The 5 Worst Teams at Google

Working for Google is often considered a dream come true.

But behind the big ‘G’, there are a lot of aspects that Google could improve upon. Here are the five worst teams to work at in Google, according to anonymous reviews left by former and present employees.

1. Google Assistant

The Google Assistant team is responsible for developing 2 sets of relationships:

• The relationship between Google Assistant and its users.
• The relationship between the platform and other partners.

By building relationships with these partners, the Assistant can better fulfill user requests and is further developed for consumer-based experiences on the phone, speakers, smart displays, etc. These experiences also focus on aspects like games, education, and storytelling.

Why is it a bad team to work for?

According to anonymous reviews left by an employee, the Google Assistant team has a poor work-life balance.

This team is large, but moves slowly and tends to be more political. In addition to these concerns, a second employee complained that the group itself is “broken” and that “most of the things you expect to work just won't work.”

Google Assistant is made up of smaller teams that come together to further the user experience of the Assistant.

The main focus of this group is to make it easier for users to utilize Google Assistant in their everyday lives, whether that’s by making dinner reservations, conducting phone calls, providing reminders, and more. The integration of teams is poor among Google Assistant, causing a lot of teams to work on overlapping projects. Although it was thought that Google Assistant would be the “next big thing,” this employee believed otherwise.

2. Android

This team focuses on Android mobile applications to further user experiences and innovating the apps themselves. Employees design and develop closed-source Google applications or open-source Android applications. This group heavily emphasizes the importance of developing the apps to enhance the experience.

Why is it a bad team to work for?

This group has a history of intense stress due to crunch times. Their emphasis on deadlines is extreme: if deadlines are missed, a project is at risk of getting completely canceled.

The work-life balance is poor in this group, especially when these crunch times may last for months. According to former employees, the environment felt overworked, overwhelmed, and bitter due to stress. Salary increases tend to be slow as well. Another big factor of this negative atmosphere was the frustration from the lack of working tools. One employee explained that being asked to focus on minimal changes rather than productive ones was a big challenge while working in Android.

3. Google Cloud - Sales Team

This team is responsible for helping customers with their businesses through the use of Google’s global data center and software products. There is an emphasis on further developing technology to improve the workplace, and an expectation to make businesses more productive and collaborative. As a part of this team, you will help shape businesses through technology.

Why is it a bad team to work for?

One former employee noted how this team is incredibly disorganized. There doesn’t seem to be a proper direction or strategy when it comes to accomplishing their goals. And these goals and targets also tend to be unrealistic.

Another former employee added how there lacks a work-life balance, as the primary focus is on work and productivity. The also described the benefits as an “illusion".

4. Google Ads

Google Ads focuses on engaging with businesses that are trying to grow and develop. Ads are used to advertise the company on websites like YouTube. This team emphasizes the importance of building relationships with businesses to further their success.

Why is it a bad team to work for?

Promotions tend to be slow and the pay more limited than other organizational areas, noted one former data scientist for Google Ads.

This employee was very dissatisfied with their experience. They noted how newcomers are rarely given much help, which presents the additional stress of learning on your own.

5. Site Reliability Engineering

Google’s Site Reliability Engineering team is responsible for the reliability and efficiency of systems Google provides. It combines software and system engineering to create large and widely-distributed systems, while also developing existing systems. This team has a big focus on coding, algorithms, complex analysis, and problem-solving.

Why is it a bad team to work for?

A current employee noted how there isn’t a lot of room for growth in this team.

There is a feeling of being a “fish out of water” in the early stages of the role, and a slow timeline to getting a promotion. Like many of Google's "worst" teams, the environment is stressful, according to another current employee.