Google

There are lots of talented and smart people, great benefits, and lots of room to grow and learn from others. It is kind of easy to coast, but there is also a lot of pushing to grow and see results. It is a great place to advance, learn a lot, and be around smart people. There are also really nice buildings and great food.

Leadership is increasingly perceived as not listening to typical rank-and-file employees. Quiet layoffs throughout the past few years (a team here, some managers there, a re-org causing a few people to be laid off, etc.) have put a damper on morale.

I was also laid off, which is disappointing since my team and position in Google Cloud were focused on operations, efficiency, and cost-savings. I'm not completely sure of the decisions to continue laying people off when there is so much work to do, which stretches remaining employees even more.

Stop layoffs, both larger and quieter ones. Communicate like real people instead of in corp-speak. Refocus on the user instead of on AI. Stop doing stock buybacks and invest the money into retaining employees.