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Google Walkout Organizer Claire Stapleton Resigns

theguardian.com

131–140 of 165 posts

Re: Google Walkout Organizer Claire Stapleton Resigns

#131
post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Public accountability is a slippery slope. How do you accomplish that? Legislation? New legislation pitched as a solution to a problem tends to be a rat's nest of rules that no one understands, that doesn't often have the intended impact, that can have unintended consequences, and, after some public shaming of the offender, lets them conduct business as usual. Not sure employee representation on the board is a soluti…

Slippery slope is an informal fallacy. Why not legislation? It’s THE way for organizing our society. Do you really think it’s a free market and meritocracy? No. There are laws that incentivize and offer protection for starting corporations. Our society is not built on objective principles but on what’s good for it. And it’s never lurched forward in ways that move the needle to the benefit of the masses without top do…

The people who work at Google who wanted to stage a walkout are free to leave for another job. They are free to start their own companies. We are free to use other products or create our own. How is legislation the best solution here?

People need to stop with the excuses and the expectation that someone else will change the rules to fix their problem and be the change they want to see in the world. Google will eventually be displaced by someone else who does a better job just like every other toxic company that came before them. Anybody can do it. Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft all started (and in some cases reinvented themselves) that way. And if the newcomer sticks around long enough they'll probably become toxic too. It's the way the world works.

We don't need legislation to fix this. We need someone to do a better job. They're not out killing people. Just stop using their shit.

Re: Google Walkout Organizer Claire Stapleton Resigns

#132
post #114
post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No politics talk at work seems to be the rational and only solution here.

People should stick with religion talk! And of course the Tabs vs Spaces thing. Do that instead, yeah.

Googlers can have civil discussion about politics, but Tabs vs. Spaces? There'll be riot on the streets!

Re: Google Walkout Organizer Claire Stapleton Resigns

#133
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

5 years? I think it already has mostly been forgotten

What are you talking about? It comes out like often in my world?

Comes up often in my day to day, too. I work in tech (and invest in startups around the future of work). People wonder whether it's the beginning of something more widespread... and nobody's crying a river for Google employees, it's more that sometimes change begins with people in the best position to bargain...

Re: Google Walkout Organizer Claire Stapleton Resigns

#134
post #3

These companies are so huge and such an integral part of society that they need to be made more accountable to the public, and forcing them to be more accountable to their workers is part of that. I think the recent proposal to require employee representation on the board of directors of $1B+ companies is a good start.

Eventually if they tarnish their image sufficiently the good workers will move on. However we here and elsewhere on discussion sites vastly over estimate how unhappy workers are at a particular job. Just because we would not want to work there or heard anecdotally on an issue does not mean the company is doing things incorrectly. A company this large is bound to have employee conflicts all over the place and it is up…

Well it literally is in the news and loads of people walked out on google until they listened. Also they have a global pool of talent they can hire if they don't want to meet demands. Executives I can see being a big hit if they left in protest. But with 90 million dollar reward for forcing a subordinate to give oral sex as your punishement, I'm doubting they'll leave because they've likely got it pretty cushy. What's the reward for standing up and changing policy for the company better? Yay Culture Award.

Re: Google Walkout Organizer Claire Stapleton Resigns

#135
post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Public accountability is a slippery slope. How do you accomplish that? Legislation? New legislation pitched as a solution to a problem tends to be a rat's nest of rules that no one understands, that doesn't often have the intended impact, that can have unintended consequences, and, after some public shaming of the offender, lets them conduct business as usual. Not sure employee representation on the board is a soluti…

So I'm a moderate libertarian and the "don't tell them what to do, society's hidden hand will decide" is an argument used by libertarians frequently and one I disagree with. One, specifically for this case, the issue at hand doesn't affect the user's. Two being a global company, quitting at Google will just open a slot that they need to fill and they have plenty of people lining up for the job. So really any sort of…

I dislike Google the company as well as their products. If someone wants to break them up then you’ll find me smirking on the sidelines when it happens. But how do you talk about breaking up Google without addressing Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, etc.? They basically all compete in the same markets. What are you going to do? Break up Google and let one of the others take their place? Break them all up? Then what? Outlaw tech conglomerates so no one takes their place? This makes no sense. Or impose regulations so stringent that you’d have to be a massive conglomerate to be able to comply? How does that make anything better if it raises the bar for a newcomer to enter the market and compete?

And if the vast majority don’t give a shit about privacy and actually like what these companies have to offer then who are we to say the rules need to change? Google is as big as they are because they make things a shitload of people want. We are in the minority. As long as we can largely avoid doing business with these companies and there’s someone else who serves us then what’s the big deal? Go use something else.

Re: Google Walkout Organizer Claire Stapleton Resigns

#136
post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No politics talk at work seems to be the rational and only solution here.

The Google status quo circa 2016 was the worst of all worlds. Political discussion was tolerated up to a point, but the point was ill-defined, and (naturally) enforcement tended to be based on how many people disagreed with your opinions. Generally , more liberal employees could get away with much broader and more aggressive proclamations than more conservative employees (not sure if that's still true), but that wasn…

It wasn't totally random. They were mostly ok with assholes as long as they were good engineers -- my manager and skip-level manager were two of the ten or so loudest far-left types at the company. But both were very good engineers, and my manager actually got promoted even while devoting a substantial amount of time to antagonizing random people on mailing lists and G+.

I remember one guy though who was far-left, very obnoxious, and useless. And he got fired/pushed out a little while after I left.

Re: Google Walkout Organizer Claire Stapleton Resigns

#137
post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The way you've phrased it, it sounds like you think what you're saying is obvious, but it's not obvious to me. What are you saying?

If universities are producing graduates who can't advocate for themselves, can we fix that while they're still in university? Or maybe even secondary/primary education?

Graduates have a problem: massive debt. FAANG offer a solution: high salary. Until this situation changes, you'll see a steady flow of fresh meat into the grinder.

Re: Google Walkout Organizer Claire Stapleton Resigns

#138
I don't get what she's on about. that the guy who led Android received some millions? really? he should have received billions. larry page screwed him over by offering only 50m and he said himself he felt guilty. and all of this for an alleged assault that was never proved, only labelled credible after an internal investigation? feel bad for the guy, he developed the most popular os and is not a billionaire.

Re: Google Walkout Organizer Claire Stapleton Resigns

#139

I don't get what she's on about. that the guy who led Android received some millions? really? he should have received billions. larry page screwed him over by offering only 50m and he said himself he felt guilty. and all of this for an alleged assault that was never proved, only labelled credible after an internal investigation? feel bad for the guy, he developed the most popular os and is not a billionaire.

And I don’t get what you’re on about!

This comment is amazingly emblematic of how shitty and toxic the comments have gotten on this site. You dismiss outright the story of someone you could easily research, all for some pet pity party for some Google exec? Not only is this incredibly lazy rhetoric but it serves literally zero purpose other than to make you feel good about not understanding the reasons other people make decisions.

Re: Google Walkout Organizer Claire Stapleton Resigns

#140
post #26

Far left activists will lose because they are fragile. You just have to deal them a setback and they give up.

Would you please not post unsubstantive comments here? You've done that repeatedly, and we ban accounts that do that repeatedly. Also, please don't use HN for ideological battle. Also, please eschew flamebait. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Sure thing, but I don't see how this story can possibly be discussed without engaging in an ideological debate.
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