Google Just Ended One of Its Longest-Standing Traditions

CEO Sundar Pichai sent an all-company email ending the all-company meeting.

Google’s weekly all-company meetings are legendary in the sense that they represented the idea that even as the tech giant scaled massively it remained a tight-knit team. Anyone who worked there would have the same access to the top executives and could ask questions. It was one of the most prominent examples of the type of culture the company wanted to build. Now those weekly meetings, known as TGIF, are coming to an end. 

That’s according to an email, first reported by The Verge, sent from CEO Sundar Pichai to the company’s 100,000-plus employees. In it, Pichai explains that moving forward, the meetings will instead be held monthly, and focus only on “product and business strategy.” 

According to Pichai, “TGIF has traditionally provided a place to come together, share progress, and ask questions, but it’s not working in its current form.” Pichai is pretty clear about what he means when he says it’s “not working.” In fact, he focuses on two specific problem. The first being that many people seem to attend not to hear about new initiatives within the company, but instead to “hear answers on other topics.”

Steven Levy points out in an article for Wiredthat Pichai is likely referring to “recent moments when aggrieved employees registered objections to Google’s policies and missteps.”

Pichai also points to what he describes as “a coordinated effort to share our conversations outside of the company after every TGIF” which has “affected our ability to use TGIF as a forum for candid conversations on important topics.”

Or, said another way, Google’s culture-defining meeting was getting a little uncomfortable. 

Here’s the thing: separating leadership from the people they lead might eliminate the discomfort of hearing their complaints, but it doesn’t actually eliminate those complaints. Instead, it communicates a lack of trust and respect.

Source: inc