I recently discovered that my manager at Google gave me the lowest rating for my end of year review NE (Not Enough Impact). I was part of the Google layoffs this year and didn’t meet with my manager about my rating as they didn’t reach out about it and I was busy interviewing. But I found out I was given an NE despite manager saying throughout the year that I am performing better than previous cycle (Significant Impact). After reading the justification everything was written in a pessimistic point of view and didn’t provide any highlights of my work. The phrasing made me sound completely incompetent despite positive peer feedback. It feels like I was thrown in the bucket to meet a quota and it’s been pretty frustrating especially since I felt I’ve worked hard and trusted my manager that I was doing well. Now I see my managers friendliness was just a front and they are willing to throw people under the bus. This greatly taints my view of the Google leadership and culture. Never felt so back stabbed and demoralized.
How did you find out
Name and shame
Org and level?
Sorry you went through that. We all come across gutless managers like that in our career. I’ve been working for 20 years and only worked under one manger like that so I’ve been lucky. You’ll see better days, trust me
Any red flags 🚩 to look for?
What else am I supposed to do after getting laid off just twiddle my thumbs and pray for a job?
I don't think you read the original post correctly. It looks like the interviewing was after the layoff.
It sucks and it hurts - is any of it true? If not then don’t make it your story or give any more f**ks about it look at what you need to improve in areas where you want to grow and the rest doesn’t matter I got the lowest rating and I was the #1 performer cause my manager is weak and pathetic. I found a new job and excited about what’s next. It’s okay to leave companies and crappy managers
Those are good standards to live by. It just sucks that people can be so cruel and don’t consider the mental effect it has on others.
This is good advice. I know a couple L4s who got laid off, and if you can believe it, they told me the exact story as OP, pretty much word for word. Seems to me that they've somehow made a list of employees to lay off, and then forced bad ratings on them. Can't really tell why. Maybe one reason is to give you less bonus, and the people who are left behind get more. It's all very f*ked, either way. I'll leave this as advice to everyone reading this: If you notice your manager suddenly acting aloof or distant, not getting involved with technical discussions. Or if you feel your manager is urging you to do less, or to deprioritize projects.. This is a sign that you might be laid off
Sounds about right. G managers aren't worth trusting at all. Gaslighting is all they do.
we are in same boat, it hurts when they behave friendly and backstabs at performance cycle
These new “managers” have ruined Google, but alas it must be what Sundar wants… In 2022 I went from a retention bonus Superb (no promo) from my very long tenured L9 manager to an NI from a Meta Noogler L8 after the L9 left the company. I transferred orgs and now I don’t work at Google. It’s a shame what happened to the culture, but I would never go back without a MASSIVE culling of execs. Remember, they want this culture.
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