They could have just asked the bloody employees if they are going to leave rather than some stupid algorithm.

Why do Americans always do sh*t like this? Remember the time the Americans invented the anti-gravity pen so astronauts can write in space? Russians just used a pencil.

I wonder if those "underused" are then granted more time for pet projects, say, increasing it from 20% to 25% or even more?

Dig, Joseph, dig!  This would be a reversal of earlier reports of Google cutting back on "20% time".

Aside from stock options under water and loss of the "start-up"culture, a very under-reported factor of Google's inevitable employee exodus is their longtime, overzealous zeal for hiring only hyper-smart, over-qualified people… even for rather mundane jobs. We have heard recruitment horror stories at Google… no job offer when they found out a candidate got a C in sophomore year… 10 interviews and then radio silence… Eventually someone with an Arts History Masters from Yale will realize that maybe selling AdWords is just not for them. What that is just right for is a guy with Yellow Pages experience, but they never got in the door (not me, BTW!)

Pretty neat how they're ahead of the curve, but it'd still bother me a little bit, for instance, if I felt underused, and it took an algorithm to figure it out.  Or, if the algorithm passed me over.