see how well it ends up working in the long run.
They've got to do something (Score:3, Funny)
(http://www.videosift.com/story.php?id=1780)
Laughable "Google is like my mommy" arguments (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Laughable "Google is like my mommy" arguments (Score:4, Insightful)
I am a family man. The idea of eating 3 meals per day at work doesn't fit at all. Dentistry at work? Interesting, but I'd prefer a traditional plan, because I personally am only 1/6 (less, actually) of the dental needs that I am responsible for. Am I making sense? It seems like the benefits are all based on the employee/company relationship, but most of those needs are already met by my other relationships, and maintaining those is a higher priority for me. Instead of a gourmet meal for myself at work, I'd rather have the cash towards some hamburgers I can eat at home with my family.
So that's it? We just believe this blog? Not me (Score:2, Interesting)
Admittedly, I am cynical, but isn't it common sense to take these things as false until proven true?
Personally, I give this kind of thing as much credence as forwarded-forwarded-forwarded email.
#1 Tip (Score:4, Funny)
(Last Journal: Tuesday June 19, @07:48AM)
I've got to have an office. (Score:3, Interesting)
(Last Journal: Sunday November 05 2006, @05:31AM)
So, if I find myself competing with Google for a candidate, I can see the main lever to apply. Besides matching their salaries, I've got to provide a private office, and make sure that the work is as interesting as whatever they'd be doing at Google.
-jcr
My own experience at Google (Score:3, Informative)
(http://www.demodulated.com/ | Last Journal: Thursday January 05 2006, @01:38PM)
Pay for food? (Score:2)
(http://www.josephguhlin.com/blog/)
I'd say even with the less pay Google offers a better working environment, although career wise it sounds like Microsoft is the way to go(coming from a Microsoft memo, that's the way you would expect it to sound too).
I guess it's hard to demand stuff from the "corporate overlords" but crappy food for $15 isn't going to win me over. They say that I say 1 1/2 hrs for lunch so I have time to get out and get back. I love the ideas of a "tech stop" at google. That sounds just awesome.
Wrong about private office space (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://ilp303.com/)
I used to work in a team room environment, where all the developers sat together in one room (there were 10-15 of us or so), working on the same product. I loved working in that environment. You could talk to anyone just like that right away. Not having to walk for a minute or half a minute makes quite a difference, believe it or not. Since the barrier for asking someone for help or ideas is so low (lean over and speak), it's much easier to quickly bounce off ideas without having to interrupt your own flow. Also, you overhear others' problems and ideas, and pitch in with your own. Countless times I've heard someone lamenting some problem and was able to chip in with "oh I just solved the same issue."
Yes, you must have headphones in the team room, because sometimes you just need to concentrate and headphones are essential to drown out the noise.
Unfortunately, I am back to working in a cube and I miss the team room days.
is Google doomed? (Score:1)
As many have pointed out, many successful companies have started off similarly.
So is Google doomed? Doomed to be a bureaucratic mess with 800 levels between me and, say, Bill Gates with the only people who can really profit off of my work being closer to the top of the pyramid. I've interned a lot of places, but haven't actually had a job. Friends who have tell me such horror stories. Are the creme of the crop CS people destined to either pinball around the tech companies as the are founded and inevitably turn crappy hoping that once they'll get in early enough to ride the wave for the rest of their lives? Or is there a better way? :)
It says volumes about Microsoft... (Score:5, Funny)
(http://www.dpbsmith.com/)
"Dude you shouldn't have published this, why do you even work for microsoft."
and
"You should quit right away"
and
"this is horrible, man you ARE the reason microsoft is suffering!"
and
"What is wrong with you? Why would you publish this? This is internal only"
and
"I cannot believe you posted this. What is wrong with you? Makes me shudder to think what else your pathetic and bereft character would allow yourself to post"
and
"Idiot, idiot, you should quit. You should be ashamed. Hopefully HR will figure out who the hell you are and can your ***."
When I read the posting, my thought was that both Microsoft and Google sounded like interesting places to work, with different profiles of plusses and minuses.
When I read the responses, my thought was that Microsoft must be as full of paranoid conformists as the second circle of Hell. If these responses are typical of the environment, goodness knows what Microsoft does to people who post Dilbert cartoons on their office walls.
Evil Empire (Score:4, Insightful)
Finally, I'm not jealous! (Score:5, Insightful)
Then I got a job at a video game company. It was a smaller firm, but a lot of fun to work at. People were all young (I'm only 26), they had free food and lots of perks. You could go to work in shorts and a tshirt.
But then I started to see the down sides of it all. I worked long hours, and often worked from home. My health insurance wasn't anything special. Being on email till the wee hours of the night was an annoyance.
And then I found another job, and left.
Now I work for a place I have no real feeling of accomplishment, nor is it a place I yearned to work for. But I get in at 10am, I am out the door at the latest by 6pm. I don't work from home. I don't get on email after I leave work. Emergencies come up and then I take care of them, but I am able to separate my work life from my personal life with great distinction. My co-workers are in their 30s and 40s and 50s, all of them have families and leave on time to make sure that they are home to pick up their kids, play with them, and be at their soccer games. They encourage me to leave work and go out on a date, watch a movie, read a book, and do something constructive. They know that working isn't the point of life, but merely a part of it.
And now at the age of 26, I finally have a job that I yearned for, but didn't know I wanted.
Do yourselves a favor -- find a job that will let you live your life reasonably. You will be better at your job because you appreciate it, not because you are dying for it.
I agree, but there's still a downside (Score:4, Interesting)
(http://neilmcallister.com/)
You see it more in larger companies, and especially as companies get closer and closer to government
The problem is, once you have a preponderance of people with that mindset on staff, it becomes difficult to act like the smaller company. When your whole staff is seeking security in their employment, it makes sense that the organization naturally becomes more and more risk-averse. You stop taking chances. There's nobody to rock the boat.
When that really starts to suck is when upper management starts looking at the numbers and they say, "Hey, it's a different market, your department isn't pulling its weight anymore. We need change." In a company full of ambitious over-achievers who have learned to be just a little bit afraid for their jobs, this situation is an opportunity. It's time for new ideas to surface, for the underdog to make his bid for success. New projects get launched. People move offices, start reporting to different bosses. You try stuff.
In a staid, safe, secure work environment, however, this is how it happens: Upper management says "we need change," and the head of your department says, "Yes sir, will do, sir"
And maybe you were at the same meeting that the head of your department was, and maybe you heard that upper management guy saying "we need change," and now you're just sitting there. Twiddling your thumbs. Waiting for the axe to fall. And you go to your boss and you say, "Shouldn't we really be doing this or that?" But he's thinking about his kid's braces and his car payment and his wife's last biopsy, and he doesn't want to rock the boat. So he sends you back to your desk. To wait.
Bitter much? Nah, not me.
Tech stops (Score:5, Interesting)
(http://slashdot.org/~Spy+der+Mann/journal/ | Last Journal: Saturday November 10, @01:50AM)
I strictly work 7.75 hours per day mon-fri (Score:2, Insightful)
(http://stodge.blogspot.com/)
"college kid" atmosphere (Score:2)
Take if from the "last" great thing (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://slashdot.org/ | Last Journal: Monday October 29, @07:20AM)
MS is probably just like that. A husk on cruise control that's driven by costs, bureaucracy and slack. A place where nothing new happens because the executives are paranoid rich blockheads.
Some MS insider should check to see what the average tenure with the company is now. I'm sure its dropping. If it's a really low number like mine is then that's a red flag for a company that just wants to operate on the lowest cost basis, probably out of the country and where innovation and quality are already dead.
I bet (Score:1)
Re:I bet (Score:5, Funny)
(http://slashdot.org/ | Last Journal: Thursday February 21 2002, @04:37PM)
In all fairness, when MS was born there was more gnashing of teeth, the boiling of the black blood of the earth, and child sacrifices.
The most important difference (Score:2, Insightful)
The fact that this was a non-factor in the discussion perhaps indicates that this MS->Google->MS employee really is working where he belongs.
(Yes, I know that Google hasn't perfectly observed its "do no evil" rule, but it still seems a heck of a lot better than M$ in this regard.)
The softies are hatin on this guy (Score:4, Interesting)
Valley culture (Score:4, Interesting)
(http://www.animats.com)
What makes the open plan office thing tolerable at Google is a very large number of modest-sized, well-equipped conference rooms.
Google does go overboard on on-site services designed to keep people at work. I'm surprised they didn't go all the way and build dorms. Some large Japanese companies do that. But the real feel of Google is "overfunded dot-com". Yes, they're profitable. But the profitable part, search, was built some time ago. Most of the technical people in Mountain View are working on Google's money-losing sidelines, like desktop apps. Those are the labor-intensive parts of the business.
Remember that Google is really an ad agency. That's how the money is made. Much of their newer hiring is sales reps for ads. The days when the ad sales just ran on autopilot are over; now Google has to push their ad products. In time, the ad agency people may take over. That will be an interesting culture change.
Google's campus used to be SGI's campus. Most Google buildings are former SGI buildings. So if you've been in the Valley for a while, there's always that reminder that a company can go from #1 to zero in just a few years.
Compare Intel in Santa Clara. Intel looks like Dilbertland. Intel is where cubicle culture began. Intel has built buildings from the ground up with single rooms covering about two acres, full of tiny cubicles. The cubicles are so small that only one chair will physically fit in them; they look like library study carrels. These aren't for call center employees; these are the people who design Intel CPUs.
some highlights (Score:1)
Perks are bad? If Microsoft is hiring people that can't feed themselves if they have to then they got real problems.
"Google has no facility for career growth. Microsoft has more, but could do better. Continuing Microsoft-specific education for things like project management, managing people, communication skills, etc. should be promoted. A structured career plan for each discipline would be great - e.g. training, experiences, milestones, etc. Paths like "Developer to Development Manager" "Developer to Technical Architect" which show what courses and experiences (e.g. being a mentor) are encouraged for the different paths."
This is a philosophical difference, as is Google's lack of structure. Google throws a lot of smart people together and trusts them to work things out without some overpaid consultant giving management tips and designing hierarchical organizational charts.
"Take a cue from Google and loosen up a little about offices. Let people call facilities and have their office painted any color they want. Have the standard office come with a guest chair and a brightly colored Microsoft branded bean-bag chair."
I guess they wouldn't appreciate the Che Guevara poster hanging on my office wall, but bean bag chairs for everyone!
"Most IT problems are trivial when you're in a room together ("oh that Ethernet cable is in the wrong port")"
Oh, so that's why Windows Task Manager crashed on me yesterday, they employ the mildly retarded.
Microsoft spin (Score:2)
(http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~roc)
Life at any company... (Score:1)
Personally, I'd rather have people pick my company to work for because it's a great company and not because the competition is labeled as being worse.
"what Microsoft might copy" (Score:2)
(http://www.dreamhost.com/r.cgi?objekt)
Can there be a balance? (Score:4, Informative)
Here's an example: Most parents would love the idea of on-site daycare for their kids. It's the 2000s, and many women actually want to keep working after they have kids. Making the whole childcare thing easier would definitely keep good, more experienced workers in place and productive.
The problems come when this extra stuff is provided with the understanding that you will work tons of extra hours for it. The college campus atmosphere works for younger workers, but most older ones with families want a balance.
In your 20s, especially in the IT world, you don't have a whole lot of outside commitments. You can go to work, then go home to an empty apartment. This doesn't fly once you get married and you're expected to put time in outside of the office. This is another reason why Big 5 consulting is so attractive to the young. A job where you get to travel, drink in strange places, and make a lot of money is a really easy sell for a new grad.
I think companies (especially software/hardware/services houses) would be really surprised how much a few extra "grown up" perks add to productivity. If I have to make one less trip a day because something's provided, that's more time I can be contributing. One of these things would be an enclosed work space...cube life is annoying especially when you have loud neighbors.
The overtime thing is blown out of proportion. (Score:2, Interesting)
If you don't want to, like me, you can put in your 40 hours a week and be done with it. I work my 8 hours a day and that's that. Nobody asks or expects me to do more.
In fact, even the founders actively encourage people to have a better work-life balance. They've come out and specifically said that if we feel pressured to work overtime then something is wrong.
Private offices for devs at M$? Now I understand.. (Score:3, Insightful)
With team members probably not communicating with anything else than e-mail, no wonder why they can't make a single product without crashing all the others.
No social life (Score:1)
(http://adeydas.com/)
what can Microsoft do? (Score:2)
Here are some suggestions:
- stop trying to win in the market through sleazy business practices
- stop trying to kill open source through FUD; either deliver something that's obviously paying money for, or join open source
- stop delivering products many years late
- stop having your executives perform monkey dances (and fire any that have the bad taste to do it)
- fire the old-timer multi-zillionaires; they make any newcomer feel like a peasant, and they have far too much influence
- stop filing patents on inventions others have made decades earlier
- start making products that matter, as opposed to useless variants of outdated products and "me too" versions of Google and Apple products
Personally, I don't give a damn whether I work in a cubicle or a private office, or whether my company gives me free food or not, but I do care whether I have to be embarrassed mentioning who I'm working for.
Close perspective of Google life (Score:1)
Are these people insane? (Score:2)
From what I read on Wikipedia Google salaries are on the low side. I work as a sysadmin for the federal government - I don't carry a corporate cell phone, work 40 hours a week (16 of those from home) in an environment where working overtime is strongly discouraged because of budget cuts and I make more than twice what Google's entry-level sysadmin does - and live in a considerably lower-cost area than the Bay Area.
I don't get free food but do get a free gym, 10 federal holidays, 13 sick days and 26 vacation days a year - on top of the 104 personal days I already get - and I go home at 3pm every single day. I don't understand why someone would want to work in that kind of a sweatshop. For me, a job is necessary to be able to do the fun stuff - not my reason for existence.
Something i'd Love to See Companies Do (Score:1)
Google's Perks (Score:1)
(http://freetext.jimster.org/)
Life is good at Google (Score:2)
(http://www.levien.com/)
I've been at Google a month now, and I am finding it very satisfying,
even more so than I hoped for. A great deal of the corporate culture
is simply about removing barriers that might keep you from doing your
work. The Tech Stops are a perfect example of that - if you have a
problem, they usually just fix it right then and there.
Before I joined up, I assumed that the meals were basically a strategy
to extract the most hours of work from employees. Now that I'm here,
I'm finding that it doesn't feel like "work late and we'll feed you"
at all. Rather, it's an opportunity to get to know people better, make
friends, build and strengthen those connections. And range and depth
of talent of the people is truly incredible.
There's a lot more to the food than it being free, too. It's not just
that it's "gourmet" either. Amazingly, the people who make and serve
the food are as passionate about it as the engineers are about
software. There's a garden inside the main campus where they grow
veggies, and they use local sources as much as possible. Today, for a
snack I had strawberries that were every bit as good as the wild ones
I picked from patches when I was a boy. Turns out, they were grown
right next to where the barista in my building's coffee bar lives.
Earlier this week, there was pizza for the open source tech talk, and
the guy who made it brought it himself, and chatted with the guests.
That kind of quality and connection is something that I think
everybody should aspire to in their lives, in food and in other areas.
I can see that not everybody would have a good experience working for
Google, especially people who need their hand held all the time, or
who have difficulty balancing the demands of work, life, family, etc.
I personally like being treated like a grown-up, and appreciate being
able to treat other people the same. But the culture there probably
isn't for everybody.
Re:HR at work (Score:1, Redundant)
Re:HR at work (Score:1, Offtopic)
(Last Journal: Wednesday February 14 2007, @09:49AM)
I bet they do a lot of TPS reports.
Re:Fun with FUD (Score:2)
Re:Fun with FUD (Score:4, Interesting)
(http://www.nymar.demon.co.uk/)
hmmm... a while back there was speculation that Microsoft had despaired of ever having its press releases taken seriously, and instead had started to release company PR disguised as "leaks" about which it would then pretend to get vary annoyed.
By doing so, instead of everyone going "ho-hum - more PR from Redmond" they'd take the leaked document very seriously. Then someone would pipe up with, "you know, if you think about it, Microsoft really don't sound too that bad in this", and everyone would take that seriously too. Because, you know, if it wasn't true, why would they be so angry?
So I suppose it's possible that Microsoft employees aren't the intended audience here...
Re:I always knew (Score:2, Interesting)
1. People work too hard
2. There is little privacy
#2 is true and is unfortunate, although it matters less than you think because nobody expects you to be working all the time. #1 is just a load of crap. Some people work hard because they feel like it, but there is very little pressure to do so, and many people do not work hard at all. I average less than 8 hours a day and never work from home, and I have never been given crap about it.
Re:I always knew (Score:2)
(http://slashdot.org/ | Last Journal: Thursday February 21 2002, @04:37PM)