‘Google Employees Alarmed That the Company Suddenly Expects Them to Do Work’
Maggie Harrison, writing for The Byte last month:
The company is clearly pushing its workers to increase
productivity. In an all-hands meeting a few weeks ago — shortly
after disappointing quarterly earnings were announced — CEO
Sundar Pichai reportedly told employees that “there are real
concerns that our productivity as a whole is not where it needs to
be for the head count we have,” and “we should think about how we
can minimize distractions and really raise the bar on both product
excellence and productivity.”While Google has yet to announce any workforce cuts, its Googlers
are worried that performance ratings might inform any pending
layoff announcements. And considering that a screenshot obtained
by Insider reportedly showed a manager explaining that if next
quarter sales “don’t look up, there will be blood on the streets,”
those fears, uh, definitely check out.
Month-old story, but I hadn’t seen it until today. Just as a quick “does this ring true?” check: When’s the last time Google came out with a major new product or update to an existing product? From a consumer perspective, it really does seem to me that they’ve stagnated.
