There has been a tonne of reaction to this ‘rant’, which is more like a thoughtful cry for help, promotion, or a come and get me. Most focus has been on the genuinely funny depiction of the horror of life in Amazon (where the Googler used to work before). On the equally sharp criticism of Google’s direction against their competitors (Microsoft get a surprisingly glowing mention, and Facebook are obviously scaring the pants off Google). I won’t get into the technical stuff because, well, I’m not technical, though I get his problem with Google’s approach.  I also don’t much care if this is, as some have commented, suspicious: surely if you work for Google, you’re not dumb enough to ‘accidentally’ make something like this public?

My interest is shared by HR Capitalist: is it a good thing that a Google employee felt he could or should bare his soul to the whole company like this? What does it say about the culture of the organisation that the employee could feel confident (so far) that this wouldn’t get him instantly fired – that hearing the truth, unpalatable as it might be, might actually be welcomed? HR Capitalist is right to say so far so good as Google seem to be (externally) happy to allow the post to remain in public circulation, and the ‘offender’ is still, apparently, in his job (the irony here is that he may well get promoted).

My question to you though is: what would happen if you asked every employee in your company to sound off or rant – with complete faith that their jobs are safe – about the company’s core strategy? I mean warts and all, no holds barred, names deliberately namedropped to hit the target?

Would you get nothing back?  Tumbleweed. Or an avalanche? What would that tell you – over and above a change of direction might be in order - about your culture? Can you or your business handle the truth?

Have a go. I dare you. I double dare you.