Today we learn of two more Googlers leaving the search giant: Kevin Fox, a UI designer who worked on Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Reader, and Nathan Stoll, a product manager at Google News. Fox is going to an unnamed startup. Stoll is vague about his plans. Update: Add New York sales vet David Hirsch to today’s list.
Remember, these are two three employees out of 16,000 and the end of the year is a natural time to leave a job for something else. But Fox and Stoll join a growing trickle of Google veterans who no longer find Google as alluring a place to work as they once did.
Anyone know what Google’s employee churn rate was in 2007? Anyone want to guess what it will be in 2008?
Wow. I’ll bet the amount of good Google employees will fall.
Do you think they are leaving because G is no more a fun place to work, it could be the vitamin M too.
Wow… and to think they added Andale Mexican food to the menu!!!
Erick - I’d say that people leave a company for a large number of reasons OTHER than because they aren’t happy at their former employer.
I’d also bet that churn will lower as people don’t get the options they did years ago.
wow so you guys are going to write a post about 16,000 of those departures…..can be useful on slow news days…..btw in other news 30 people quit Yahoo over the holidays…..and 15 from Microsoft
Wow. How can your spell checker miss “Googel Calendar”?!?
I think everyone saw this coming. Less options, bigger company, more management layers, less fun… The first 5000 people in always leave. There are only about 10 of the original 5000 MS / IBM / Sun guys left at each company.
So yeah, you’ll see a *lot* of non-senior-management folk leave Google. But you’ll see a lot of folk go to Google as well, cause it’s still Google.
jeremy you sure it’s only 10? i’d bet its more
i think today people see these startups as the new gold rush - they want in - and the youngens are heading to them instead of heading to a “normal” job as my generation did.
Was this site named TechCrunch because GoogleCrunch was already taken?
Get off the google horse, man!
As for why they are leaving. Look at the stock price, how much more upside do you think there is? The ultimate value of a company is at the price it can make an exit. If nobody can afford to open the door for them to exit, then they’re stuck.
That was the problem with Cisco back in 2001 when it hit a $500B market cap. Big deal, $500B, who can afford to buy them? Answer: absolutely nobody and with that you take a short position.
A short position might be a little risky with Google because it still has some very modest upside, but the people that are leaving are not looking for modest. They are looking for that “Monster Exit” as this blog likes to call them.
well, the ‘03 hires are vesting this year - that was the last year before headcount really blew up, so if you factor in the small percentage of total employees they represent (and discount the already turned-over), i’m guessing that turnover by the end of the upcoming year will be much higher than anticipated…perhaps over 10 percent..
…and this speaks volumes to google pulling the plug on contract recruiters. my gut says that they are now shifting their attention toward retention strategies…
Wow, 2 employees are leaving Google. Oh no, something horrible must be going on there!!!!
I bet by next month, the entire company will be in shambles and their stock price will be 2 cents. Because 2 employees are leaving!! That’s HUGE people!!!!!!!!!!
This is pathetic . it is not a slow news day.
Let me give you a good story for today ” Intel has pulled out of the $100 dollar laptop project ” now thats worth writing about , tell us more about it , why they pulled out , the outlook of the project etc etc.
To TC writers - I have to questions for you ,
1.Firstly how many tips do you guys get a day ??
2.How the heck do I get a Techcrunch writing job ? as im sure I could do it.
thanks
I must admit that it does look a bit fishy that so many people are starting to quit and start their own companies. Might be that now they have the money to do it or something is happening inside Google.
Maybe it’s just that their options have vested and they want out? this in no way sheds bad image on google part IMO
That’s too bad when the experienced ones leave the company. That’s not a good news.
Since it might not be as easy as before to get options at google..
Some people may leave to create their own company.. which in turn would be bought by google.. that’s an interesting way of making great money. And it certainly is easier since they know the culture and what part of what google is looking for.
I’m sure it’s also easier for people that had high profile jobs at google to find financement.
With a great idea, some *easy* cash .. and knowing the right people at google, it helps a startup
Cheers!
It isn’t really a big deal that they are leaving. In fact, they probably hope to create a startup that google will eventually buy and pay them alot of money for it.
That’s what I’d do.
Who cares.
I was reading an article in either Time or Newsweek (I don’t remember which, and I occasionally pick up either) about how Google is actually built to have a high rate of churn, and they expect it.
I think there was a quote saying something about how they hope people will start brilliant new startups that succeed… so Google can buy them.
wow… that’s why newspapers would always remain number one choice for people’S source of information… at least there are news there, not on techcrunch anymore. Talk about technology and culture and social aspects man… Your readers are expecting food for thoughts!!!
Were they sick of the free food from the cafeterias??
Defections? Oh, I thought it said defecations.
just wait till the story about google mafia comes out !! oh no , sorry weve already had that issue last week.
Nothing so see here folks, move on now.
we should all band together and start our own tech blog. If anyone wants to do it im in. Im more than happy to fund the hosting/domain costs.
Just need afew people who can locate the new stories happening in the techworld and the breaking stories before other sites.
Is there a possibility that Google is on the shoes of NURV from the movie Antitrust(2001). http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0218817/plotsummary
If I was a Google millionaire I would leave too. Not because I hate Google but dame it, am a millionaire now, I have that right.
No wonder..they left the company just because the found a better one. It’s that simple..
I am of mixed opinion.
A. 2 people leaving Google is not news (unless the people are larry and sergey).
B. It is interesting to see where smart people are going.
I think events like this should be wrapped up on a weekly basis. It would be a regular column on Fridays. It would be a summary of who is going where. No commentary. Just soft news right before the weather report.
UI designer at Google. Isn’t that an oxymoron?
Google UI designer? No, seriously, what was his real job? Everything Google does, however useful, looks like a n00b web page from the early 90s.
I’m candidate for any replacement @ Google, folks !
The Gmail UI is amazingly simple - I’d love to work with the guy who designed it (who now has left)!
love it , UI designer.
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xenbet.com
Google is a hell of a place to work …
- The grass is always greener on the other side…
- this would only be an issue if they left for MS or IBM / ask or yahoo
pji @30, I guess you’ve never seen Google Analytics.
The Burger King I work at. Well, we lost one of our people too. He took care of flipping the patties and cutting up the onions. His name was Pat Ryan. Just thought I’d let you guys know.
good tip #36 .
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http://www.xenbet.com
Eric: Typo it’s defection not defacation….lol
Wow if you are going to make news about 2 people leaving Google, than man your blog will be full of posts of companies were a few people quit. I wouldn’t exactly say these guys are “big” guys, big deal, a UI designer.
Annie, I’ve seen Google Analytics and my statement still stands: Google UI design = No effort. They make things very simple but 100% no frills.
Simple design doesn’t mean any effort. By that logic, Google might as well just use Notepad to design their front page and search results. Fact is even the simplest things have to be properly managed, tracked and support and even if it’s something as simple as a few pages, I imagine they have a full staff of people to support it.
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http://www.merchanttalk.com/
Wow, it must be a slow news day. This story may say more about your lack of content and the decline of TC than google…
Is it the same Kevin Fox that’s been working at MyOpenId on Pibb?
http://www.tangler.com/people/id/5401
http://jyte.com/profile/kfox.myopenid.com
I guess not, but 2 Kevin Fox’s in tech is pretty coincidental.
Chris L .. do you know Chris R ?
what a lame story, 2 junior guys leave out 16,000 and it makes for a sensational headline! I bet there are 2 guys leaving and 5 joining Google, Microsoft, IBM, Toyota every day
it is just a matter of time
Google isn’t as sexy as it used to be and kids do grow up.
Making things “very simple” isn’t nearly as easy as you think it is, pji.
No relation or affiliation to Chris R… Maybe they will do a story on that next?
We’ve got a solution to this problem - we detect, store and report on management turnover in a beta version of the FirstRain product. Unannounced departures and internal moves are very revealing over time.
I also heard that an admin and a junior project manager left Google as well. Time to short the stock.