Survey Finds that Google Employs are Becoming Unahppy with Pay and Promotions

Google’s annual employee surveys, the “Googlegeist” survey, has revealed that Google employees are becoming unhappy with pay, promotions, and execution.

The workers gave their poor marks on how compensation compares to pay for similar jobs at other companies and also said they face growing bureaucracy that slows them down.

The company’s CEO Sundar Pichai received a favorable rating of 84% of from employees, but he did worse when it came to execution.

A growing number of staffers don’t view their pay packages as fair or competitive with what they could make in a similar role elsewhere revealed the survey. They are also questioning their employer’s ability to execute.

The surveys were taken in January and released to employees last week. CNBC obtained a viewing of the results.

The lowest scores across the board were in compensation and execution. The highest scores were in Google’s mission and values.

CEO Sundar Pichai told employees in a brief email announcing the results that the survey is “one of the most important ways” the company measures how much people like working at the company.

Only 46% of survey respondents said their total compensation is competitive compared to similar jobs at other companies. That’s down 12 points from a year earlier.

56%, say their pay is “fair and equitable,” a drop of eight points from the prior year. Some 64% of employees said their performance is reflected in their pay, down three points.

“We know that our employees have many choices about where they work, so we ensure they are very well compensated,” a Google spokesperson said in a statement. “That’s why we’ve always provided top of market compensation across salary, equity, leave, and a suite of benefits. Getting employee feedback is important, and we’ll continue to ensure we pay competitively everywhere our employees work and help them grow their careers at Google.”

For the CEO’s vision of what the company can be, 74% said Pichai inspires them, while the same number said his “decisions and strategies enable Google to do excellent work.”
Prabhakar Raghavan, who oversees key businesses including search, ads and commerce, noted in an internal email that 61% of employees see themselves as able to meet career goals at the company and said, “there’s work to be done.”

Pichai said the company progressed in areas including employee “well-being” and “culture of respect.”

Disclaimer: We have no position in any of the companies mentioned and have not been compensated for this article.