Google Kills Off Pet Projects by Engineers

If you will remember the innovative approach Google instituted a few years ago to solve problems and create new projects with free time given to engineers to work? Well, that’s all it is now: just a memory.

Now managers have clamped down on staff taking ’20 per cent time’ so as to avoid their teams falling down Google’s internal productivity rankings, according to online reports.

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uh oh. A more traditional,corporate looking google =/

What kind of world are we living in when Google is killing innovation and Microsoft is helping employees get their smaller pet projects on their feet with their Garage?

BTW, Mouse Without Borders is an amazing piece of software.

Ars had a similar article, and some Google employees (proof?) said that this just with a few managers.

Whach said:

uh oh. A more traditional,corporate looking google =/

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That's a bad approach. It'll stop being such a great place to work, moral will likely drop, and productivity with it.

Once you give something as cool as that, you tend to have a hard time taking it back without upsetting a lot of people.

Google is no longer the little startup that made it big...it's became a corporate monster driven by greed. I'm so wanting to get a new windows phone.

BBA said:

Google is no longer the little startup that made it big...it's became a corporate monster driven by greed. I'm so wanting to get a new windows phone.

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jumping from one corporate monster to another? what the difference? personal opinion: windows phone still sucks

They've done their legwork. Now they want to re-focus their business on their products. I'm fine with that. I see the significance of giving engineers some latitude in working on what they want to, but the company has grown sufficiently that now they probably need to focus their efforts on solidifying their services.

This is not saying that the company is not doing "R&D" (for lack of a better term), only that its being done on a project-by-project basis, not giving the employee the leniency of choosing what to do with their 20% time.

I worked at a place where employees were expected to spend 25% of their weekly time on projects the "interested" them (outside of their assigned projects). Enforcing this was a difficult task, and the workers chose to work on boring and established projects rather than taking on the risky and innovative ideas--because in the end, they were evaluated on the success of their efforts and no one wanted to risk, say, a performance bonus because the thing that they worked on was something they thought was interesting, rather than likely to succeed. You lose talent that way.

Innovation and "internal productivity rankings" are mutually incompatible ideals. Innovation is not something that can be measured, let alone ranked.

Whach said:

jumping from one corporate monster to another? what the difference? personal opinion: windows phone still sucks

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I think you are confusing windows phone with windows 8 on desktop windows on a smartphone device is actually good. The only thing limiting the platform is the windows app store that is really hampering developers =/ (to restrictive)

sir-gold said:

Innovation and "internal productivity rankings" are mutually incompatible ideals. Innovation is not something that can be measured, let alone ranked.

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Of course it can ... innovation that earns a company money or market share is good and should be rewarded ... innovation that doesn't provide benefit to the company is not good and should not be rewarded ... the measure of success should always be financial (except in the cases of patents ... which provide strategic benefit ... as long as the company owns the patent and not the employee then those too should be rewarded)

BBA said:

Google is no longer the little startup that made it big...it's became a corporate monster driven by greed...

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Its called being a publicly listed company, or capitalism if you wish.

A publicly listed company is obliged to increase profits every year for their investors / share holders.

From what I've heard, the whole 20% personal project thing, was actually "after you put in 50-60 hours on your normal work, use your remaining personal time to develop a product for us.".

Wrecked Em said:

From what I've heard, the whole 20% personal project thing, was actually "after you put in 50-60 hours on your normal work, use your remaining personal time to develop a product for us.".

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I didn't think Google employees had personal time ... that is why they have so many shops and benefits on site (so they never have to leave) ... Kind of like the Hotel California

Cheetoz said:

Ars had a similar article, and some Google employees (proof?) said that this just with a few managers.

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Yes.