For nearly 14 years, an online bulletin board called Memegen has served as a virtual water fountain for Google employees.
Memegen features employees offering candid criticism of their bosses, sharing gallows humor about layoffs, and joking about getting notes from their parents as an excuse to return to the office after the pandemic. It's a place to do it.
But in recent months, Google executives made major changes to cool down the company's popular message board after seeing employees shouting insults about the war in Gaza, according to documents reviewed by The New York Times. It is said that there is
One of the most important adjustments to Memegen is the removal of virtual thumbdown. Based on those votes, popular memes rise to the top of Memegen. Unpopular things quickly disappear from view. Another change is the removal of metrics that let you see how popular other employees' memes have become.
Google said it made the change, which goes into effect later this year, based on feedback from employees that thumbs-down voting made employees feel bad and that metrics made message boards feel too competitive. But some employees said they feared the changes would censor their freedom of expression and turn Memegen from a real-time gauge of employee sentiment into a boring corporate bulletin board.
The discussions on Google's message boards reflect long-simmering tensions between Google's opinionated employees and executives who seek to tame the company's sometimes freewheeling culture. More than 4,000 employees responded to a recent post summarizing why they protect the forum: “The five minutes he spends on Memegen before he starts work are his best two hours of the day.” I pressed “like”.
A Google spokesperson said in a statement: “Teams share information transparently with employees and are experimenting with industry-common practices similar to what other internal and external social platforms have done. “
Memegen was created in October 2010 by two Google engineers, Colin McMillen and Jonathan Feinberg. McMillen has since left Google. Its name stands for Meme He Generator because it not only displays memes (funny images with meaningful text) but also helps employees create or generate memes. Using their work username, employees can select or upload an image, type a message above it, post it, and wait for replies.
More than a decade ago, former Google partnership manager Christopher Fung spoke with Larry Page, Sergey Brin and others during Google's all-hands meeting, known as TGIF, even though it was often held on a Thursday. executives recalled that employees rushed to Memegen as they spoke. . They provided live comments on whether they agreed or disagreed with the statements and voted to form an unofficial poll, a scrolling corporate ID. Even under current CEO Sundar Pichai, people are using forums to get real-time reactions.
Fung, who runs Xoogler, a community for former Google employees, said people wrote things they had “thought but were embarrassed or afraid to say.”
Employees loved Memegen because it was a community hub that felt very Google. I also liked the executives who were sometimes roasted there. In his book How Google Works, co-authored with Jonathan Rosenberg, Memegen's former chief executive Eric Schmidt wrote that Memegen encouraged employees to “have fun while commenting harshly on the current state of the company.” He wrote that it was a “huge success'' in that sense.
“In the fine tradition of Tom Lehrer and Jon Stewart, Memegen manages to be highly entertaining while cutting to the heart of internal controversy,” they wrote.
Over the years, the tone of employee chatter has become more rugged, reflecting changes in social media and broader society. The altercation worsened last fall when staffers began posting about the war in Gaza. Employees were difficult to locate because they engaged in lively discussions about the war and downvoted posts opposing it, according to two people familiar with the exchange who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. It is said that it became.
The company's internal moderators said in a February memo seen by the Times that they considered the coordinated downvotes a “bullying tactic.” They added that in the second half of 2023, there was a significant increase in complaints about content shared by employees. The company began efforts to remove scores and downvotes in February.
Once the changes are fully implemented, employees will still be able to post and comment using Memegen. As long as the post doesn't attack individuals or use abusive language, mocking the company or its policies is still within the rules.
But some employees are skeptical that Memegen will maintain its quirky personality. One recent post said this change would “kill Memegen.” “Of course, that's the point.” That post, he said, was liked by more than 8,000 employees.
The Memegen controversy has been a problem for the company before. In 2017, Google engineer James Damore wrote an internal memo criticizing the company's diversity policies. Employees used Memegen to criticize Damore and the memo, and the feud became public. Google ultimately fired Mr. Damore. He sued for discrimination, but dropped the case in 2020.
In 2018, one of Memegen's top posts was showered with confetti after the Times reported that Google paid former executive Andy Rubin, who was accused of sexual misconduct, $90 million in severance. A GIF of a game show contestant having a great time was posted. The text read, “An act of sexual harassment by an employee has been discovered.''
In 2019, Google introduced community guidelines aimed at creating boundaries on internal message boards. The company emphasized the need to be respectful and refrain from vandalism, slander, or political behavior.
At the time, the company told its employees, “Our primary responsibility is to perform the job for which we were hired and not to spend our working hours discussing non-work topics.'' Told.
In most cases, employees do not talk about war or other serious issues on Memegen. Jokes about working at Google remain a perennial favorite, but heartfelt message board tributes have recently struck a chord, including one wishing Memegen a happy birthday: “You've made Google really special.” .