[marksomnian]

I really don't get what you're saying here. You get paid for 100% of your time, you just get to work on something beyond your direct responsibilities that still benefits Google for 20% of it.

If you're alluding to "120% time", fair enough, but that's not what GP was referring to.

[alacombe]

> If you're alluding to "120% time", fair enough, but that's not what GP was referring to.

From other comments, it's obvious that 1) Google expects you to do your 100%, and then a 20% on top of that of "Google related projects", most likely owned by Google, for free.

[wtracy]

I've never ever heard of that actually becoming a requirement.

What happens is that some managers really don't buy into the 20% concept, and don't provide time for it. Employees in those teams determined to do it anyway end up doing 120%.

There is absolutely no requirement at Google to put in time on a 20% project.

That said, what happens in practice is that 20% projects are the way that Google engineers are able to move across teams: You pick a team you want to join. You do something for that team as your 20% project with the goal of getting that manager to request your transfer to their team.

So if you're desperate to get off your team without quitting Google, you could get backed into committing 120%.

[lallysingh]

No the official policy is 80%/20%. The joke is 120% when you're assigned too much work for your 80.

[alacombe]

Doesn't seem to be a joke...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/20%25_Project

Former Google employee and Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer once stated “I’ve got to tell you the dirty little secret of Google's 20% time. It's really 120% time.”[6]

https://www.businessinsider.com.au/google-20-percent-time-po...

Yahoo CEO and formal Googler Marissa Mayer once bluntly denied its true existence.

“It’s funny, people have been asking me since I got here, ‘When is Yahoo going to have 20% time?'” she said on stage during an all-employee meeting at Yahoo. “I’ve got to tell you the dirty little secret of Google’s 20% time. It’s really 120% time.”

[Talanes]

I don't see what Marissa Mayer's comments actually add to the discussion. She was obviously acting in PR mode as the CEO of a competitor. It's barely information.

[mondoshawan]

At the time she made this statement, she represented Yahoo, not Google, and was making major changes in its culture to fit her direction. I wouldn't put much stock into these statements.

As a current Googler, I've been spending 20% of my time on self-directed work, and 80% on what is assigned since I started, and my contributions have been to both open/released software and also internal stuff, and I joined in 2006.

[lallysingh]

As an ex-googler, my manager said that we should bank our time and then spend a week on our 20 to make good progress.

[mondoshawan]

That's what I did so much in my early days at Google, banking a week's worth of time and making a huge push. I don't do that too much anymore, though.

[mondoshawan]

Ah, no. Current Googler here: 120% is a misunderstanding of what 20% time is.