It's almost as if... bear with me here...
Some sort of collective action by employees of a monopolistic company can't be ignored... because - uh - they'll stop working en masse? Voluntarily in lieu of pay? Madness, it'll never catch on.
Google employees are staging a sit-in to protest reported retaliation
11–20 of 148 posts
Re: Google employees are staging a sit-in to protest reported retaliation
#12I don’t understand how a company where 5% of the workforce is responsible for the product that drives 95% of the revenue is so seemingly vulnerable to employee pressure. I can’t imagine Bell Lab employees had all that much leverage against Ma Bell.
I’ve often wondered this myself. Google has literally thousands of engineers working on search alone. I can’t even fathom what they’re all doing. And then what is everyone filling their time with?
Re: Google employees are staging a sit-in to protest reported retaliation
#13Google employees protesting the makeup of the AI Ethics council appeared like the closest thing to fascism in the USA that I have ever witnessed. I hope some people see the need for diversity of viewpoint and start to be more accepting of their fellow countrymen, while agreeing on what to condemn.
> Google employees protesting the makeup of the AI Ethics council appeared like the closest thing to fascism in the USA that I have ever witnessed.
Other than that either your witness to even recent, well-publicized events is quite spotty or your understanding of fascism is quite broken, I'm not sure what one is supposed to take from this statement.
Re: Google employees are staging a sit-in to protest reported retaliation
#14Google employees protesting the makeup of the AI Ethics council appeared like the closest thing to fascism in the USA that I have ever witnessed. I hope some people see the need for diversity of viewpoint and start to be more accepting of their fellow countrymen, while agreeing on what to condemn.
Can you elaborate on this?
Here's a WaPo article from the controversial woman Google appointed to the board, Kay Cole James.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/i-wanted-to-help-goo...
I may not agree with her politically, but its important to have different viewpoints in discourse as long as they're rooted in principles. I think its shameful that the AI Ethics Council was disbanded, if employees took issue with her it would have been nice to see them suggest an alternative.
Re: Google employees are staging a sit-in to protest reported retaliation
#15I don’t understand how a company where 5% of the workforce is responsible for the product that drives 95% of the revenue is so seemingly vulnerable to employee pressure. I can’t imagine Bell Lab employees had all that much leverage against Ma Bell.
That's not true. The majority of google employees are in areas that directly impact the bottom line such search, ads, sales, technical infrastructure.
Re: Google employees are staging a sit-in to protest reported retaliation
#16Google employees protesting the makeup of the AI Ethics council appeared like the closest thing to fascism in the USA that I have ever witnessed. I hope some people see the need for diversity of viewpoint and start to be more accepting of their fellow countrymen, while agreeing on what to condemn.
Sounds like we're a long way off from real fascism then!
Re: Google employees are staging a sit-in to protest reported retaliation
#17Sorry, this doesn't even look real:
https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/GettyImage...
Not a single visible sign explains what they are protesting...
Re: Google employees are staging a sit-in to protest reported retaliation
#18Someone posted preliminary sit-in attendance numbers. Attendance ranges from 50-150 per office in the larger offices. Anecdotally, I've seen very little discussion and energy this time compared to the walkout. Back then, one couldn't walk 20 feet without hitting some kind of exhortation to join the walkout. This time, more people might find out about this sit-in through this HN story than through internal channels.
The low visibility and low attendance aren't the result of any kind of management repression. I think it's a real change in sentiment. Most people don't care about this affair. Among people who are paying attention, there's a fair amount of internal skepticism and outrage fatigue. The small core group of habitual protesters is as active as ever, but they've struggled to come up with concrete evidence that substantiates their "systemic retaliation" narrative, and it feels like they've lost the hearts and minds of the public. It's telling that the main mailing list that these people use to communicate has enacted strict moderation policies that effectively ban debate and disagreement.
Posting through Tor for obvious reasons.
Re: Google employees are staging a sit-in to protest reported retaliation
#19Google employees protesting the makeup of the AI Ethics council appeared like the closest thing to fascism in the USA that I have ever witnessed. I hope some people see the need for diversity of viewpoint and start to be more accepting of their fellow countrymen, while agreeing on what to condemn.
Can you elaborate on this?
Meredith Whittaker and company could not find peace in their hearts with the appointment of (the president of the long standing, prominent conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation) Kay Cole James. So they made a big problem about it, and here we are. Tolerance, for my views but not yours.
Re: Google employees are staging a sit-in to protest reported retaliation
#20Sorry, this doesn't even look real: https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/GettyImage... Not a single visible sign explains what they are protesting...
You carefully examined the picture and didn't notice the dates on the sign are from the walkout last November?