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Google Rewards Employees With Millions
iseff writes "According to News.com, the Google guys created a program in November which rewards employees for outstanding achievements. The program gives the possibility of millions of dollars of stock to teams who perform great work. The goal of the program, according to Brin, is two-fold. First, it allows the company to reward 'genius', or whatever they see as genius. And second, it allows them to continue to hire all sorts of employees. According to the article, they believe that a recent grad who would like to work in a start-up will still be attracted to them because of the opportunity to create something great and be rewarded with millions (and without much of the risk associated with startups)."
The First Annual Google Awards for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence?
The question is, if the money is a motivation, then when you get your first multi-million dollar project bonus, you retire.
Alternately, you're in it for the love of the game and no amount of money will make you quit. But then what's the motivation?
This kind of thing unfairly punishes those of us who do a half assed job.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
Google swimming in post-IPO riches, doesn't know what to do with all that money.
Seriously though, while giving such extravagant rewards is nice for those that get them, it can cause a lot of resentment among those who don't. It's one thing for someone whose idea is (in my mind) only marginally better, or maybe even worse, than mine to get a $2k bonus when I don't, but it's quite another for them to be suddenly set for life. The politics this sort of thing could create could get ugly.
Also, there's the problem of attrition. Google is probably already going to be dealing with this issue soon, as many of their brightest engineers already have millions in stock options, but a company that has a lot of instant millionaires one day may end up with a lot of resignation letters the next.
You make it sound like a joke, but ask some IBM or Intel employees who hold dozens of patents how much money their genius has earned them.
Of course, that's not to say that every patent is a genius idea, or that large numbers of patents deserve proportionally larger reward, but incentives programs do not typically account for the value of the patent to a company.
How long can they keep this up? They're a publically held company and eventually they're going to get entrenched like every other "smart" company. Then they quietly stop giving away millions and start selling their address lists...
Even Ben and Jerry's had to drop its "no executive makes more than 10 times the lowest level employees salary" rule when Ben and Jerry looked for a new CEO.
I'm all for stuff like this, but how do you sustain it over the long term?
Stock is actually a bit flakey, you can be rich as hell without having any money to buy food with; this happened to me a one point during the great boom.
Sadly, now I got neither stock or money.
Still, I bet it strengthen the employee commitment to the company, which is what they want.
Google.. is there anything it can't do?
There are 2 types of people in the world, those who find that stupid binary joke funny, and those who don't.
This is not always the case.
Remember the days when Republicans were the party of fiscal responsibility?
Without much of the risk because they're being paid "millions" -- on paper, in the form of Google stock? Some people never learn.
(Oh, and kids, those "millions" are very likely to be taxable before you ever see a dime of cold hard cash. Enjoy!)
It's restricted stock. Which probably means they can't sell before some point in the distant future. At that point, maybe it's worth millions, or maybe you can exchange it 1:1 for shares in Webvan. Who knows?
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
More stock based incentives for employees. Didn't we learn from Enron, Worldcom or the dot com boom that stock base incentives causes people to do everything possible to raise the price of the stock including fraud and other dubious business practices. Why can't companies just give cash bonuses.
Have you ever been to a turkish prison?
Hey, at least they are redirecting their hoarde of gold back at the people who generated it instead of the execs.
As I read the article, Google awarded *stock*, not stock options - and I find that significant.
Rather than rewarding employees with paper that has no real value today (and which costs the company no real money today) and which might have value in the future, they are rewarding the employees with paper that has value today, and probably will have value in the future (as well as costing the company real money today).
If that is the case, then kudos to Google.
If the linked story is incorrect and this is nothing more than options - then I retract my kudos.
www.eFax.com are spammers
Luckily the dollar estimates are in Google dollars, only available after Google takes over and starts printing money.
I Am My Own Worst Enemy
But I would request cold hard cash instead of stock options .com's. Many employees see $$ flash before their eyes and hinge their whole retirement on these stock options. As with all stocks, the potential for growth is much greater than taking the cash. I don't think that corporations inform their employees well enough when presenting them different bonus options (it probably isn't even their responsibility to either). I would definitely say "Show me the money".
I agree. This result isn't applicable to just
Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the market...
Bubble II
Huge IPO.
Massive employee benifits.
Loads of hype.
Money flowing all over the place.
Zero profit.
Unproven business strategy.
Happy days are here again!
When the next fake boom collapses sometime around 2009 or so, will we all blame President Hillary Clinton for it, the way we blamed Bush for the one in 2000? Will GWB strut around bragging about the "balanced budget" projections at the end of his term which were based on the overly-optimistic economic conditions in 2007? Will the SEC do all kinds of hand-waving, arrest a few dishonest accountants, and try to fool us all into thinking we are richer than we really are once again, while both government and personal debt continue to chronically swell up?
Signs point to yes.
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
and most importantly, it will help these deserving geeks to attract beautiful women to themselves.
An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
Can someone help me forge my CV so that Google hire me?
Is this anything new? At this point in time haven't most multi-billion dollar companies devised employee-incentive and bonus systems? Typically these systems are more downplayed though. It seems as if Google is doing a lot more waving of the carrot.
This confuses me a little. Why wave the carrot more?
Is the message that Google is prepared to pay *more* handsomely? Is employee retention difficult for Google? (Are they losing their good people to start-ups?) Is the message that Google is on the warpath for new ideas in the wake of Microsoft Search and therefore needs to wave the carrot more?
Or could it be that there's a little post-IPO depression setting in over there? (Maybe the vibe is that the party is over and the payoffs that were going to happen, already did).
Anyone?
------ The best brain training is now totally free : )
No kidding. There are thousands of companies that reward their hard-working, profit-leading, genius employees. It usually comes in one of the following forms:
.75)
coffee (with non-dairy creamer and sugar!)
a mug/hat/pen with company logo
doughnuts on the third Tuesday of every month
reorganization, yay!
casual Fridays
2-ply toilet paper in the bathrooms
annual raise (cost of living *
pink slip (bright pink!)
Having worked for a company that does not respect the employees, I applaud any company that sees the value of happy, motivated employees.
Google should learn from the past.
The bubble taught us all a couple things: Internet companies are not inherently more profitable. They are certainly not a "new paradigm".
Got cash in the bank? Ok, sure make acquisitions. But don't become a dot-bomb rollup. Buy brick and mortar companies too.
Rewarding internal (essentially "dot-com") projects, is a bit like valuing dot com companies in an even *more* dangerous way: without the input of the marketplace.
Seems a little scary.
Lets hope they reward *profitable* internal projects. Not ones with "potential".
------ The best brain training is now totally free : )
During my stint at a dotcom we got some exciting perks! First off was free lunch. Now when the company was less than 20 employees the catered lunch was pretty damn good. Then the company grew and the lunch budget stayed the same, so it became cold cut sandwiches every day. And if you decided to venture out in the pursuit of something else to eat - you got dirty looks from management.
Then there was the 3 month sabbatical program. Any employee who made their 5 year anniversary got to take a 3 month paid sabbatical. This was much hyped about in the local press - but then the company was only 2 years old at the time. I think one employee actually did get to take this - but the company exploded shortly after the five year mark.
Or the basketball games on company time - much hyped again by the press as showing how the company cared about physical health of it's employees and didn't want them just sitting for 80 hours a week (how altruistic!). Well, those ended when someone mentioned that injuries while playing basketball on company time were a liability.
On second thought, some Google stock doesn't sound too bad.
Sometimes my arms bend back.
For those who weren't tuned in Sunday, This is the award Mr. Burns gave to Homer on Sunday's episode of the Simpsons. Poster failed, however to work in any jokes about low sperm count.
There is not nearly enough love in the world, but there is far too much trust.
Try this scenario- you bust your ass 12 hours a day/7 days a week for a year to spec, design and code Wizzyfoo. It's awesome. It does some really neat things. Two weeks before it goes live, the company decides that Wizzyfoo just isn't compatible with the new direction the company is moving in. All your work is tossed in the bin and you're assigned to a new project. No bonus for you.
Meanwhile, Bob across the aisle goofs off, posting meaningless replies at /. for most the day and goes golfing with the boss every weekend. Since he's got the ear of the boss, he manages to get a great looking demo before the suits, who decide to make it the new big thing. He gets the cash for the neat demo, even if there's nothing behind it and the product wouldn't work in reality.
Would this happen at Google? Maybe not, but if you don't think similar happens everyday in industry you're blind. The suckups and losers get rewarded, the truly good get shuffled off since they're hard to deal with.
"Seven Deadly Sins? I thought it was a to-do list!"
True, a restricted stock may not be sold today. That is not my point.
A stock option is normally issued at very nearly today's market price for a stock, and is nothing more than the guarantee that stock may be purchased at that price.
If gasoline is $1.759 a gallon, and I offer you a piece of paper saying "I guarantee you can buy a gallon of gasoline from me for $1.759", how much is that paper worth right now.
Nothing, as you can go to the gas station and buy that gas for that price without my paper.
Now, if gas goes to $2.759 tomorrow, then that paper is worth $1.00.
If the price of gas goes to $1.009 tomorrow (fat chance), then the paper has no value whatsoever.
Now, if I give you a piece of paper that says "I guarantee you 1 gallon of gas" then that paper is worth $1.759 today. If gas goes to $1.00 a gallon, then it is STILL worth $1.00.
And that is my point - that if Google is actually issuing stock, not options, then they are doing something unusual and worthy of respect.
www.eFax.com are spammers
It is good to reward the team that develope a key aspect of your product.
When all the other smart guys could not write code to do the job a friend of mine had a stroke of insight and wrote the entire code in day by himself (only a few thousand lines of code). They had been trying to develope the code for nearly a year. In this case it can be said he is truely the sole developer. In many cases it is a small team of 5-10 individuals.
They company promptly sold the code for $7 million later that year. His bonus was take your wife out and the company will cover the check. A good way to promote smart people to work harder. The smart people are smart enough to know when they have been insulted and leave. All you are left with is stupid people.
I am sure the senior executes recieved a much better bonus.
Needless to say if they would have rewarded him with say $70 000 he would have been happy and continued to work hard for years. At his current job the code he writes generates about $15-20 million a year in sales (but he is part of a small team of developers 50 individuals and equally as many sales staff). He is currenlty well paid and gets extra paid time off after each project (I think last year he had about 4 months off - partly because the team he works on got the project done 2 month ahead of schedule). He has no plans of looking for a job anywhere else.
Lesson learned:
treat your employees fairly and they will stick around. Treat your smart employees with respect and they will never leave.
My Sig indicates the end of the comment I posted.
Try working in the public sector. Our management is so afraid that the public will see us getting a perk (and then vote down the next levy because 'those Hospital guys did a river cruise!') that the best we get is ice cream once a quarter.
It sucks.
Comment of the year
Depression is like stubbing your toe on a doorframe. The pain is telling you something. In the case of a busted toe it means don't do that again. In the case of depression it means do something.
according to the now unfindable by google ninetyninezeros blog, they don't pay all that well, they expect top 10% but only pay average salaries.
http://www.bloglines.com/blog/WRJ?subid=6578013
That is a domain name, not a TLD. A Top Level Domain is .net, .org, etc.
Bored? Why not join a decent mess
Public companies are required by law to maximise their profit. Profit is not usually maximised by giving large bonuses to employees.
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It's wrong that an intellectual property creator should not be rewarded for their work.
It's equally wrong that an IP creator should be rewarded too many times for the one piece of work, for exactly the same reasons.
Reform IP law and stop the M$/RIAA abuse.
Jeez... I'd be happy with just replacing the damn John Wayne TP! Just cuz it's 2 ply doesn't mean it should leave paper cuts where the sun don't shine!!!
Sorry man... the Internet pooped on me.
Then why do CEOs, etc receive large (some would say outrageous) performance bonuses? If a low-level grunt invents the Next Big Thing, and makes the company millions, why doesn't he get the large bonus? I guess it was the brilliant "Mission Statement" the CEO came up with that really lead to the success.
A friend of mine, a fairly competent sales rep, started his own printing company a couple of years ago. I worked for him for a while doing pre-print and graphic design, but I couldn't hack it for very long, as he gave the reps he employed free rein. The company was a sales person paradise, perks, insanely high wages, they could say what they liked to whoever they liked. It was the kind of company my friend would have liked to work for, so thats what he built.
Needless to say, that went under in about a year, and I got the equipment in lieu of pay that had been given to salespeople instead, but the point of this is that google was founded by highly intelligent, academic people, and what they are doing is building an academics dream job. Intelligence is rewarded, whether applying for a job, or within the job itself. I do applaud their strategies, which are fairly novel, but you can't run a business like that. Their results have been slipping in terms of accuracy and reliability, their image search is actually less useful than the new MSN effort, and the pay per click model (which I'm betting is a good portion of their income) is starting to get a seriously bad name, as companies realise that competitors are costing them money by simply clicking on their adverts.
By indulging in these "gentlemans club" policies, and losing sight of their core functionality, google will go the way of the dot bombs. Intelligence doth not a successful business make.
What he can't kill, he has sex on. Trent.