Google paying big money to prevent Facebook poaching all its staff

Google is struggling to retain its staff, with Facebook reportedly poaching all its best staff. Google’s answer to the problem? Throwing money around willy-nilly. Apparently.

Oh how I wish I worked at Google or Facebook. Or any of the tech giants for that matter. Sure, it’s hard work, but the rewards can be phenomenal. Not only are the salaries great, but there are also the stock options to consider. Stock options in companies such as Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, or Yahoo can be worth millions of dollars in the longterm.

Google has built a workforce filled with the brightest and best people. And that means other companies want to poach those staff. Facebook, currently on an employment drive, is no exception, and Googlers are jumping ship.

When Facebook offers a Google employee a chance to join the company Google is fighting hard to retain them, making generous counter offers to those staff considering their options.

According to TechCrunch, one Google employee was recently offered a 15 percent rise on his $150,000 salary, a quadrupling of his stock options, and a $500,000 cash bonus to stay for another year. An offer no one in their right mind could refuse. Except this particular employee did just that, which suggests the offer from Facebook was even more generous.

Google sources have insisted that 80 percent of those offered a counter offer to stay do so, which means 1-in-5 leaves despite having huge sums of money thrown at them.

For someone on my level of income (and blogging isn’t particularly well-paid, it has to be said) $500,000 seems like an absolute fortune; one I could never see myself refusing. But Facebook is on its way up, with its stock estimated to possibly hit the $100 billion mark over the next couple of years. If you’re offered just 0.1 percent of its stock then you’re likely to become very rich very soon.

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• Google offers employee $3.5 million in stock not to join Facebook
• Facebook staff jackpot stories compelling, if not convincing
• Google employees take stock, make profit
• Google bribes employees to stick around
• Google, employees, and big money