https://mtlynch.io/why-i-quit-google/
Interesting but has a tiny whiff of self entitlement.
His projects being cancelled must have been pretty annoying, though.
I would say more naive than self-entitled
1. "Why I left Google/Facebook/Moz" meme seems to be the preferred viral article for your company launch these days... as in this case. Matt Cutts maybe being the exception
2. The classic mistake of youth:
QuoteThat conversation made me realize that I'm not Google. I provide a service to Google in exchange for money.
I got inoculated at 20 when my sister told me that her company (DEC) had bought out an amusement park for the day for DEC employees. I thought that was amazing. She explained that the purpose of such activities was to make sure that much of your social life revolved around the company so that it would make quitting more painful.
3. And a lesson from academia if he had been paying attention in college
QuoteBefore starting any task, I asked myself whether it would help my case for promotion. If the answer was no, I didn't do it.
People always complain that professors don't "work" and don't put enough effort into teaching. In most universities, however, the tenure committee, like the Google promo committees, don't really look at your teaching. If your portfolio of publications is good, you get promoted. If you had great research technique (like coding skills) and your research did not result in publications with the university's name on them or grant money, it doesn't matter if you're the best researcher in the world, you don't get tenure.
So young professors choose projects of limited scope that are guaranteed publication and put as little time as possible into teaching.
If he had asked himself, "Why do so many of my professors suck?" he would have known this.
Google's bureaucracy managed to turn an alternative forward looking workplace into just another Dilbert style scenario.
When the workplaces creates elaborate rules with rigid criteria for accomplishing simple things (like promoting people), that's when you know the workplace is spending way too much time
looking busy than actually getting anything accomplished.
I think this employee has a legitimate complaint about the promotion process.
He appears to make a good case for a pay raise and a title change to reflect his elite coder status. But feel it might be a waste to promote him to a position of authority over other workers based on his strengths as a coder.
Can't tell you how much I hated management meetings because it meant I had to spend an hour and a half shooting down busy-work "solutions" that contributed to the documentation of bugs but did zero to actually solve the problems.
QuoteManager A:
So we discovered we have a problem with workers being unable to complete their shift work.
Manager Dumbass:
Let's create a worksheet that the workers have to fill out documenting exactly what work was completed.
Me:
No. That's just going to take time away from completing the work. How about their manager step into their shoes for a day or two and figure out what tools, resources, equipment they need in order to do their jobs properly. Translation: Rather than create busy work, how about we actually solve the problem.
Quote from: martinibuster on March 01, 2018, 07:04:43 PM
Manager Dumbass:
Let's create a worksheet that the workers have to fill out documenting exactly what work was completed.
You must download this podcast interview with Ricardo Semler and listen if you have not heard a good interview with him before.
https://tim.blog/2017/03/19/ricardo-semler/
Ergophobe, thank you for that link. I listened to the whole two hours this afternoon and I will be certain to listen again. Absolutely top-notch!
I downloaded it to listen for my next road trip, Thanks!
Buckworks - glad you enjoyed it. One of the better interviews I've come across.
MB - you'll enjoy it