A Googler who just resigned after 18 years reflects on the decline of the company he loved
A Googler who just resigned after 18 years reflects on the decline of the company he loved
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Amazes how can one "love a company". It's just a job. Do it, do it well and get your paycheck. That's it. The company will never love you back anyway.
Find a job you love and you’ll never work another day in your life. I believe that was Churchill.
I enjoy the line of work I’m in. I don’t always enjoy the companies that I do it in. Some are much better than others. It’s fine to like or even love where you work as long as you realize that you’re in what could easily become an abusive relationship at any time. Do your time and do it well but don’t go out of your way to do it. That’s what I strive for.
Indeed, loving the line of work that you're in is different from loving the company that you're in. It's a very important distinction to make.
Your company doesn't love you back. Someday they may find themselves needing to balance some numbers in a spreadsheet and out you go, regardless of how many years you've spent there and how much you love doing what they're asking you to do. In the meantime, they're using you how they see fit, not necessarily in the way that's best for you. You need to watch out for yourself.
I'm not saying you shouldn't try to get a job that you love, just make very sure that you're not misdirecting the love of your job to loving your company. It'll hurt when you find out it's not mutual and you may not be properly prepared for the subsequent job search.
Indeed, loving the line of work that you’re in is different from loving the company that you’re in. It’s a very important distinction to make.
That's what I meant.
I think this is a chain of people all nodding in agreement with each other.
yup
You nailed it at the end. Loving a company, especially these days, is exactly how you end up overworked and underpaid. Like a job/company, don't love it.
When you join a company early, and there aren't many other people employed, you make much more of a difference than if you're one of thousands. You have much more influence in defining the product, steering the direction of the company, defining the workplace culture.
You're not wrong that employees are replaceable, and the company will replace you if it needs or wants to, but in the beginning, it can very much feel like you're part of a group of people who are working together to effectively build lives, support their families, interests, etc. The company isn't just a legal entity that exchanges money for labor, it's a thing you're helping build with a kind of community, that you're investing time into in exchange for the means to a better life.
Replace the word company with "family", "army" or country and you will see where your description of the discard process is only one imaginary line of "how bad things happen"
No
Do you prefer to hear good stories?
I prefer to read coherent comments
Lame.
why limit yourself when you can get a paycheck and enjoy your job at the same time? consider how many hours of your life you spend at work.
You people need to seriously improve your reading skills: I'm talking about how absurd is "loving a company". You can enjoy the job, of course, but "the company" isn't you friend nor your lover and never will be.
Exactly, you can love "working at a company" but to "love a company" you have to be brainwashed.
What about a small company? What if it's your own business and it only employs family? What if you are the only employee? It's okay to have an emotional stake in a business, just probably not when it's a megacorp you're on the lowest rung of.
They don't really mean love, they mean identity, but we don't have good ways to talk about this stuff.
Obviously you can't love an abstract entity. But you can let it come to be part of how you see yourself, which also happens when you're in a relationship. So often we talk about that feeling of love when we're talking about parts of our identity - jobs, hobbies, music interests, etc.
I disagree with your notion that a person is not or cannot love an abstract entity however I do not care enough to explain or elaborate in this comment, feel free to enquire if you're curious
I love this response.
That's all a bit Stockholm Syndrome.
Sure, make your company your identity when it's your company - i.e. you built it and have at least a say on were it goes to - but otherwise you're just getting attached to something were you have little real power and others tell you what to do to serve their ideas and their interests, not yours.
Frankly the only type of situation were I would see it as healthy to become so entwinned with a company is when it's a tiny thing were you are indeed an irreplaceable member and have a genuine say over at least some of it, and that's not going to be the case with a behemoth as Google were "you're a valued employee" is something that comes on e-mails starting with "dear sir/madam".
Mind you, I've been involved in Tech and Startups on and off since the 90s and the whole "getting employes to bind their identity with the company so that you can make them sacrifice themselves for the company" has been a purposeful strategy used by Tech companies (Google standing out by being unusually heavy users of that HR technique), all the way since the original Internet boom.
(It's a bit like what's done in the Military all over the World, but at least in those the Greater Cause is supposedly one's nation, whilst here the Greater Cause is delivering more profits to some individuals who don't give a rats ass about you)
Having your identity entwinned with your profession itself is understandable, but having it entwinned with a specific employee for whom you're but a "human resource" is incredibly naive and not at all healthy.
Having a pathologically vicious organization like a corporation as part of your identity seems incredibly unhealthy to me as well, about on par with having a religion as part of your identity. Only nations are worse.
Incidentally, Stockholm Syndrome doesn't exist, it's an artifact of the rich warping justice. It was made up by Hurst's lawyers to override his daughter's wish to face the legal consequences of her being an active member of a left wing militant group.
I disagree. Imagine any club or group of people getting together to tackle a problem, with a common vision, a culture, and social values. It can be more than just liking the people, as the group-ideals can kept even as the people cycle in and out.
You can like club/organization for what actions it encourages, what it stands for, the benefit it provides people with, and the lines it collectively agrees not to cross.
Some good organizations have revenue, and we call them businesses.
I agree 99.9% of companies "won't love you back" but it's not 100%.