Main image of article Survey Results: You Definitely Wouldn't Quit Google (Yet)
The results are in: Though Google may have ditched its “Don’t Be Evil” mantra, you’d still work there. Last week, we asked you, our dedicated tech pro readership, if you’d quit Google in the wake of all the negative press the company is receiving lately. A slight majority said they’d stay put; no chance they’d quit. But that’s not the whole story. Here are the questions from our survey:
  • Definitely. I can’t stomach working somewhere that shady.
  • Maybe. If a recruiter reached out, I’d lean toward leaving if the offer was right.
  • Probably not. Google kinda sucks, but I’d rather stay working.
  • Nope. Google would look great on my résumé, and I don’t think being there in this tough time would affect my prospects later.
And here are the results: Some 36 percent of respondents to our survey say they’d weather the office storm and stay put. While some may regard the recent spat of bad headlines as media bias, the underlying issues are still grounded in deep-rooted problems within Google. Still, these developers would persist. Almost as many respondents (32 percent) say they may quit if given the opportunity; 11 percent say they’d “probably” stay with Google, while 21 percent report they would definitely leave. There are (naturally) different ways to appreciate these findings. One way would be that only 36 percent of developers say that, if they worked at Google, they would definitely stay put. And 64 percent are at least eyeing the exit door. “Nope” may not be a ringing endorsement, either. The context of the question suggests some respondents may be willing to stick around so they’ve got enough tenure at Google to make their next position more lucrative. We should remember when Uber – when it seemed like everyone should be jumping ship – had relatively low turnover (which was maybe a bad idea). Some are simply willing to stick it out when the chips are down, whether to pad a résumé or make sure their options vest. Here's our survey data's bottom line: Most respondents are either unmoved or not disturbed enough to want to quit a company when it might be violating its public ethical stance. In a time when ethics is quickly becoming a ‘soft skill’ for developers, that might prove a troubling statistic.