Google is deteriorating at the edges - Senior Software Engineer Google Employee Review

2.0
Jun 16, 2008
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

You interact with great developers, original thinkers and interesting people all the time. Unlimited munchies are great, three free meals a day (or two in satellite offices) is great, medical benefits, partial subsidy of fitness membership, subsidy for ongoing education (though in reality you are unlikely to have time to use it) are all pluses. Being on the winning team feels good, especially when winning an uphill battle against an entrenched monopolist.

Cons

The days when Google was the coolest place in the world to work are gone. Google is deteriorating at the edges. Many managers at Google got their jobs just by having low employee numbers and are otherwise unqualified. Once entrenched they tend to show little concern for their reports, concerning themselves with "managing up" to their own manager. Google is supposed to have a project matrix where tech leads are peers, not managers, but managers commonly flout this and micromanaging is endemic. Moving between projects is limited by complex procedures and is rarely attempted. In satellite offices the selection of projects to work on is limited and to make matters worse it is discouraged for engineers to work on projects not centered in their own offices. Being friends with your manager is a more effective way to get promoted than showing competence. In fact, showing too much competence or initiative is a good way to earn the ire of your manager. Performance evaluation is supposed to be by peer review but in reality, feedback from peers is ignored and only the manager's rating is taken seriously. Political infighting and character assassination are increasingly the norm at Google. Managers turn a blind eye to it, perhaps because they have found such techniques useful in developing their own careers. Google base compensation is on the low side, and is supposed to be more than made up for by incentive bonuses, but these are largely illusionary because few employees receive the necessary "exceeds expectations" performance evaluation. Managers at Google tend to consider themselves special people, better than engineers. Few will bother to greet or otherwise acknowledge the existence of anybody other than another manager if they pass them in the hall. Except for the weekly TGIF cross-company sessions where the founders candidly answer questions from all employees, management at Google is increasingly secretive about procedures and plans.

Explore other reviews about Google

5.0
Jun 3, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great place to work in my whole career

Cons

No complaint at all. So far so good

4.0
Jun 21, 2013
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

1) Food, food, food. 15+ cafes on main campus (MTV) alone. Mini-kitchens, snacks, drinks, free breakfast/lunch/dinner, all day, errr'day. 2) Benefits/perks. Free 24:7 gym access (on MTV campus). Free (self service) laundry (washer/dryer) available. Bowling alley. Volley ball pit. Custom-built and exclusive employee use only outdoor sport park (MTV). Free health/fitness assessments. Dog-friendly. Etc. etc. etc. 3) Compensation. In ~2010 or 2011, Google updated its compensation packages so that they were more competitive. 4) For the size of the organization (30K+), it has remained relatively innovative, nimble, and fast-paced and open with communication but, that is definitely changing (for the worse). 5) With so many departments, focus areas, and products, *in theory*, you should have plenty of opportunity to grow your career (horizontally or vertically). In practice, not true. 6) You get to work with some of the brightest, most innovative and hard-working/diligent minds in the industry. There's a "con" to that, too (see below).

Cons

1) Work/life balance. What balance? All those perks and benefits are an illusion. They keep you at work and they help you to be more productive. I've never met anybody at Google who actually time off on weekends or on vacations. You may not hear management say, "You have to work on weekends/vacations" but, they set the culture by doing so - and it inevitably trickles down. I don't know if Google inadvertently hires the work-a-holics or if they create work-a-holics in us. Regardless, I have seen way too many of the following: marriages fall apart, colleagues choosing work and projects over family, colleagues getting physically sick and ill because of stress, colleagues crying while at work because of the stress, colleagues shooting out emails at midnight, 1am, 2am, 3am. It is absolutely ridiculous and something needs to change. 2) Poor management. I think the issue is that, a majority of people love Google because they get to work on interesting technical problems - and these are the people that see little value in learning how to develop emotional intelligence. Perhaps they enjoy technical problems because people are too "difficult." People are promoted into management positions - not because they actually know how to lead/manage, but because they happen to be smart or because there is no other path to grow into. So there is a layer of intelligent individuals who are horrible managers and leaders. Yet, there is no value system to actually do anything about that because "emotional intelligence" or "adaptive leadership" are not taken seriously. 3) Jerks. Sure, there are a lot of brilliant people - but, sadly, there are also a lot of jerks (and, many times, they are one and the same). Years ago, that wasn't the case. I don't know if the pool of candidates is getting smaller, or maybe all the folks with great personalities cashed out and left, or maybe people are getting burned out and it's wearing on their personality and patience. I've heard stories of managers straight-up cussing out their employees and intimidating/scaring their employees into compliance. 4) It's a giant company now and, inevitably, it has become slower moving and is now layered with process and bureaucracy. So many political battles, empire building, territory grabbing. Google says, "Don't be evil." But, that practice doesn't seem to be put into place when it comes to internal practices. :(

3865
See reviews by: Helpful|Rating|Date|All