I love reading Xooglers. But this post, well, I don’t buy it.
The post explains how, because Googlers are generally an exceptional lot, praise was hard to find, and when it did come, it came in a very understated fashion. OK, amongst the ranks, I can buy that. Golden geeks tend to shy from overt idolatry. But they are also human beings. And human beings tend to manage up, period. I’d love to believe that folks spend all *not* telling Marissa, Larry, Sergey, and the other members of the founding class that they are brilliant, but…I don’t buy it.
It is Really not so hard to imagine…
Marissa, Larry, Sergey probably do not have much time for much idle chatter among the masses. And the “your’e so great” comments would probably be cut-offed.
When opportunties presents themselves – the geeks will probably be either pushing their own projects or listening repectfully to whatever business releted news or idle chit chat Marissa, Larry, Sergey would care to share.
Don’t forget, in the beginning, Google was *not* as relevant as the once great AltaVista – so Silicon Valley brilliance was certainly *NOT* exclusive to the Google founders – — but Very Good Management may have been that social darwinistic factor.
Well, here’s the thing, I believe that it’s possible that there’s very little overt praise in meetings etc, so in that sense, John, I disagree with you. But, you spent enough time there – think about these things: 1) the number of employee parties 2) the amount of outings/trips for employees, not only as a company, but within their groups 3) the sheer number of perks that they enjoy.
Then multiply that by all of the media talking about it over the past several years and add the fact that they all get quarterly reviews and one on one time with “managers”. Once you do that, you start to realize that the appreciation that they drive for isn’t your typical praise in meetings stuff, but it exists company-wide, as well as individually. Just in different, less traditional ways… some might say it’s a very non-capitalist model in a very capitalistic company.
Your point reminds me of what a lawyer friend once told me, “they’re are no different cases, just different faces”.
Of course another way to say it would be, “there are no different cases, just different faces”. lol