What's So Unbearable about Working at Google New York?
Despite its celebrity chefs and razor scooters, Google's New York office houses a surprisingly disgruntled workforce, judging from one informal survey: of 14 Gotham Googlers profiled by Business Insider, more than a third are said to be eyeing an exit.
And that's among so-called "movers and shakers;" life might be even tougher on the rank and file. On the one hand, they get copious and diverse free snacks, food from the likes of David Chang and a very competitive salary. But on the other, there's the chaos that results from Google digesting acquisitions like DoubleClick and losing top executives like former ad chief Tim Armstrong. Some of the purported fallout, gleaned from the gossip in Business Insider's post:
- Advertising VP Penry Price is said to have lost power when Armstrong left and to be "looking for a way out."
- Mike Steib, director of emerging platforms, supposedly lost an internal power struggle. One source told BI: "It wouldn't suprise me to see him leave after a while."
- Director of media platforms Eileen Naughton won that aforementioned power strugle but supposedly wants to leave because she "thinks it's a crazy place and wants to get the hell out of there."
- Google's first Gotham engineer, Engineering Director Craig Nevill-Manning, is so rich, presumably on Google options, that people wonder if he'd rather be "traveling around in Africa having a fun time."
- M&A guy Jason Harinstein is said to be "poachable."
So there you have it: Google is a tough place to work in part because of the distracting wealth you earn there and because the awesome job offers you get as a result of working there. Sounds unbearable.