I have talked before about the interesting view that you get from working at a company that has many people focused on its every move.
One of the interesting types of posts are the Bob left Google! ones.
Some people assume that if Bob left, that all hell is breaking loose over in the ‘plex. Of course, if you do the maths and use common sense you see that:
- Google is a large company now. Lots of people are going to be moving on to other things. Shift happens
- Google is a large company now. Many great people are joining
- Google is a large company now. Some people may not want to work for a large company, but prefer the startup thing, or something else.
- Google is a successful company. Let’s face it, some people made insane amounts of money and can afford to do nothing, become angels, or anything else.
In some ways it is great to see a bit of a revolving door. It allows some of the new folks to come in and shake things up in different ways. This will result in great new products, and amazing updates. 2008 will be a great one for Google.
Regarding people that leave, this also doesn’t have to be a bad thing for Google. Hopefully it sends them out into the wild to start other Googley companies with connections back to us.
Nathan Stoll puts it well:
I’ve been comforted by the realization that Google benefits by my departure to tackle new endeavors. Great companies like Goldman Sachs, McKinsey & Company, Procter & Gamble, and GE all consistently turn out leaders in their fields; their employee departures complement the mother ship by spreading the culture and working ethos. Google has many more fine minds joining than it has leaving, and is training them to be technology-focused leaders with a passion for building great consumer focused services.
