Google Interview Questions

Google is famous for its unusual, but thought provoking, interview questions. (For example, how many golf balls can fit inside a school bus?)

Business 2.0 writer Michael Kaplan explains a few of these Google interview questions and answers a few of the brainteasers.

Hubris and Hiding Poke a Hole in Whole Foods

I’ve hesitated to write about this for a few days.

Regular readers of KnowHR Blog will know that I’ve written glowing articles about Whole Foods and their CEO, John Mackey. I thought their HR practices and executive pay decisions were among the best in the U.S. I still think so. But, oh how the mighty have fallen.

John Mackey, the CEO who talked so much about transparency and honesty and integrity, posted 1,300 entries on financial message boards using a pseudonym. Ben McConnell of Church of the Customer Blog summarizes the “whole” mess in one pithy paragraph:

That’s why Whole Foods founder and CEO John Mackey, in my book, was knocked off the rebel ladder today when the WSJ revealed that he’d spent eight years hiding behind an online facade astroturfing his company. Posing as just an everyday investor on the Yahoo Finance message board for Whole Foods, he cheered his company’s financial results. He demonized the competition. Using his alias, he even astroturfed himself, defending criticism of his haircut.

It gets worse. Mackey doesn’t think he’s done anything wrong. His response to the criticism that the CEO of a major company was posting unwaveringly bullish comments anonymously in financial bulletin boards reminds me of that scene at the end of A Few Good Men, when the Marine, after being dishonorably discharged, shouts, “We didn’t do anything wrong! Hal, what did we do wrong?! We didn’t do anything wrong!” That movie scene made me uncomfortable; Mackey’s “defense” of his actions makes me even squirmier, especially his “I didn’t do it, my hand did it” defense:

  1. I posted on Yahoo! under a pseudonym because I had fun doing it. Many people post on bulletin boards using pseudonyms.
  2. I never intended any of those postings to be identified with me.

What’s Wrong with this Picture?
There are a few HR lessons to be learned here. Sure, Whole Foods HR wasn’t involved in John Mackey’s decision to become “Rahodeb” and post on financial bulletin boards. But now they have an ethical quandary to get out of. How do you tell your employees to think and act ethically when your CEO didn’t use the good sense that God gave a Kindergartener? I mean, I thought passing anonymous notes went out in grade school. Here are some things that HR should learn from this fiasco:

  1. They always find out. Remember when you were a kid and it was so amazing that your parents just *knew* what you were up to? Well, in this internet age, they have ways of finding out. And when they find out, everyone knows. It’s like getting yelled at by your mom with all the windows open in the house and your friends standing outside. Only, in 2007, it’s like there are millions of friends standing outside. And they all can hear every word.
  2. Transparency is the new secrecy. Keeping secrets is part of doing business, right? I mean, that’s how the Man in the Gray Flannel Suit would have done it. Well, it’s now the era of the dude in the black t-shirt. And he knows the real deal. Complete and utter transparency is essential these days, whether as a CEO or in HR communications. Tell them what you know, what you don’t know, and when you’ll know more. Transparency is more than honesty, it’s honesty and ethics all mixed together with a little vulnerability. It’s knowing that adults can see through things whether you want them to or not.
  3. If you make a mistake, own up to it. Gosh, this is starting to sound like All I Ever Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. Maybe it’s just that. Mackey’s defensiveness about his actions don’t come off as owning up, they come off as “I got caught but they don’t like me.” C’mon, that doesn’t work when you’re a kid, why would it work now? Note to the Communication and PR folks: When you get called on to write a crisis speech for your CEO, write honestly and authentically. Don’t “spin.” Don’t think people need to hear it “a certain way.” If you make a mistake, say so. It’s what adults do.

Yeah, I’m a little peeved about this whole thing with Whole Foods. It’s harder when the good ones fall. I still think the company is good and their practices are outstanding. I think their thousands of employees are truly excellent people who want to do good. I just wish that they didn’t have to go home and explain to their families and friends why their CEO made 1,300 bad decisions to write anonymously on financial bulletin boards. That’s wrong, and it’s the complete HR lesson for today: Don’t ever do things in HR that would make your employees have to explain away a story or be put on the spot. Doing the right thing is always the right thing to do.

If You Just Can’t Get Enough of the Anonymous CEO Story
You can read a lot more about this story in USA TODAY’s analysis of what John Mackey wrote as “Rahodeb.” John Moore’s “Mackey’s Kinky Business Behavior” is a great summary of the elements. MSNBC’s “Whole Foods CEO’s Anonymous Life” is another good summary.

Head to Head

Meetup.com seems to be gearing up. They’re looking to double their workforce this year. The biggest, best competitor for talent? Google.

In order to recruit the folks he might lose to the googleplex, CEO Scott Heiferman has made a head-to-head comparison.

Just Because You’ve Been Diagnosed as Paranoid Doesn’t Mean That Your Company Isn’t Watching You

Under the Microscope

Note to employees: Your company is watching you. And as much as I personally dislike that (and many of you do, too), it’s their equipment and they’re paying you to work…not play. So, you might want to think about sending notes to a co-worker who isn’t your wife that says, “I think about us together all of the time. Little moments like watching your face when you kiss me.” Oops. That’s what USA Today reports in a story called Wal-Mart alleges sex, misdeeds in counterclaim to firing lawsuit.

Lots of Inappropriate E-Mail: The Repercussions
If that Wal-Mart story isn’t enough to remind you of how to use company e-mail (as in, if you wouldn’t want your grandmother to read it, or if you wouldn’t want to see it printed in USA TODAY, then don’t send it), then I’ve done a public service and added a couple other cautionary tales for your reading pleasure.

Rep. Mark Foley and the White House Pages. We all know about this one, but the Rep. Foley story tells about e-mail monitoring and how hitting delete doesn’t work.

I once witnessed an incredible e-mail faux pas a long time ago, sort of at the early entry point of e-mail in business. A guy in a group I worked in, which was very few men and a LOT of women, wrote up a detailed report of partying and debauchery at his bachelor party…in Las Vegas. And somehow, instead of sending it to the group he wanted to (I can’t imagine why he’d want to send it to anyone) he accidentally hit “All Group” in Lotus Notes. And before you could say ruh-roh in your best Scooby-Doo voice, over 100 people were reading his e-mail. And what happened in Vegas didn’t stay in Vegas. Not once he hit “send.”

Use Your Own Equipment for Your Own Business
Here’s what my dad would have said: Don’t be a bonehead. If you have personal business, either on the phone or by e-mail, use your own stuff. I’ve seen it happen all too often that people get caught up with what they think is private communication when they might as well have written it on a flying banner over the Super Bowl.

Another Busted on Backdating BS

The stock option backdating issue continues to flare up. The AP reports that former Monster executive vice president , Myron Olesnyckyj, pleaded guilty to securities fraud and conspiracy to commit securities fraud in an extensive stock options backdating scandal. The report says:

Monster went public in 1996. After that, Olesnyckyj said, he and others agreed to backdate annual companywide stock option grants, choosing the dates of the grants after looking at the historical records of the company’s stock price movements. Backdating involves issuing stock options retroactively to coincide with low points in the share price, thus boosting payouts. It can be illegal if it is not properly accounted for and disclosed to investors.

This issue isn’t over by a long shot. And it sure-as-heck isn’t going to be fixed with more vision, mission, and values statements. This whole thing is about doing the right thing. Or, in this case, not.

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