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I wasn't terribly shocked at this, Google has never been the beacon of hope they present themselves to be. But I suppose it's different to us as consumers of them, instead of employees surrounded by their rhetoric. What she describes sounded very cultish in my opinion.
I have a cousin who was inducted into an evangelical cult and this is the same shit they pushed. They were "family", eventually they took care of everything for you; got you a job, a carpenter,dentist, doctor etc. Every need you had they took care of, but you don't realize that you became penned in by them. The only people you knew were also cult members, making it harder to leave.
The culture Google is promoting is very similar, and it sounded very bro-ish. I've never cared for how tech companies focus on this frat, we're all bros culture. It's misogynistic and it excludes anything feminine or feminist. No doubt anyone dissenting is seen as problematic simply for being a woman or someone who doesn't fit their image.
As a software engineer, her story is my worst work nightmare. I don’t know what I would do if I was harassed at work. I work on an all-male team who have so far been extremely respectful, not at all making me feel excluded.
At the same time, I know others on teams around me who would make me miserable if they worked with me. So I know that if I ever switch teams, there’s a good chance I’ll end up with some shitty sexist men. Unfortunate.
I have a hard time walking the line between enjoying my job to a healthy level vs spending way too much time and energy into it. I do have boundaries, but I’ve also always been ambitious and driven and this does push me to work harder and longer hours even when it’s not required.
How can I make sure I don’t base too much of my life in my job, especially during the pandemic when most of my hobbies have been put on hold?
How can I make sure I don’t base too much of my life in my job, especially during the pandemic when most of my hobbies have been put on hold?
Use a different web browser for home life and work life. Separate all online activity.
Never work in bed. Never check work email/mesg in bed.
Use a separate phone and computer for work.
Use your calendar to switch from homelife to worklife. Schedule homelife time, even if it is to watch tv or take a long bath or read a book. Or schedule "Idle time:30 min"
Set your working hours, and don't work outside them, no matter how ambitious you are. If you are a high performer, your managers will just keep asking more and more from you, as you move from being a 3x to 5x to 10x engineer. They can never pay you enough to compensate for your precious beautiful life that you gave them.
And finally, if appropriate, take a mushroom trip on your birthday every year to reconnect yourself with what's important. Do it right, find a guide, take a safe traveling precautions.
There is absolutly nothing wrong with liking your job; however job should be job and home life should be home life. This sadly used to be way easier pre pandemic and even then companies try to make it as hard as possible for people to have actual lives. I hate how we are all supposed to love the idea of working from home---it makes things worse in my opinion.
It's always good to learn early on (hopefully with lessons that aren't too harsh) that work doesn't love you back, and that your worth as a person is distinct from your place of employment and professional status.
And for all the noise that was made around Me Too, I don't think all that much will have changed. As evidenced in the article, in so many cases the cost-benefit analysis means it often doesn't make sense to speak out - I can think of a couple of very serious workplace abuse/harassment situations experienced by female friends of mine which they never formally challenged because it would have been career suicide in our (male-dominated) field, not to mention the emotional and financial impacts.
A lot of companies promote this whole "workplace family" narrative because it's been shown to increase employee loyalty to the company.
The thing that increases loyalty is not bullshit talking points and fake narratives, but being able to be genuine, being treated like a human being, being treated with respect and being shown you're valued and appreciated. And that is done in ways that are personally meaningful to the employee, not generically. It's really not that complicated, but people always want a quick fix instead of doing the little things on a daily basis that cultivate a good work environment.
This has been going on for a long time. Twenty years ago during a job interview I questioned a policy that seriously undermined normal job security practices. The interviewer put her hand on her heart and plastered on a smile and said, "We like to think of ourselves as a family here." Not a publicly traded company either, it's rampant.
I remember the days when I still used google as my homepage, the search engine was good, and the ads not too intrusive. The hype from that company and lots of others seemed rather convincing, and as I was in a not so great job at the time and a big IT recruiting drive was on, including one for a couple of new google offices in Canada, it was fun to fantasize about how cool it would be to work there. Then I made an unwitting mistake that ruined my google bubble. lol
There was a book out about google by then, about its work environment and all its amenities, available as an early style talking book on cds – maybe it was Planet Google although it seems to me it could be a slightly earlier one that I can't find a title for – and I borrowed it from the library to listen to while doing a tedious home improvement project. The book was in no way critical, it was all about how wonderful google is, how brilliant its founders are, etc. And thereby I learned that google was a sort of total institution. The descriptions were meant to make it sound so attractive: free food! free coffee! free exercise rooms! use all the latest software! work on your own random project 20% of the time! And they did sort of, except that as I listened the cult aspects and overall hyper-exploitation dynamic began to thoroughly creep me out.
I was lucky to have found the book and learned about the dangers of identifying with an employer and the lure of such environments.
I am not suprised to learn that Google is a toxic place. I have also heard working at Disney is a nightmare too, because you are expected to almost be obsessive with your work. While you can have positive experiences and like your job; you should never consider work "family"
I've added some flair for you, but please try and DIY from the options under the post title.