Google

There is some cool stuff at Google such as MicroKitchens, dogfood, Google exclusive technologies, massages, barbershops, fun rooms, etc.

There is a lot of incentive to keep you in the office such as free food, snacks, massages, barbershops, etc.

Just the right amount of challenging but not stressful work for an internship (varies).

Definitely promotes diversity and intern groups.

A work environment that can enable you to ask questions without criticism online.

There are features at work that make software engineering at Google easier.

Quiet environment.

Memegen, where the brave and the bold talk about the company or make jokes without offending anyone.

Great place for expanding your career. There are so many resources for you to grow.

• There are a lot of fake smiles, laughs, and giggles. This is the worst I've seen in any company, maybe because I worked in the government.

• Google is too strict on attempting to please everyone. Memegen has gotten worse because of this. Basically, make memes about things, other companies, or Sundar.

• Some common banned memes, like the distracted boyfriend looking back meme, have the most absurd reasonings.

• Google is shutting down criticism of the company, removing dislike buttons or any visible counters.

• There is a great division between Googlers and XWF (extended workforce). XWF are treated as if they are guests. The trainings emphasize this.

• Google is strongly against curiosity of any kind. If you are curious about what another team is doing or how a performance tool works, no one knows what another team is doing unless it's a "business need".

• Google has been on a negative trend of removing employee benefits but improving benefits to the office.

• Google is dead serious about absolute obedience. It's a few months away from a pure dystopia with the help of AI. It is a perfect fearful environment to make sure you only do your work.

• Google upper management is so inhumane. Every company-wide meeting is always a negative one.

• You are working yourself out of a job.

• Google does have a lot of diversity & inclusion. But the diversity and inclusion backfires with culture crashing and its complaints coming from it.

• Google is trying to shut down leaks but at a severe documented cost of horrible cross-team cohesion.

• There is a severe lack of trust of upper management.

• There are forceful recruitment strategies for Internships: they require you to sign the dot now or never. This is not helpful for students trying to figure out their life.

• Google is being severely unethical with AI and its employees. It's fine because it's a 'business need'.

In a nutshell, Google is struggling with the clash of cultures and balancing control over company resources versus employee morale.

Google must stop trying to please everyone. There will be clashes of cultures, but that doesn't mean you ban or write up people for it, at least for non-business needs. Regardless of my proposal, there needs to be work in this direction, and so far, it's on a negative trend.

Google upper management needs to stop dodging the most critical employee questions. You're just delaying the inevitable, with the bonus of ruining morale.

Google upper management needs to draw a clear picture about who they work for. The shareholders? Employees? Both? None? We give Google a lot of flap, but at the same time, we forget that Google has provided a lot of free services to the world: free email, free Google Suite (Word, PowerPoint, etc.), and Colab for AI & Software engineering. It's unclear, and they need to address that.

There needs to be more transparency between teams. Google must allow some disobedience; we're not robots (not yet, anyway). Every layoff hurts.