- November 28th, 2010 by Ryan Denker
Uh oh. It looks like Google is seeing its gears slow down and employees are wanting out. Obviously, there is no such thing as sustainable growth and the search engine has grown to become such a behemoth that its talented employees are looking to move elsewhere before becoming insignificant cogs in the Google machine.
From the NYTimes:
“Google’s gotten to be a lot bigger and slower-moving of a company,” said the former [product] manager, who would speak only on the condition of anonymity to protect business relationships. “At Facebook, I could see how quickly I could get things done compared to Google.”
Apparently, raises and other perks aren’t enough to keep those want out, and employees who want to leave end up doing just that.
Recent departures include low-level engineers, product managers and prominent managers like Lars Rasmussen, who helped create Google Maps and Wave before he left for Facebook, and Omar Hamoui, the founder of AdMob who was vice president for mobile ads at Google and is now looking for his next project. At least 142 of Facebook’s employees came from Google.
The mini exodus may end up not hurting Google at all. The company has grown to be so big and powerful that this sort of thing may be natural as a business or corporation grows to be so dominant.
Eric Schmidt, Chairman and CEO of Google, seems to be convinced that people are “dying to come [to Google],” and “putting up with the complexity.”
Perhaps adding cafeterias, spas, laundry service and playgrounds helps just a little bit. After all, why let the employees have much of a life outside of the Googleplex when they can get everything done from within the compound?
One thing is for sure: the changes happening aren’t stifling innovation. Not counting Google Wave, of course.
[Via NYT]
