Sounds like this is a term used to make them happy about working additional paid time on a Google-owned product. I mean, if they spent this volunteer time (even if paid) on a public good, I could appreciate that, but choosing to do paid work on your own company's money-making products is not volunteering, it's just regular work but you choose what to work on during 20% of your time.

> but choosing to do paid work on your own company's money-making products is not volunteering, it's just regular work but you choose what to work on during 20% of your time.

Disclosure: Google employee, opinion my own.

You are right, but that blog post is using volunteer in the weaker (but nonetheless common) meaning of "someone who raises their hand to do something". 20% time, when done properly, is more of an employee wellness and career/skill building perk. It is like your employer giving you paid time to take a class or training that is related to your job.

When you get evaluated during performance reviews, do your 20% time projects count? If not, it seems like you are just doing a side project in your free time but giving any IP that results to Google. If it does count toward perf, then cool, it’s nice to have complete autonomy for that 20% of your workload.

How would they not count? “fshbbdssbbgdd built this incredibly valuable thing, but sadly it was done as a 20% project, so we can’t count it.”?

Performance reviews are how managers provide positive or negative reinforcement for employees who do or don’t further the organization’s goals. Does a really cool 20% time project count toward that if it isn’t related to my work? Does the manager have any incentive to value it (since they get evaluated on progress on the larger team’s goals)?

Every sane boss I’ve had has been happy if I do things that are good for the org, doubly so if they were ideas that I came up with myself for efforts that wouldn’t have happened otherwise. Is 20% time different from this somehow?