Google: Anything Goes Except Lots of Stuff
August 27, 2019
I read “What It Means to Work at Google When You Can No Longer Say Anything You Want.” This statement caught my attention:
Employees were encouraged to be their true, unfiltered selves on internal social forums as long as they were harnessing that energy to help Google succeed.
The write up quotes a Google internal memo that allegedly says:
Billions of people rely on us every day for high-quality, reliable information. It’s critical that we honor that trust and uphold the integrity of our products and services…
I also found this passage interesting:
An office environment that harms some workers and moderation policies that harm some users may be separate problems, but in Google’s case, the former never prodded the company to do anything about the latter—until it became a problem with implications for the very health of democracy, and lawmakers started to threaten the company with regulations. And both issues stem from the same formative Silicon Valley worldview that conceptualizes the internet as a place that functions best with as little oversight as possible.
Several observations are warranted because I am not involved in today’s GOOG:
- Google appears to be bewilderment. The perception of itself is different from what some of its employee factions perceive. Money cannot buy obedience. The greatest threat to the country of Google is citizen revolt.
- The Slate write up is a long overdue crtiical look at the weaknesses of Google’s high school science club management methods. For a long time, Google seemed to just make up stuff up as it moved along. That method may not work in today’s wild and crazy business environment.
- Google faces significant competition from Facebook. That’s less of an issue than Amazon, the Bezos bulldozer.
The earth is shaking around Google buildings.
Stephen E Arnold, August 27, 2019
Comments
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
