Comment by drewg123
8 years ago
I had a somewhat similar, but much less serious experience at Google. I resigned just after I had gotten a promotion, but before the date when the promo was effective. Much to my surprise, the resignation (slated to be effective after the promo) somehow cancelled the promo via some automated system.
However, a promo at Google is a huge deal. I really wanted the promotion to go through, so that I would have that level if I decided to re-join Google (or even so that go/epitaphs would match my resume). My manager and HRBP managed to get it sorted out, but it was a pain.
This is interesting.
On the one hand, you have been promoted to a new role, so you have reached a compatible level of expertise. You can put that role on your resume and sell yourself.
On the other hand, you never, ever actually performed in that role, with the new responsibilities. How can you list that on your resume !
I am not sure what is the right answer here... but as your new employer I would take your last promotion with a big grain of salt. A resume is not a score sheet of levels accomplished in a game, it is a list of things your have actually done.
At least at Google, the whole point of a promo is that you've been working at the new level for some time before the promo cycle. And the new employer was not really in the equation, I'd already received my offer from them.
I'm not particularly familiar with the system at Google, but at any somewhat decent tech company in order to get a promotion you have to already perform as you would in your "future" role for some time, with higher-level expectations and responsibilities.
For example, is someone with level I is up for level II promo, she/he has to match level II criteria long before actual promotion is due.
That's general HR pep talk.
In reality promotions mostly happen in organizations due to political lobbying with the powers.
Even in these 'decent' tech companies you will see some people getting rapidly promoted and moving up the hierarchy, while genuine performers are stuck in the process and minutiae. Its just what kind of leverage your manager has with the upper management.
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Curious, do Google regularly give free stuff to their customers (advertisers) hoping that in a few months those customers will upgrade to a higher service?
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Which is dumb, because it means that the company is getting a higher level of labor than they're paying for.
There is a very clear right answer here provided you consider promotion from a clean point of view.
A promotion is a _recognition_ that you are _already_ operating at a given level. It's an acknowledgement by TPTB that you deserve a given title.
Anything less than this leads to a result where you may not actually be performing at the level the new title requires, which means you could conceivably be promoted and immediately fail to meet expectations in the new role.
> promoted and immediately fail to meet expectations in the new role.
aka the peter principle (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_principle)
At Google, you ostensibly must have been performing at the new level for at least six months in order to get the promotion.
The span at the level lower than your performance is accommodated by an excellent bonus and stock refresh.
> On the other hand, you never, ever actually performed in that role, with the new responsibilities.
For what it's worth - that's not necessarily true. Several places I have worked gave promotions in retrospect - after you have been performing the additional responsibilities for a while. It's sort of like a 'dry run' - they want to make sure you can do it before officially thrusting it on you.
What made you think that you were entitled to something that you were supposed to receive on a date which was later than the date on which you resigned?
I resigned effective the 2nd of a month, and the promo was effective the 1st of the month. See above "resignation (slated to be effective after the promo)". So the resignation was scheduled for the day after the promo.
I actually stayed an extra week to receive the promo.
I'm not going to lie; that type of thing -- resigning right after getting promoted -- seems like something from some alternate reality fantasy world.
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> somehow cancelled the promo via some automated system
Maybe someone just unassigned your employee id to the role, because in reality you weren't actually taking the job!
You didn't answer the question at all.
You should have become a lawyer.
Your story is inconsistent?
> I resigned just after I had gotten a promotion, but before the date when the promo was effective
If I get sick before my insurance is effective...I don't get my coverage.
If I resign before my raise is effective...I don't get my raise.
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Because large companies give the promos as trailing indicators of performance, meaning that to be promoted requires an acknowledgment of prior sustained performance at that level. Entitlement to the level is actually accurate and above board.
A promotion can also be a way of acknowledging an existing reality.
Generally in cases like these, they don't want to waste the promotion(the new position) and they give it to whoever is next in line and wants to stay longer.
A very logical thing to do. In big companies it takes time to build a case for a promotion(position). If you were not going to use it, it was always a good thing to give it to somebody else.
Plus asking somebody to sustain a position for somebody who was promoted and still wants to leave seems like bonkers even from the HR perspective.
Google do not have position quotas. At least they didn't have them when I worked there a few years ago. So getting a promotion is not done by competing with others for the same slot, but by earning the merit from doing a great job.
What is "go/epitaphs"?
An internal Google site that let's people see who has left the company and, occasionally, why.
Err isn't that a potential huge legal liability
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You need to stand up, stretch, and look really carefully at the world at large and your place in it. Getting a promotion at Google isn't actually a big deal at all, man. You went from generating $2M and being paid $225k of it to generating $2M and being paid $250k, plus you get an extra word in your title
https://csimarket.com/stocks/GOOG-Revenue-per-Employee.html
Yes, because getting a raise that is more than 50% of an average full-time worker's entire yearly wages is not a big deal at all.