Verily reviews

-nebulous project budgets -feudal mgt, no practical support/incentive for cross functional engagements -competitive and cannibalistic middle management -project sprawl, and at time a glaring lack of coherent strategy

Absurdly stingy project budgets considering billions of $ in external funding and Alphabet backing. Comparisons to “being a startup” made by management are a complete joke (few if any have actually been at a startup), and strictly used to justify worsening treatment of employees (e.g. slowly cutting Google perks). No real plan for long-term business sustainability. Instead, a smorgasbord of scattered projects are pursued. All are underfunded/understaffed, all fail to deliver. This forces the company to chase short-term profits via a “partnership model” (read: outsourced work) which makes no sense as a long-term business strategy - and everyone knows it. Mass employee exodus on projects Baseline and Life Sciences (orgs most affected by C19); buyer beware. These roles are being backfilled, but the project infrastructure is rotten and role toxicities persist. Some mid/high level leadership roles are inexplicably filled by individuals with no record of accomplishment to speak of in industry. These people fail both as people managers and product visionaries; no real idea how to manage or execute. Instead, this responsibility is hoisted onto even more junior employees, who bear all the accountability for decisions. Leadership later swoops in to throw them under the bus, or reap rewards - depending on outcome. To add fuel to the fire, there appear to be no consequences for poor management as the manager feedback surveys do not affect their performance ratings. Promotion moves at a glacial pace, even at the lowest levels. Other career dev is basically zero. Strong, widespread feelings of career suppression from above - though unclear if this is a systemic or manager-specific concern. Cumulative result: toxic, hierarchal work culture built on fear that dramatically departs from Google egalitarianism & transparency.