Very fair, it is typical in many ways, and ofc there’s no one reason for a decision of this size. I’d argue that the culture is (was?) special, though - definitely not unique in the tech sector, but different from e.g. Microsoft, Apple, Meta, and Amazon in many ways. I think that’s been a huge advantage of theirs for years when competing for talent: Google is known as a eng-first, open, innovative company, and people often take lowball offers to get that cred on their resume.

That said you’re right that there’s no conspiracy, and I think I gave the wrong impression in my initial comment. Assuming my guess is right, leadership has been loudly and repeatedly telling employees to work harder with phrases like “you should sharpen your focus” and “you should adjust to this new economic reality”, which imo are as close to “work more” as you can get without coming up against CA labor laws

> There’s an assumption made often on HackerNews and elsewhere in tech circles that Google is special and not like other companies. These

Few people think Google is special in 2023. They just pay well.