[user5994461]

> Google, as a company, doesn't really seem to have any idea of what most individual engineers are doing week to week.

Correct... but also correct if you replace Google by any company.

I've worked from zero management company (ala. Valve) to large fixed hierarchical structure (government).

The company never knows what people are actually doing. If it tries to find it, people will either game the system or waste time to justify they're doing instead of doing it.