Google's $6 Million Feminist Bonus to Lady Engineer
National unemployment remains stuck at nearly 10 percent and economic growth is tepid. But there are still golden tickets for workers if they're inside the tech bubble, especially if they're Google engineers courted by Facebook. And especially if they're women.
A female engineer reportedly extracted $6 million in Google stock from the company during a bidding war over her services between her employer and its archrival Facebook. That's the richest in a series of reported bonuses for non-executive Google engineers sought by Facebook.
Google made two different counteroffers after the woman announced she was defecting, a source told Liz Gannes at All Things Digital. "She was not in a senior role at Google, but part of what made her so coveted was the fact she's a female engineer," Gannes writes. Diversity is certainly lacking in Silicon Valley, but seven-figure bonuses will likely prove a controversial way of retaining female tech talent.
That said, it's not like Google's male engineers are faring badly either, at least if they can conjure a recruiting call from Facebook. Barely a week ago, another Googler snagged a reported $3.5 million bonus after planning to depart for Facebook. In September, it was reported that one mid-level male developer was offered a $500,000 cash bonus and a quadrupling of his stock, part of a wave of rich Google counteroffers. Still, Google guys: Are you going to let the women show you up like this?
Even rank and file Googlers aren't doing too badly, walking home with $1,000 cash bonuses and 10 percent+ raises earlier this month.
Happy Thanksgiving, guys. Try to enjoy your supremely comfortable position in the global economy, instead of wondering why you haven't figured out how to turn a social networking job offer into millions and millions and millions of dollars.
