Cover photo by ATDSPHOTO on Pixabay, illustrating a deeply unhealthy environment.

This is an opinion piece, and the views expressed here are solely mine. They are not representative of any group or company.

There was a time when I held Google's GDE (Google Developers Experts) program in high regard. I still admire the individuals within it, but my respect for the Angular category specifically has completely evaporated due to the way it is currently run. I have never held the GDE title myself, but I've observed enough to form a strong opinion. It is not a path I wish to take, for the reasons outlined below.

Leadership Motivated by Fear

It appears the overly cheerful, disingenuous tone that pervades Angular team communications—often glossing over significant problems—has now infected the Angular GDE program as well.

In my interactions with numerous Angular GDEs, it's become apparent that many are perpetually anxious about voicing their true opinions on matters related to the framework or the team behind it.

This anxiety seems to be a significant barrier preventing them from actively participating in the community by discussing or investigating these concerns. I have observed several indicators of this, including:

  • Concern about potential retaliation
  • Concern about losing their GDE certification
  • Concern about diminishing their chances of future employment at Google
  • Concern about being removed without any clear justification by citing the code of conduct
  • Concern about having negative feedback looped back to Angular management's allies in the community

Concurrently, it seems evident that Angular GDEs are coached to deliver scripted responses that are almost evangelical in nature, similar to the way Angular team members operate. Whether they are conscious of it or not, they are bound by the rules laid out in the communication manifesto for the Angular team.

According to information I've received, there's a list of forbidden phrases and terms for Angular GDEs. For example, they are not permitted to say "let's get rid of NgModules". Instead, they are instructed to say "Angular supports optional NgModules".

In some cases, Angular GDEs are prohibited from discussing unannounced features or upcoming versions. The likely rationale is that the Angular team's spokespeople have a track record of prematurely hyping features like Angular version 2, Angular Ivy, Bazel, and Angular Elements, well before they were ready for prime time.

Essentially, all public commentary is expected to be pre-approved messaging from Angular team leadership, following the guidelines of the communication manifesto.

The prevailing sentiment is that if you cannot say something positive, you should remain silent. This is particularly true for any subject that touches upon Angular or Google.

This approach is fundamentally different from Microsoft's MVP (Most Valuable Professional) program. The MVP program encourages open and honest feedback. To avoid conflicts of interest, Microsoft employees cannot hold the MVP title, and no financial exchange occurs between the two. The program actively values critical opinions that highlight areas for improvement in their products or processes.

Granted, comparing GDE and MVP isn't a competition, but it demonstrates that there are alternative, more effective models for managing a community program around a company's technology.

For insight into who is steering this fear-based culture, I suggest looking at Jeff Cross' accounts in "Jeff's Letter to the Angular Team and Community" and the recent conversations on Twitter [1][2]. It shouldn't be a shock to anyone, given that only a couple of individuals from the original team remain.

For years, a seemingly endless stream of skilled engineers has left the Angular team. The list is too long to be exhaustive, but it includes several notable names:

  • Matias Niemelä
  • Kara Erickson
  • Rob Wormald
  • Alex Eagle
  • Vikram Subramanian
  • Brad Green
  • Ben Lesh
  • Brandon Roberts
  • Olivier Combe
  • Hans Larsen
  • Jason Aden
  • Mike Brocchi
  • Victor Savkin
  • Jeff Cross
  • Rob Eisenberg

Each had their own reasons for leaving. But there have been countless public statements from departing members citing burnout, feeling belittled, and experiencing anxiety. This cannot be solely attributed to the pressure of an ever-expanding roadmap combined with unrealistic deadlines.

Injuries of this nature to people's careers and well-being are hallmarks of toxic company cultures that permit micromanagement, abuse, and harassment. The essence of leadership is empowering your team, not tearing it down.

The Angular team suffers from a toxic environment. Management has allowed this to fester for a long time. The consequence is high turnover, with many engineers either transferring within Google or leaving to escape this environment.

Inadequate Access to the Angular Team

A key selling point of the GDE program is supposed to be direct access to the product teams within Google that are relevant to your area of expertise.

However, even with Angular's developer relations personnel, getting real access to the core Angular team has been nearly impossible, unless you happen to be a large enterprise that is likely spending significant sums with Google.

Interestingly enough, GDEs seem to have only a marginal advantage in communicating with the core team. For the most part, they are kept detached from the inner workings of the team and the community at large, with the exception of a single annual conference in the United States.

I've had discussions with many frustrated conference and meetup organizers who, despite their efforts, have been largely unsuccessful in getting Angular team members to participate, though there are a few exceptions.

Whether you have the GDE title or not, the community lacks both access to the Angular team and visibility into their roadmap. This is a consequence of management decisions, not the engineers themselves.

A story I heard illustrates this issue. An Angular GDE, whom I won't name, managed to ask questions to team members at one of these rare public appearances. This GDE found out quickly that asking too many probing questions about their work or the framework's direction is unwelcome, even if the intent is to better support the wider Angular community.

This particular GDE was subsequently given a warning for being in violation of the code of conduct, with no further explanation provided to help them understand what they did wrong. Apparently, being asked about their work makes the team members feel like they're being held hostage, as reported by their managers. So much for the promise of Google product team access.

Harassment and Public Humiliation

Speaking of the code of conduct, I have directly observed harassment and public shaming perpetrated by one Angular GDE against another. I came under fire myself when I spoke out in defense of the victim.

This behavior persisted for weeks. Only when it escalated into a public scandal that couldn't be overlooked did the program issue a warning to the harasser. Initially, this warning was ignored, and the harassment continued against me and another GDE who had defended the initial victim. Our advice was simply to steer clear of the harasser.

In the end, strong pressure forced the harassing GDE to cease their actions and issue a public apology. When I asked another GDE whether exclusion from the program was ever a consequence for such behavior, the answer was negative as far as they knew. In this instance, that remained the case.

The Time to Act is Now

I cannot speak for everyone, but these issues have become a breaking point for me, leading me to question my own future contributions to the Angular community and ecosystem.

The community is filled with wonderful individuals, and we are not the ones creating these problems. However, our silence and inaction enable them to continue.

I am calling on the Angular team management and the GDE program committee to take action and stop making justifications. These problems need a solution, not avoidance.

I am asking you to raise your voice. We have hit our limit. It's time for a change.

For examples of how such issues in the Angular team lead to technical problems, you can read "Angular struggles in 2020".