The Google logo is displayed at Google headquarters on February 02, 2023 in Mountain View, California.
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A former Google worker said the corporate has lost its way, writing in a recent blog post that Google is inefficient, affected by mismanagement and paralyzed by risk.
Praveen Seshadri joined the Alphabet-owned company in the beginning of 2020 when Google Cloud acquired AppSheet, which Seshadri co-founded. He said within the blog post Monday that though he was welcomed and treated well, he left Google with an understanding that the “once-great company has slowly ceased to operate.” He left in January, in line with his LinkedIn profile.
Seshadri argued it is a “fragile moment” for Google, particularly due to recent pressures it’s facing to compete with Microsoft‘s artificial intelligence initiatives. Seshadri said Google’s problems should not rooted in its technology, but in its culture.
“The best way I see it, Google has 4 core cultural problems,” Seshadri said. “They’re all of the natural consequences of getting a money-printing machine called ‘Ads’ that has kept growing relentlessly every 12 months, hiding all other sins. (1) no mission, (2) no urgency, (3) delusions of exceptionalism, (4) mismanagement.”
Google didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.
As a substitute of working to serve customers, Seshadri argued most employees ultimately serve other Google employees. He described the corporate as a “closed world” where working extra hard is not necessarily rewarded. Seshadri said feedback is “based on what your colleagues and managers consider your work.”
Seshadri said Google is hyper-focused on risk and that “risk mitigation trumps the whole lot else.” Every line of code, every launch, nonobvious decisions, changes from protocol and disagreements are all risks that Googlers need to approach with caution, Seshadri wrote.
He added that employees are also “trapped” in an extended line of approvals, legal reviews, performance reviews and meetings that leave little room for creativity or true innovation.
“Overall, it’s a soft peacetime culture where nothing is price fighting for,” Seshadri wrote “The people who find themselves inclined to fight on behalf of shoppers or latest ideas or creativity soon learn the downside of doing so.”
Seshadri said Google has also been hiring at a rapid pace, which makes it difficult to nurture talent and results in “bad hires.” Many employees also consider the corporate is “truly exceptional,” Seshadri said, which implies that a variety of antiquated internal processes live on because “that is the way in which we do it at Google.”
Seshadri said Google has a probability to show things around, but he doesn’t think the corporate can proceed to succeed by merely avoiding risk. He argues that Google must “lead with commitment to a mission,” reward individuals who fight for “ambitious causes” and trim the layers of middle management.
“There may be hope for Google and for my friends who work there, but it’s going to require an intervention,” he wrote.
