11 Tragedy of Working at Google: Too Much Stress to Enjoy Life

As one of the most prestigious technology companies in the world, Google always attracts countless knowledgeable people who want to join this big family. Hollywood even made a movie about Google interns.

But in fact, working for Google is not as simple as just free food and enjoying various humane facilities in the campus. According to people who claim to be Google employees or former Google employees on the American social question-and-answer website Quora, working for Google is definitely not as easy as we imagine.

Here are Business Insider's 11 biggest tragedies of working for Google:

1. Work replaces life

A former Google employee said: "The scariest thing about working at Google is that you look up and suddenly find that work has taken up most of your time and energy. If you don't pay more attention to this, work may easily take over your life."

2. Companies only care about their employees’ performance indicators

A former Google software engineer said: "Anything you can't quantify is considered an inefficient use of your time, because if you can't quantify your work achievements, no one will be interested."

3. Unable to be honest with colleagues

"You can't discuss anything with anyone unless you're with your friends," said one former Google employee. "There's almost no targeted discussion here because everyone is so alert and they don't care what others think unless you're an executive."

4. The project was cancelled without reason

An anonymous Google employee said: "The most frustrating thing for me is that some projects will be suddenly cancelled for no reason. What's worse is that colleagues who have worked on the cancelled projects usually have little chance of promotion in the future."

5. Incompetent managers

A former Google technical program manager said: "Sometimes managers who are promoted to management are not good managers or smart enough, but because this is their only way to rise. Therefore, there are many bad managers and leaders in Google."

6. Lack of employee diversity

An anonymous Google employee said: "Google always hires employees with similar backgrounds, such as the same graduate school, the same world view, the same hobbies, etc. It is no exaggeration to say that in my three-year career at Google, I have met more than 100 colleagues who like to participate in triathlons, but most of them are very boring."

7. Out of touch with the world

"One of the downsides of working for Google for many years is that you quickly lose frequent contact and communication with the real world," said a former Google engineer.

8. Huge pressure

A former Google engineer said: "Google has enough talented people inside, but this means you will face fierce competition from up to thousands of people, so you have to learn how to stand out from the crowd."

9. Bad Check

One Google employee who has left the company several times said: "You have to be strong enough to communicate with Google about your position and salary, and make sure to write down the content of your conversation in black and white. Because Google always seems to write a lot of empty promises during the interview, but then forget about it at all."

10. Arrogance

"If you're a non-technical person at Google (like sales, HR, or HR operations), you can feel like you're not part of the equation," said one former Google engineer. "Because the processes at Google are so well established, it's easy to feel like you're too good at what you're doing."

11. Internal Discrimination

A temporary employee who worked at Google for a short period of time said: "If you are just a temporary employee at Google, it is very easy to feel the contempt from Google employees. Because they seem to think that they are slightly superior to Google employees in both spirit and technology."

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.