Microhoo! marriage hits Google salaries hard

Pity if you will poor old Google, which last week suffered a terrible shock when it discovered that a possible unholy alliance of Microsoft and Yahoo! might challenge its bid to control the known universe. Quite what reaction the news prompted in the Googleplex we know not (although some furniture may have been Ballmered, we …

[David Gosnell]

Nothing unusual there

If I remember rightly, the top bods there are on $1 a year. Oh, plus a bonus or three.

It might be a mistake, but not necessarily - though more explanation for prospective evil-non-doers mightn't go amiss. Still, it's got people's attention, that's the first hurdle...

[Steve Browne]

Sterling/dollar exchange rate

We all know that american companies are unaware of exchange rates and pay scant attention to our laws.

[tranquil]

Working hours?

ahh but assuming the big G aren't exempt to minimum wage regulations, its only 12 minutes a year.

[TeeCee]

"Multi-faceted professionals"?

Is that wank-speak for "diamond geezers"?

Camel coat 'n pork pie-hat please.

[Dan]

Sterling/dollar exchange rate @ Steve Browne

Canadian companies are just as bad. My wife went on maternity leave and her company stopped paying her. Their excuse......"oh we thought the UK government pays that." (It does but they have to pay her then claim it back from the UK Government.)

Not a lot of fun ringing their HR Director in Canada to go "Oy numb nuts........"

Perhaps the £1 is Googles way of protesting the Yahoo Micro$oft alliance by showing how it will make all the other companies paupers.

[Hussein]

NEWSFLASH

google pay their employees in the form of shares in the company, not cash, as you dont pay tax on shares, or something...

[Alan Gregson]

@Hussein

You don't have to pay tax on shares, but you do pay it when you sell them, or else we'd all be paid in shares.

[Damian Gabriel Moran]

shares?

some of us get paid peanuts

[Dave]

@Steve Browne

Sometimes US companies get a rude awakening, like deciding to lay off just under a hundred people 'today', only to find that they can't - there's the fun of the month-long consultation period to go through first (and 90 days if it's 100+ people).

[Samson Chan]

£1 Salary

It's still a damn-sight more then what I get paid!

...Where'd I sign up?!

[Pete]

job agency commission

Google are actually paying £50K for this post, but once the agency has taken their placement fees, there's only a quid left.

[Anonymous Coward]

The obvious answer

Would it be to obvious and not humorous enough to point out that the salary, like most jobs, is what every they choose to pay you based on a bunch of unimportant criteria, that may or may not include experience? If none of the job adverts suggest a salary then there can be no market average for you to claim that is what you were looking for. Finally, it could of course be one of the many useless job posting tools that require a salary be filled in, hence £1.

[Bruno Girin]

@Dave

Then they realise they have to honour notice periods in contracts, pay remaining leave (which amounted to a mindboggling 4 or 5 weeks a year to start with) and potentially indemnify people. The horror!

[Steve Evans]

Errrr...

So after reading several lines of marketing/hr spin-speak, I found my technically aligned brain disconnecting from my eyeballs and trying to sneak out the door.

Did anyone make it to the bottom of that job description and work out what they are actually after?

[Julian Bond]

World shaping?

Google's planning World Shaping Technologies! What shape do they have in mind? A cube? flat?

Ok. Own up. Who took my coat?

[Anonymous Coward]

@Damian re Shares!

Peanuts? Luxury ! I have to pay my employer for permission to come to work...

[Gleb]

@Errrr

I managed two lines before dozing off. After I woke up my coffee was cold...

[Anonymous Coward]

Hmm

During The War to End All Wars, the expression "dollar-a-year man" became current, referring to businessmen who served the US government for just that compensation. Now, Google v. Microhoo! may qualify as a World War, but I thought Google was an arm of the Chinese government.

[Anonymous Coward]

Bastards stole my trade mark

Somebody owes me a dollar for every use of Microhoo!, as I trademarked all iterations of the words "Micro" & "Hoo", per the international fair trade and "I called dibbs, first!", of 2008. As of my writing this, at least 16 other people commented on this very article, and at .50 cents per view, I figure somebody owes me compensation.

Since 16 people have commented, I see at least 8 dollars (USD and in quarters) that should be sent my way. However, since I'm a reasonable man, email me and we can haggle.

[Anonymous Coward]

But I'd be willing to settle out of court...

For a customized T-Shirt...