lovely jacket
Google Walkout Organizer Claire Stapleton Resigns
71–80 of 165 posts
Re: Google Walkout Organizer Claire Stapleton Resigns
#72I haven't worked at Google in a while. Is this the same Claire Stapleton that was responsible for doing the quirky Company weekly update / TGIF email? If so, it's a bit sad because when I worked at Google (2009 - 2012) she was one of the voices of the company (kind of like Victoria for Reddit AMAs).
It's her. She had a loyal following, second only to the guy that used to email the NYC office menus in 2007.
Re: Google Walkout Organizer Claire Stapleton Resigns
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not familiar with Google's employee stock plan, but since -- I presume -- most employees are shareholders, don't they already have a say at the board level?
google is actually a 3-class stock: class B has 10 votes and is not available publicly (owned by larry, sergey, eric), class A has one vote and trades as GOOGL, class C is nonvoting and trades as GOOG. Employees only get grants of GOOG and thus have no votes
Oh wow. TIL! I (and the rest of HN, and even S&P[1]) was screaming bloody murder about Snapchat IPOing and only releasing non-voting shares. I didn't know Google worked the same way!
Re: Google Walkout Organizer Claire Stapleton Resigns
#74Google also recently terminated the maintainer of the republicans@google list.
No politics talk at work seems to be the rational and only solution here.
Re: Google Walkout Organizer Claire Stapleton Resigns
#75You can read Claire's reasons for leaving Google in her own words here: https://medium.com/@GoogleWalkout/why-a-googlewalkout-organi...
> Fast forward a few years and I’d moved to New York, cycled through Creative Lab and landed at YouTube. As I neared the ten-year mark, my first boss, Sally Cole, who’d left Google many years before, joked that I was surely due for an existential crisis. But when I got back to work after having my son Malcolm in 2017, it wasn’t me who was having an existential crisis. It was Google itself.
A Star Trek TNG tag line comes to mind: "If there is nothing wrong with me, then there must be something wrong with the Universe".
Re: Google Walkout Organizer Claire Stapleton Resigns
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not familiar with Google's employee stock plan, but since -- I presume -- most employees are shareholders, don't they already have a say at the board level?
google is actually a 3-class stock: class B has 10 votes and is not available publicly (owned by larry, sergey, eric), class A has one vote and trades as GOOGL, class C is nonvoting and trades as GOOG. Employees only get grants of GOOG and thus have no votes
Well, if you were employed before/during the 2014 split, you do have a mix of GOOG/GOOGL. Not that it ever made a difference in practical terms.
Re: Google Walkout Organizer Claire Stapleton Resigns
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sundar Pichai is an employee and board member. He's not a "regular" employee, but I don't think a regular employee gets enough perspective to make effective decisions across the company. They would have to take their board position more seriously than their full time job, which would make them not a regular employee anymore.
I am not sure what you did there, an Ouroboros argument about a continual and inseparable membrane between the owners and the workers? Is it _really_ not possible to have employee representation? I find that hard to believe.
Look into work councils. Its one solution that does work. Employees are elected by all employees to represent them in the council.
Re: Google Walkout Organizer Claire Stapleton Resigns
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well if you're right, that works both ways the: if an employee can't take the company's interests into perspective, the board can't take the employees'. Of course, the premise is wrong. Both "worlds" are perfectly compatible, if you can come off the greed horse and compromise on the quarterly profits.
I'm sure some companies can benefit from employee representation on the board, but I don't think Google is one of them. Google is possibly the cushiest company to work for in the entire world. I and I imagine most shareholders would rather Google spend more money on self-driving cars than solving every little grievance employees have.
> Google is possibly the cushiest company to work for in the entire world
It has an enduring reputation for having been cushy in the past - and it might still feel cushy if you happen to mesh well with the prevailing company culture. But many people don't see it that way, apparently - to the point where they feel that their work itself is being impacted. And the way the whole Rubin story has been handled is also indicative of very real problems, to be sure. Many people want to work in a thoroughly professional environment, some place they can feel genuinely proud to be within - I can't blame the Google folks for walking out.
Re: Google Walkout Organizer Claire Stapleton Resigns
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Fast forward a few years and I’d moved to New York, cycled through Creative Lab and landed at YouTube. As I neared the ten-year mark, my first boss, Sally Cole, who’d left Google many years before, joked that I was surely due for an existential crisis. But when I got back to work after having my son Malcolm in 2017, it wasn’t me who was having an existential crisis. It was Google itself.
"The short explanation for my decision is my health: I’m having another baby in the fall (I acknowledge that there’s incredible privilege in being able to walk away from a job like this)."
You make it sound like having a child is the main reason (which would, admittedly, be pretty normal anywhere other than at a progressive tech company - motherhood is hard), whereas the article suggests that the main reason is internal retaliation and gaslighting, and the baby is just the straw that broke the camel's back.
Re: Google Walkout Organizer Claire Stapleton Resigns
#80It's unfortunate.. I'm pretty sure this story is getting buried. It's insane GOOG would do these things, include threats of demotion. Who gets demoted these days anyways?