Comment by IBM | Hacker News Reader

Comment by IBM | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

This is probably why Apple, a hardware company, has operating margins that are higher than Google and Microsoft (even though their gross margins are almost half of Google's and Microsoft's).

The only person I can think of that might have this arrangement at Apple is Scott Forstall. I think that's why he's been radio silent until very recently (or he could just be very loyal to Apple). Maybe Katie Cotton when they changed their approach to PR from wartime to peacetime, but that could just be a regular retirement.

I mostly don't understand how Google and Microsoft employ so many people, or what they even do.

>"I've actually had a number of people, including today at Google X, ... send me pictures of themselves on a roof, kicking back doing nothing, with the hashtag 'unassigned' or 'rest and vest.' It's something that really happens, and apparently, somewhat often," the actor Brener told Business Insider's Melia Robinson last year.

Called it a year ago [1]:

>I've speculated for a long time that basically anything interesting Google says they're doing is essentially meant to be a jobs program to keep employees from leaving, PR for external stakeholders like investors, media, being attractive to potential employees, etc. They seem to have lots of formal ways to keep employees from leaving/close as well including investments off of Google's balance sheet (not GV or Google Capital) into ex-employee startups and just flat out paying people not to leave (which is the arrangement I'm guessing that Matt Cutts is under). It all seems very Microsoft of old. Can anyone at Google (or ex-employees) tell me if this is true?

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12410662

A friend of a friend at Apple seemed to have a very long leash. He was involved in the original iPhone, but afterward he kind of bounced around, spent time in Japan, "worked" at home, did a lot of other projects. He and Apple eventually parted ways, but I'm not sure he was fired, and at any rate it was after years of this kind of behavior.

I find this hard to believe given what I know about Apple's corporate culture. If your characterization of his employment is true, I don't believe it's common.

I think the closest that might come to this is Bob Mansfield. He returned after his retirement shortly after Scott Forstall left and eventually gave up his executive role, but even then he continued to work on "special projects", which turned out to be the Apple Watch [1] and now the Apple Car [2].

[1] https://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/10/disruptions-apple-...

[2] https://www.wsj.com/articles/apple-taps-bob-mansfield-to-ove...

Apple's a big company with a lot of business units that are pretty hermetically sealed from each other. Various different people I've met who work at Apple have had very different experiences there.

I thought the people who were resting and vesting at Google were all making new messaging programs? They are up to 3 or 4 now?

Honestly it's the opposite. The way you get noticed and promoted at Google is by building something new, even if Google is already doing something else in that space. That's part of the reason there's so much duplication at Google.

The VIPs (Vest In Peacers) are more inclined to do the easier thing of adopting and building on what's already there, which is of course the better thing: virtue of laziness and so forth.

(source: xoogler)

I know. I left off the /s. Sarcasm and the internet do not go well together :)

Every time I read one of your comments, I know it will be about your employer, how great its products are, and how great its business is; even when the article, like this one, is not about your employer.

Yes, we know that this sort of thing is rarer outside of Internet companies. Yes, we know that Jobs's Apple and Pixar notoriously initiated no-poaching agreements with other Silicon Valley employers that depressed salaries for their workers. After Facebook broke the cartel for Internet companies, compensation skyrocketed, and it's possible to be paid well at an Internet company doing nothing so long as you aren't doing something for a competitor.

I don't work for Apple.

I reckon Dr. Dre might be on a bit of a rest and vest deal at Apple too.

Dr. Dre has actually been working for Apple. He's had a show on Beats 1 since Apple Music launched. There were also reports of him starring in a show about his life and career that would be for Apple Music.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/curator/the-pharmacy-with-dr.-dr...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com