In amongst all the political fallout of the National Party this week—what I’m dubbing (and hashtagging) ‘caught in the Rossfire’—was a series (well, over 100) Tweets from Morgan Knutson, a designer who once worked for Google. Unlike most Googlers, especially the cult-like ones who refuse to help when you point out a fault with Google, Knutson decided he would be candid and talk about his experience. And it isn’t pretty. Start here:
Now that Google+ has been shuttered, I should air my dirty laundry on how awful the project and exec team was.
I'm still pissed about the bait and switch they pulled by telling me I'd be working on Chrome, then putting me on this god forsaken piece of shit on day one.
— Morgan (@morganknutson) October 9, 2018
Or, if you prefer, head to the Twitter page itself, or this Threader thread.
As anyone who follows this blog knows, I’ve long suspected things to be pretty unhealthy within Google, and it turns out that it’s even worse than I expected.
A few take-outs: (a) some of the people who work there have no technical or design experience (explains a lot); (b) there’s a load of internal politics; (c) the culture is horrible but money buys a lot of silence.
Knutson claims to have received a lot of positive feedback, some in private messaging. His Tweets on the aftermath:
I’ve received a number of DMs from former and current google employees that say they’ve experienced similar things.
Bad politics, mismanagement, and back-stabbing colleagues.
🤷♂️
— Morgan (@morganknutson) October 15, 2018
Last thing about my story.
I received an overwhelmingly positive response.
Hundreds of people thanking me for making them feel “not so alone” anymore.
Quote tweets with supportive messages to me numbering in the thousands.
The only people who shit on me were designers.
— Morgan (@morganknutson) October 17, 2018
This, I thought, summed it up better than I could, even though I’ve had a lot more space to do it:
This reads like a Google version of 'Chaos Monkeys': unvarnished, unblinking, just the right amount of sneering, and merciless when it comes to arrogant mediocrity and the machinery of cushy ass-kissing mixed with an un-fuck-up-able monopoly that underwrites the outlandish pay. https://t.co/PmB6zYwgZT
— Antonio García Martínez (@antoniogm) October 16, 2018
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