>"Countless employees who could be great entrepreneurs shy away from the prospect because they have something to lose. What a corporation would have to offer as a percentage of returns would be less – perhaps considerably less – than what a venture capitalist or traditional banker would have to offer."
That's why companies like Google do 10% time right? And didn't someone recently say Valve kinda does 100% time, everyone has the freedom to work on the project they find interesting.
If the manager is hurt when you take 20% time (and they will be if they are competing on productivity metrics that don't take it into account) I am sure they can find a way to retaliate (err, "communicate their priorities") that can't be provably identified in the escalation process. Besides, they wouldn't even have to be dishonest to say that you were underperforming on your primary project.
"Google gets rid of 20% time" makes a good headline. "Google revises peer evaluation incentive structure to effectively penalize employees for actually using their 20% time" doesn't, but 20% time is just as dead either way.
I don't work there. I've heard the "20% time exists in theory, but it's really 120% time" thing from two different friends (who do work at Google) and I've seen it cross HN a handful of times (once more in the sibling to this post). Marissa Meyer said it too -- but I'm not sure she counts given that she's CEO of a rival company. I'd love to hear that this cynical impression is incorrect. Is it?
Some managers are supportive and want their reports to succeed and will encourage them to direct their own work. Some are not. Google's great if you get a good manager. It sucks if you don't. Not much of a different story than in other companies.
"20% time" means that if you do a skunk-works project and it succeeds (which is hard to do-- because Google places high demands in terms of reliability and internationalization before it allows a launch, and for good reasons-- if you're only giving it 8 hours per week, so most people whose projects succeed will "cheat" a little bit) that you don't have to apologize and won't get fired for the mere fact of having a side project. That's important, but the idea that average Googlers get 1/5 of their working time to devote to anything that helps the company is a myth.
Yeah, sounds like every other large corp with deep pockets ever now in that regard. I've had this experience at large-ish tech companies and have actually ended moving cities to take a new position to work for a manager, and ended up moving on(from the company) after that same manager was re-assigned later on. Working with a great manager can be an awesome, motivational experience. It can really accelerate your career growth too.
That's too bad. I'm a lead engineer at Trulia and we have a quarterly hack week. It's less than 20% time if you do the math, but it's structured and has been, so far in our existence, inviolable. Many of these projects ship -- though they are usually features and not products.
That's why companies like Google do 10% time right? And didn't someone recently say Valve kinda does 100% time, everyone has the freedom to work on the project they find interesting.