Earlier quoted context omitted.
Marijuana is now legal in California too. What standards apply there?
> Marijuana is now legal in California too. No, it's still against federal law, which covers California.
What are you smoking?
A note to our employees
351–360 of 421 posts
Re: A note to our employees
#352One of the more interesting pieces is buried in the linked PDF: "Excessive alcohol: Harassment is never acceptable and alcohol is never an excuse. But one of the most common factors among the harassment complaints made today at Google is that the perpetrator had been drinking (~20% of cases). Our policy is clear: Excessive consumption of alcohol is not permitted when you are at work, performing Google business, or at…
This kind of mentality exasperates me to no end. I am a heavy drinker (never at work), and I hate it when people blame my behavior on my alcohol level. I always have to correct them, they are lucky I am drunk when bad things happen, I tend to be a very violent and horrible person when sober, for sure the outcome could be much worse. People should take responsibility for their behavior without blaming substances.
You may be more placid when under the influence, but most people are more volatile, more impulsive, and more likely to make bad decisions. Being sober doesn't make people better, but it does make them less likely to do something harmful to others, statistically speaking.
Re: A note to our employees
#353Earlier quoted context omitted.
I work for Microsoft, and the back of my employee badge says: Our Mission; Empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. To me, this implies that our engineering organizations, and entire company, need to have an appropriate amount of empathy across a broad spectrum of geographies, cultures, experiences, perspectives, and the like. You only get that by having a diversity of talent, and mo…
So what would be the benefits in DNA diversity at all? If you can get a diverse views of perspectives, why bring in the DNA diversity which is going to lead to conflicts as people won't be able to talk as effectively as people who are more homogeneous?
> So what would be the benefits in DNA diversity at all?
Well, this is a pretty contrived example, but IIRC a major company (HP?) made facial-recognition software that couldn't handle people with dark skin.
If there had been people like that on the dev or testing team, perhaps it would have been noticed earlier.
Re: A note to our employees
#354One of the more interesting pieces is buried in the linked PDF: "Excessive alcohol: Harassment is never acceptable and alcohol is never an excuse. But one of the most common factors among the harassment complaints made today at Google is that the perpetrator had been drinking (~20% of cases). Our policy is clear: Excessive consumption of alcohol is not permitted when you are at work, performing Google business, or at…
This kind of mentality exasperates me to no end. I am a heavy drinker (never at work), and I hate it when people blame my behavior on my alcohol level. I always have to correct them, they are lucky I am drunk when bad things happen, I tend to be a very violent and horrible person when sober, for sure the outcome could be much worse. People should take responsibility for their behavior without blaming substances.
I love drinking as much as the next guy, but if you're a "horrible person" when sober, you might be an alcoholic.
Re: A note to our employees
#355Earlier quoted context omitted.
You have a very narrow view of "the workplace". I used to work for a large well respected software company. On Fridays, after work, there was a subsidized bar where we could have a beer or two and discuss work or non-work things in a more relaxed atmosphere. Would you ban that? If I go to a conference and we have an official conference social meet-up should I be prohibited from consuming alcohol? I have my own straw…
> You have a very narrow view of "the workplace". On the contrary, I have a very broad view of the workplace. Yes to all your questions. I don't work in tech, and there are no subsidised bars or alcohol at conferences. We got subsidised gym memberships and tea at the conferences I'm used to. If you want to drink, your money, your time, after work. If you want to get tipsy with colleagues in your own time, it is not i…
Can we ban companies from encroaching on ever more of our lives then? It's already a baseline to have it be one third of the working week, but many of these social events are "optional" as in it's optional to continue in your career.
By suggesting that companies ban taking part in that activity, but not preventing them from taking an ever increasing part of our lives through long hours and after work events, you are effectively advocating that we ban the activity in it's entirety
Re: A note to our employees
#356Look at the overspecific promises going forward! - We will make arbitration optional for individual sexual harassment and sexual assault claims Ordinary harassment and assault is still covered by forced arbitration, as is systemic sexual harassment. Good to know. - We will update and expand our mandatory sexual harassment training Everyone knows already that mandatory XY training serves to deflect liability from the…
What is mandatory sexual harassment training? If you're not a sexual harassor, it must be frustrating having to attend such an event.
Reminds me of the ethics class they started at the University of Texas in the business school because one kid lied on his resume and "made a fool of the university" with his ridiculous bullshitting during the senior-year interviewing process.
It was a comical waste of time, and the whole time you're there wondering how it could possibly change someone who already had no scruples. You're left bitter that you had to participate in a function that had no purpose beyond making some decision-maker feel like they were moving the needle on some issue.
Re: A note to our employees
#357Earlier quoted context omitted.
So when your high functioning alcoholic blows a .22 after taking out a telephone pole and hurting another driver, what do you do then? What portion of responsibility will the victims attorney pin on you?
Zero. Don't drink and drive; It's the drinkers responsibility. Do you blame the liquor store? The state liquor laws?
Nope. Serving alcohol or providing a place to drink can make you liable.
That’s why you’re usually advised to get a liability policy for weddings and large parties.
Re: A note to our employees
#358One of the more interesting pieces is buried in the linked PDF: "Excessive alcohol: Harassment is never acceptable and alcohol is never an excuse. But one of the most common factors among the harassment complaints made today at Google is that the perpetrator had been drinking (~20% of cases). Our policy is clear: Excessive consumption of alcohol is not permitted when you are at work, performing Google business, or at…
[deleted]
Re: A note to our employees
#359Earlier quoted context omitted.
WeWork banned meat at company events or on company expense accounts [1]. Would it be that hard to do something similar for alcohol? Then, bringing it back to Google, if people misbehave after having alcohol - then they bought the drinks, and came to a company event while intoxicated. When I was at OpenDNS, @davidu used to say something along the lines of, "When you try to host a big company party with over 100 people…
Absurd. I'd never work at such a company, in part due to the type of people that kind of policy would attract. If this rule was enacted and I was already an employee, I'd spend the money to bring large meat spreads to all of the events.
They are probably happy you wouldn't have joined then. Win-win.
Re: A note to our employees
#360Serious question: Does the Chief Diversity Officer include diversity of ideas and experience? Or is it just skin deep like it sounds? Edit: Lots of up and down votes. Why is this question so controversial? I'd like to see an argument as to why it's an invalid or flawed question.
[deleted]