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Tuesday, January 25, 2005

Googler Blogs About Work

If Google employee and blogger Mark Jen is what he says he is, then he’s very brave to be so critical of his workplace – and let’s hope Google Inc. doesn’t fire him (it might dirty down their bright image if they did).

This is Mark’s mission statement (case adjusted):

“First day on the job, first post on the blog: In the ever increasing chaos known as the blogosphere, I’ve decided to add yet another random stream. If nothing else, this blog will serve as a personal journal of my life at Google. Maybe one day, a collection of these postings and comments will compile into a book...”

And this is his first rant:

“Look at all these other fringe “benefits”: on-site doctor, on-site dentist, on-site car washes... the list goes on and on with one similarity: every “benefit” is on-site so you never leave work. (...)

Google definitely has a program that is on par with other companies in the industry; but since when does a company like Google settle for being on par? Microsoft’s health care benefits shame Google’s relatively meager offering. (...)

Lastly, Google demands employees that are 90th percentile material, so what’s with the 50th percentile compensation? The packages would’ve been decent when the company was pre-IPO, but let’s be honest here... a stock option with a strike price of $188 just doesn’t have the same value as the ones of yesteryear.”

I wonder if Mark writes his blog in the 20% of time Google gives every employee to work on unrelated projects of their own interest...

[Thanks RC.]

Update: Mark quickly blanked most of his posts. The content quoted here is not on his site anymore.

Update 2: Danny Sullivan found a full copy of Mark’s blog over at Bloglines. Just to be sure, I also made a full copy of the blog yesterday before I reported on this.

Update 3: He’s back.

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