[kyrra]

Googler, opinions are my own.

The article links to another piece talking about coasters[0]. Maybe this is from being a grunt senior SWE, I don't think I've ever met a coaster at Google (that gets away with it). People that I knew were slackers that I've worked with have been ushered out the door (or left on their own accord when they couldn't get promo, or were getting low ratings).

But I only interact with a tiny fraction of Google's total employee base, so there is a good chance this happens. We have too much work, and it's pretty obvious when there are coasters in our midst.

At a different company, a friend told me (who was a manager at this company) that he liked keeping coasters/slackers on his team, so that when he was told he had to fire someone (due to a company wide RIF (reduction in force)), he would have someone to sacrifice. But I've never heard of Google doing a RIF, so that doesn't apply here.

[0] https://www.insider.com/rest-and-vest-millionaire-engineers-...

[jrockway]

I dunno. I remember seeing quite a contingent of people not doing very much work at Google. You're walking to a meeting, pass by the game room, and it's always the same group of people playing ping pong no matter the time of the day. You try to grab lunch in a 30 minute slot between meetings, and there's a 45 minute long line to get food. Some people appeared to have a lot more free time than others. I certainly didn't have it.

[longtimegoogler]

Same. I have never met this proverbial rest and vest guy making 7 figures. Most everyone I know is scrambling to survive the performance reviews and get to the next level.

And if your productivity is very low you will get put on an improve or out plan.

[desmosxxx]

In my experience, these slackers do exists in meaningful numbers (maybe most of PIPed but I know at least a few long timers). That said, an even bigger problem is that the majority of people are incentized to slack in some capacity.

The impact & output of work within Google follows something like a perato distribution and yet the payscale is pretty flat. It creates this weird incentive system that almost encourages some base level of slacking unless you really want that promotion. And the difference in output makes it pretty hard to staff project and superstars often end up overworked which is hardly fair to the people doing the work.

This wasn't always the case, but is probably the norm at larger companies. It does seem to me like the way comp is modeled isn't ideal, but I'm definitely not a comp expert. My guess is that more discretion in pay would open companies up to all kinds of legal liabilities not to mention actual unfairness.

All that is to say that there is likely some extra slack that can be let go with little effect.

[mike_d]

(Ex-Googler)

These people aren't on teams you interact with. They have a low enough employee ID and/or a sufficient level that they just mill about on a passion project.

[Melatonic]

I do not work at Google but that is what I have heard from every friend of mine who does. In fact they have all said that it was almost a shock working there at first just how competitive it was. Then again I am sure there could be whole departments with completely different mentalities.

[hn_go_brrrrr]

There are. Some are very collegial, others are...not quite Amazon, but they lean in that direction. Never work in Payments.

[melony]

Are you an employee who worked his/her way up or are you one of those who were acquihired?

[kyrra]

I was previously at Cisco (which aquired Sourcefire, where I was at). That acquisition went poor, so I applied to Google. I did the interview process as a normal SWE at Google. Been there around 7 years now, all in payments.

[melony]

Ask around some of your colleagues who joined as acquihires, especially the early ones.