Why do Google-style perks and mission statements still leave employees disillusioned (and what can you do about it)?

Is Big Tech work culture built for purpose—or for productivity (and why ex-Googlers are rethinking meaning at work)?

A podcast recap of Lulu Garcia-Navarro’s conversation with former “Bard of Google” Claire Stapleton on how Big Tech’s moral-mission branding can clash with employee reality—plus lessons on #MeToo, retaliation fears, and finding purpose beyond a job. Keep reading to learn the specific warning signs of mission–reality drift, the practical questions to ask before buying into any “purpose-driven” employer, and how to build a personal mission that doesn’t depend on company hype.

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In their heady early days, companies like Google vowed to remake the employee experience and offer work that promoted the social good. Today, many believe Big Tech’s culture has failed to live up to its lofty mission of democratizing information and caring for its employees. In this episode of the New York Times podcast, First Person, host Lulu Garcia-Navarro chats with the former “Bard of Google” Claire Stapleton about the common disconnect between high-minded corporate mission statements and the lived experience of employees – and the importance of finding purpose outside your work.

Take-Aways

• At their founding, Big Tech companies like Google offered new incentive structures and declared their work a “moral calling.”
• By 2016, a disconnect between Big Tech’s self-declared progressive ideals and on-the-ground reality appeared.
• Google publicly praised its staff’s 2018 walkout in support of #MeToo; privately, it retaliated against the organizers.
• Employees should refrain from tying their sense of purpose to their jobs.

Summary

At their founding, Big Tech companies like Google offered new incentive structures and declared their work a “moral calling.”

In their inaugural years, companies like Apple, Facebook and Google claimed to offer their workers more than just jobs: They provided a moral mission with a radical new imagining of corporate culture. Google designed its campus to encourage employee collaboration and recreation. Workers could play volleyball, eat for free and take care of life tasks, like laundry. The company brushed off suggestions that the set-up was exploitive – as one French reporter put it, “an obvious plot to keep workers [on campus] all the time.”

“Apple told us to think different. Facebook aspired to make the world more open and connected. And Google, their unofficial motto was simple: ‘Don’t be evil.’” (Lulu Garcia-Navarro)

When Google hired Claire Stapleton as a member of its internal communications team, she quickly became caught up in its progressive corporate vision. The company talked about solving societal problems and curing cancer. Its founders insisted that Google never was, and never would be, a “conventional company.” Stapleton’s job was to project and produce variations of the company’s message of “specialness.” Her skill at this task quickly earned her the moniker “the Bard of Google.”

By 2016, a disconnect between Big Tech’s self-declared progressive ideals and on-the-ground reality appeared.

Stapleton’s work-related sense of hope and purpose began to fade during the lead-up to the 2016 election. While reporters asked hard questions about how companies like Google and YouTube spread disinformation and increased polarization, Stapleton was tasked with projects like crafting “the perfect Pride logo.” The sense of disconnect between Google’s messaging about all the “good” it was doing and America’s political reality grew palpable.

Google publicly praised its staff’s 2018 walkout in support of #MeToo; privately, it retaliated against the organizers.

In 2017, the #MeToo Movement shone a light on the prevalence of sexual harassment and intimidation in workplaces worldwide, including at Google. The following year, The New York Times published a story about former Google executive Andy Rubin, who left the company after facing credible sexual harassment claims – with a $90 million severance package. On the heels of this reveal came others: Women on a moms email list at Google began sharing their #MeToo stories with one another. Stapleton felt compelled to do something to raise awareness. She ultimately helped organize a company-wide walkout.

“I genuinely believed that this was going to be a positive moment for the company in one way or the other.” (Claire Stapleton)

Publicly, Google expressed admiration for the thousands who protested that day and promised reform. Stapleton believed the walkout would mark a turning point for the company. Instead, she found herself unofficially demoted and treated to other “hostile” actions. Rather than continue to work in such an environment, Stapleton chose to resign.

Employees should refrain from tying their sense of purpose to their jobs.

Google’s #MeToo hypocrisy was not the only way it failed to live up to its ideals. In 2012, Stapleton discovered that most of the staff charged with Google’s branding and advertising were contract workers. They had no benefits, vacation days or access to the Google campus amenities. How could a company claim its culture centered on “psychological safety” when many of its workers were in such tenuous employment circumstances?

“I think a lot of people seem to be really reevaluating how they’re choosing to spend their time and their mindset or approach to the companies where they offer so much of themselves.” (Claire Stapleton)

Many workers today are facing the fact that an idealistic company mission statement does not guarantee fair treatment at work. They are, rightfully, moving away from equating their sense of meaning and purpose with working at a certain company or in a specific role. Stapleton encourages people to craft their own life mission to live out proudly, regardless of where they work.

About the Podcast

Lourdes “Lulu” Garcia-Navarro hosts The New York Times’ First Person podcast. She was the host of National Public Radio’s Weekend Edition from 2017 to 2021. Former “Bard of Google” Claire Stapleton is the author of the career column Tech Support, where she offers “existential advice” for tech workers. She worked on Google’s internal communications team and as a marketing manager for its subsidiary, YouTube.