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Google Changed Work Culture. Its Former Hype Woman Has Regrets.

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Google Changed Work Culture. Its Former Hype Woman Has Regrets.

First Person

The New York Times,

5 min read
4 take-aways
Audio & text

What's inside?

When utopian corporate mission statements fall short, where should workers turn to find a sense of purpose? 

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Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Eye Opening
  • Hot Topic
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Recommendation

In their heady early days, companies like Google vowed to remake the employee experience and offer work that promoted the social good. Today, many believe Big Tech’s culture has failed to live up to its lofty mission of democratizing information and caring for its employees. In this episode of the New York Times podcast, First Person, host Lulu Garcia-Navarro chats with the former “Bard of Google” Claire Stapleton about the common disconnect between high-minded corporate mission statements and the lived experience of employees – and the importance of finding purpose outside your work.

Summary

At their founding, Big Tech companies like Google offered new incentive structures and declared their work a “moral calling.”

In their inaugural years, companies like Apple, Facebook and Google claimed to offer their workers more than just jobs: They provided a moral mission with a radical new imagining of corporate culture. Google designed its campus to encourage employee collaboration and recreation. Workers could play volleyball, eat for free and take care of life tasks, like laundry. The company brushed off suggestions that the set-up was exploitive – as one French reporter put it, “an obvious plot to keep workers [on campus] all the time.”

When Google hired Claire Stapleton as a member of its internal communications team, she quickly became caught up in its progressive corporate vision. The company talked about solving societal problems and curing cancer. Its founders insisted&#...

About the Podcast

Lourdes “Lulu” Garcia-Navarro hosts The New York Times’ First Person podcast. She was the host of National Public Radio’s Weekend Edition from 2017 to 2021. Former “Bard of Google” Claire Stapleton is the author of the career column Tech Support, where she offers “existential advice” for tech workers. She worked on Google’s internal communications team and as a marketing manager for its subsidiary, YouTube.

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