It’s always dangerous to take the word of an ex employee without at least a pinch of salt or, maybe a few pounds — or sometimes none.
Filip Syta worked as an ad sales executive at Google for two years until 2014, when he became disillusioned with his work. So Syta dropped out and wrote a novel, “The Show,” about a fictional search advertising giant. The story describes a San Francisco company called Show that employs a lot of 20-somethings who make a lot of money, have a lot of parties, drink a lot of booze, sleep with one another indiscriminately, and take a lot of cocaine.
Is it possible? Or likely?
Yes and yes.
Just as possible as in any situation where young, immature, mostly male humans suddenly have a lot of cash and are seriously bored.
“You get bored after a while, you get everything there, basically. They do everything that your mother doesn’t do for you anymore. There’s a dry-cleaning service, swimming pool, dentist, doctor, food, massage — you don’t have to think about anything. You just go to work and it’s all taken care of.
“And also I think a lot of talent is being wasted there because we hired smart people. We will hire smart people, but they hire overqualified people because they have such a strong brand. Many people are bored at their job … It’s kind of chill and might get boring. These other people seek out other adventures when they’re together — they don’t have to care about anything. They know Google has their back. It’s like a kindergarten for grown-ups. And obviously there was a higher and more adventurous type who obviously take more risks. Everyone is very relaxed, and they don’t take the safe way.”
But what’s really troubling is what he claims goes on in sales.
Syta told Business Insider the company was “extremely data driven.”
“They measure everything, and you want to look good to your manager and your manager wants to look good to their manager and up the chain it goes, so you want to report great numbers,” (…) Does nobody check?
“No, no because no one cares.”
But surely there are numbers and metrics that can be easily verified?
“No, no, not always,” Syta said. “Because the upper manager will not go down to the account manager-level and check. Of course they will see real cash flow coming in. But in specific cases of a specific client, they won’t check. As long as it looks good everyone is happy because everyone cares only about their own task to look good to their next upper manager.”
So we [Business Insider] were curious: How much of this is true, or inspired by real events?
“Ninety percent,” Syta told us.
90%? That would definitely worry me if I was advertising with Google.
I haven’t read the book and, to be honest, it doesn’t hold much interest for me.
Obviously, the majority of people in either the fictional or real company aren’t involved in the shenanigans, but still…
Do I think it’s different/better at Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter or other high flyers?
Probably not, but maybe that’s just my own cynicism.
I saw the results of too much money too fast up close and personal decades ago, although I admit it wasn’t even close to what goes on in the Valley today.
But sexual harassment comes in another package; one that’s strictly hands-off.
It’s called gossip.
Because gossip usually revolves around looks, shape, weight and body characteristics, along with who someone is seeing and what they are doing.
Discussion of any of these subjects in the workplace will create a hostile environment.
Hostile environments lower worker focus, engagement and productivity.
Which many bosses don’t seem too concerned about, since they are often active/passive gossip participants.
They would care more if they had the ability to understand cause and effect, which seems to be a disappearing brain function (but that’s another post).
So in the name of better workplaces I’ll spell it out in easily understandable terms.
Gossip contributes to hostile, as well as just plain crappy, work environments.
Bosses who participate, facilitate or benignly neglect gossip will see the effect in employee turnover.
They will feel the effect in their own lowered compensation.
There is a great deal of handwringing from business leaders, tech moguls, politicians and various pundits on the lack of women programmers and the dire consequences as a result.
At one point, at a company party, Mateen [Wolfe’s boss, hired after her] allegedly called Wolfe [Tinder co-founder] a “gold digger,” a “disease” and “disgusting”—in front of other people, including Sean Rad [Tinder CEO]. When Wolfe headed for the exit, a guest of Rad’s went after her and spit in her face. (…)
Mateen stripped Wolfe of her co-founder status, arguing that “Facebook and Snapchat don’t have girl founders, it just makes it look like Tinder was some accident.” The company had already been absenting Wolfe from the co-founder team when they spoke with traditional business publications like Forbes.
Read the article and the next time you hear “girls don’t like math/computers” mention that they may not like the atmosphere in which they would be forced to work.
And, cynical as it may sound, it’s not going to change any time soon.
After all, the worst examples are being inflicted by (supposedly) more enlightened Millennials as opposed to their big brothers.
Although the big brothers are nothing to write home about, as witnessed by 45 year-old Dov Charney’s actions that got him fired.
While it wasn’t his reprehensible actions, which have been ongoing for years, but rather that American Apparel’s financial performance is down.
If performance wasn’t down Charney would probably still be CEO and those same actions would be considered “eccentric,” instead of inexcusable.
If you follow any form of news you know that sexual foible has once again reared its immortal head and laid several leaders low.
This time, one of the high-flyers who fell was a woman.
David Petraeus, retired four-star general and director of the CIA, resigned, while Christopher Kubasik, destined to become Lockheed Martin CEO on January 1, was fired.
Their downfall was to be expected; every guy who has been caught playing around has watched his career sink in the harsh glare of the media spotlight.
The difference is that this time one of the women involved is being treated to that same spotlight.
Up to now Paula Broadwell has had the kind of career that positioned her for a stellar path over the next 25 years.
Her biography on the Penguin Speakers Bureau Web site says that she is a research associate at Harvard’s Center for Public Leadership and a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of War Studies at King’s College London. She received a master’s in public administration from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. A self-described “soccer mom” and an ironman triathelete…
40 is young to have your career cut short, but the American public is unforgiving when it comes to anything that involves sex—especially true in our wired world.
I think women are capable of being just as arrogant, just as stupid and just as conniving as any male out there.
The difference lies more in their survival instinct, which has been honed by several thousand years of pure necessity.
So even as the coercion eases the instinct has stayed strong.
Additionally, it’s a numbers game.
There are far more high-profile males than high-profile females, so the number of men who act out and get stupid is significantly greater than the women who do the same thing.
Anytime I can include ‘sex’ in a post my stats improve for that day. And if the sex is combined with ‘leadership’ they go up even more.
I want to thank Steve Pearlstein and Raju Narisetti, who write On Leadership for the Washington Post, for offering up both sex and leadership in the same post along. See how the 11 panelists and dozens of readers responded to this question and then come back and tell me what you think.
Why do so many leaders fall prey to confusing power with sexual charisma? Do leaders face more personal temptations than the rest of us?
In this Knowledge@Wharton interview, Cathie Black, president of Hearst Magazines, explains why you shouldn’t “hide in a corner.” She also knows the value of sex and leadership and incorporates both in various forms, together and separately, in her media empire.
Hearst’s stable of 15 magazines includes some of the best-known titles in the business, including Cosmopolitan,Esquire, Good Housekeeping,Harper’s Bazaar,O: The Oprah Magazine,Popular Mechanics,Redbook and Town & Country.
Speaking of leaders, here’s one who qualifies no matter how you rate her. Meet Ursula Burns, Xerox’s new CEO and see what she is doing to change its culture. Burns’s background is a long way from the typical Fortune 100 and her parent is even further away.
She grew up in ”the Projects,” a large low-income housing community on Delancey Street in Manhattan. … Ms. Burns was the middle child of three…her mother took in ironing and ran a day care center from home.
Yesterday I wrote about Robert Paxton, who lost his job when pictures of him holding a mini-keg of beer over the head of a young woman on a boat were sent to the local paper and picked up by national media.
The young people were of legal drinking age, so should he have been terminated?
“The thing we struggled with was whether his personal life was, you know, his,” he said. “I think we all thought that was true. On the other hand, his position — I guess what you do in your personal life does affect the public’s perception of what you do on the job.” –College Trustee
Ex Boeing CEO Harry Stonecipher had a consensual affair, but lost his job anyway because he didn’t live up to the code he himself implemented.
“He drew a very bright line for all employees, let everyone know that even minor violations would not be tolerated and when does that you have to live by that standard.” –Board Member
The lying I understand, how many people admit to affairs? But using company equipment to look at porn or company email/instant messaging to talk sex is just plain stupid.
Actually, barring actions that are illegal, such as underage anything or harassment, pretty much all of this falls in the bad judgment, AKA, stupid category.
My conclusion is that stupid will get you fired if it involves sex. Too bad stupid isn’t grounds for termination when applied to business.
Entrepreneurs face difficulties that are hard for most people to imagine, let alone understand. You can find anonymous help and connections that do understand at 7 cups of tea.
Crises never end.
$10 really does make a difference and you’ll never miss it,
Is it possible that Google’s vaunted culture has a dark side?
If you follow any form of news you know that sexual foible has once again reared its immortal head and laid several leaders low.
Yesterday I wrote about 
