Google veterans: The company has become ‘unrecognizable’ (GOOG)

From CNBC, December 31:

• Google employees shared why 2019 was a pivotal year for the company’s history.
• Former workers shared why they left the company, citing organizational changes and a lack of transparency from management.
• Workers said the company’s culture has turned into the opposite of what the founders said they had hoped for.

When Google co-founders Larry Page and President Sergey Brin stepped down from their roles as CEO and president of Google holding company Alphabet earlier this month, it marked the end of an era. While it’s unclear what prompted the two to leave their formal management positions, longtime employees, many of whom also left the company this year, described to CNBC a massive cultural shift that percolated throughout 2019.

They cited changes to Google’s all-hands meetings, human resources processes and transparency from management.

Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai in October admitted the company’s challenge in scaling the trust of its own workforce which numbers more than 100,000 people. More recently, Lazlo Bock, former director of human resources for Google, told Bloomberg that he thinks Alphabet is “a different company than it used to be” but that “not everyone’s gotten the memo.”

The change has been noticed by some on the outside, too. “What the hell is going on over there?” tweeted Andreessen Horowitz partner Martin Casado over the summer. “The brain drain at Google right now is astonishing.”

Google declined to comment....

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