[disclaimer: I work for Google]
First point: 20% can work very well. Michael misrepresents the scope of 20% time in one signficant way: it need not be self-directed work at all. One of my 20%s was in fact contributing to the Ads pipeline, for the simple reasons that I was interested in learning about what they did, liked the people who worked on it and with them identified a project that they would not be able to get to soon.
I've also had the other type of 20%: A Program manager I knew had an idea and after a hallway conversation, we turned it into a 2 and then 3 person 20% project which involved hardware, embedded and server-side software development and deployment.
In neither of these cases was my manager particularly adept at managing either my time or my main project; it was my doing. I assumed that I had the right to 20% time and basically forged ahead until I was told otherwise, which I never was.
Michael, your repetitive anti-Google (in every aspect) speeches lack credibility for a number of reasons; the most blatant of which is that you simply did not work here long enough to have suffered the injustices that you claim to have. If you had been here longer or made any kind of effort to adapt to your environment, you may have found that 20% time can really be rewarding.
FYI: He didn't see much at all inside the latter. His tenure was order of single digit months and he appeared to have his mind made up within a matter of weeks.
Michael;
As a correspondent on your many internal rants at Google, I am not surprised, although sad to see that you have progressed to being a disgruntled ex-employee with an axe to grind.
You were not here long enough to experience the situations you claim to have suffered; you did not fit in, in many aspects, and were unwilling to adapt or in any way change your stance or expectations; and the assertions you make are warped to maintain your own position as being "right" and whatever else needed as being "wrong" to fit.
I've also had the other type of 20%: A Program manager I knew had an idea and after a hallway conversation, we turned it into a 2 and then 3 person 20% project which involved hardware, embedded and server-side software development and deployment.
In neither of these cases was my manager particularly adept at managing either my time or my main project; it was my doing. I assumed that I had the right to 20% time and basically forged ahead until I was told otherwise, which I never was.
Michael, your repetitive anti-Google (in every aspect) speeches lack credibility for a number of reasons; the most blatant of which is that you simply did not work here long enough to have suffered the injustices that you claim to have. If you had been here longer or made any kind of effort to adapt to your environment, you may have found that 20% time can really be rewarding.