Posted on 12/23/2008 9:24:41 AM PST by TigerLikesRooster
Google Hands Out 'Dogfood' as Christmas Bonus
By Owen Thomas, 11:22 AM on Mon Dec 22 2008, 30,967 views
Groans are issuing from the Googleplex over this year's holiday bonus. In the past, the search engine paid cash — as much as $20,000 or $30,000 per Googler, we hear. This year? A cell phone.
Oh, but not just any cell phone: A version of the G1 currently sold for $179.99 by T-Mobile, which runs Google's Android operating system. Android is the fruit of Google founders' Larry Page and Sergey Brin's strange obsession with the wireless market, launched in a fit of jealousy over the growing number of phones running Microsoft's Windows Mobile. (Imagine that: Google, jealous of Microsoft for a change.)
In an email, Google management blames the economic crisis and suggests that this is a great opportunity to "dogfood" the phones — an unappetizing tech-industry euphemism for testing products in-house. This is what has become of the company that was once deemed the best place in the world to work: Cancelled bonuses and unpaid labor. Here's the memo:
Googlers,
The holiday bonus is a Google tradition - it's a great way to thank everyone for their hard work. In the past, we've done this in cash. This year, we've decided to give Googlers a different kind of present - a Dream phone (this is the same device T-Mobile markets as the G1). We're really excited about getting the phone to more Googlers in more countries, and also seeing all the cool new things you do with it.
(Excerpt) Read more at valleywag.gawker.com ...
Is Google is running out of cash?
Short answer, yes.
Stock is off more than 75% from the glory days.
Hope nobody put a down payment on a swimming pool.
What do they give out on Earth Day? May Day? International Women's Day?
There are a lot of pinko holidays that Google celebrates by name. Why don't they give out holiday bonuses for those holidays? Why only for the holiday that they refuse to name?
I don't know about dog food but here's a recipe for some people-friendly:
1/2 c Peanut butter
1/2 c Butter or margarine
6 oz Chocolate chips
10 c Corn Chex cereal
2 c Powdered sugar
Melt peanut butter, butter or margarine, and chocolate chips in a saucepan over medium heat. Pour over Corn Chex, being sure that all cereal is coated. Put the powdered sugar in a large paper bag.
Add the cereal and shake gently until all the cereal is coated.
Pour out on wax paper to cool.
Wonder how much data mining they will do on their own employees.
I saw a thread here bemoaning the death of Silicon Valley. Never has a more arrogant bunch of pantywaists been forced to walk the plank than the metrosexual capital of America ...Santa Clara, Ca. I heard lots of liberal meccas like Boulder, Co, Portland Or and Bellvue, Wa are being hurt in this recession. They pissed away money by the wheel barrow full and supported causes and politicians which wanted to tax and regulate the heck out of the rest of us. Volvo dealers going out of business by the dozens and Whole Foods markets delaying expansion plans ...oh the horror!
Mmmmmmmmm! I love that stuff. It’s totally addicting. :)
And places that served as disposalls for Waste Money, like Needless Market are hurting. We have the types around here. The types who browbeat and snapped their fingers at the local mechanics, (who then cheerfully ripped them off by installing Muffler Bearings). The people who cannot start a lawnmower. The people who have arrogant contempt for people with Dirty Hands jobs.
When their wives get to $20, Buy.
"Hey. If any of you are looking for any last-minute gift ideas for me, I have one. I'd like Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the both of them, right here tonight. I want both these Segway riding dweebs brought from their happy holiday slumber over there on Google Way with all the other rich people and I want them brought right here, with big ribbons on their heads..."
I could buy all of GM for just a little more. And it wouldn't be such a losing proposition.
Really? Aren’t they at like $300?
I’ll never forget one Christmas when I was managing in the wholesale food biz. The owners of the company were really cheap. At Christmastime they would give us a coupon for a free turkey.
This one year the company had hired a big money consultant to run their warehouse/logistics operations. I happened to be with him when he got his check just before Christmas. After opening his pay envelope he asked me when we would be getting our bonuses. I pointed to the coupon in his envelope and said, “there it is, welcome to the company.”
The look on his face was priceless.
Yep. Down from ~1250.
During the final week before the Christmas holiday, you could see on any given day different departments heading out to a luncheon provided by their respective managers.
While managers in my own department went out to lunch together on one of the days, the manager I worked for didn't have the courtesy or class to take out her own group for lunch.........We all (about 5 of us) took it in stride and considered the source.
Nevertheless, it just further increased the disgust I had for those managers. I'm so glad I'm gone from that place and so are my co-workers that I stay in touch with who lost their jobs when the company was sold at the end of 2006........
DANG. People were paying that much for Google? haha that’s nuts.
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