Google Protest Leader Leaves • Hacker News Board

Re: Google Protest Leader Leaves

#11

Post by wastedhours » Tue, Jul 16, 2019, 2:26 PM UTC

whatshisface wrote: post #5

Google works like crazy to hire all of the smartest and the best people, but do they really need them? Billions and billions in shareholder value could be extracted by hiring a bunch of mid-tier Java programmers and having them farm Ad Words for the next decade, until the first competition shows up.

> until the first competition shows up

Their worry is that competition will be started by the people they've not hired and kept on the bench. I'd imagine a large amount of their top-level hiring is driven by taking minds off of the market, more than optimising their output.

Re: Google Protest Leader Leaves

#12

Post by gtfratteus » Tue, Jul 16, 2019, 2:26 PM UTC

As a googler, I say good. People like her have made going to work exhausting. Leave your politics at home and let me do my job in peace.

Re: Google Protest Leader Leaves

#13

Post by AdmiralAsshat » Tue, Jul 16, 2019, 2:27 PM UTC

I thought this story had already been reported a month ago. But no, I was wrong, that was the other organizer of the Google Protests, Claire Stapleton:

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/jun/07/google-wa...

So to clarify, both of the female Google employees who lead/organized the protests have now left because they say they faced retaliation. That looks very bad for Google.

Re: Google Protest Leader Leaves

#14

Post by SolaceQuantum » Tue, Jul 16, 2019, 2:28 PM UTC

Do we have any real information regarding if this is as a result of retaliation? The article provides evidence that at least one of the organizers claim they're being retaliated against; do we know how widespread this may be?

Re: Google Protest Leader Leaves

#15

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Jul 16, 2019, 2:28 PM UTC

mtgx wrote: post #7

Google is going to shoot itself in the foot over the long term with the type of decisions it has been making lately both against its users and against its employees. I imagine that since the protests started they've already begun filtering out the people with a higher level of ethics in their interviews - but the new class of people they hire are not going to give them the same results in the long-term, especially if…

[deleted]

Re: Google Protest Leader Leaves

#16

Post by SpicyLemonZest » Tue, Jul 16, 2019, 2:30 PM UTC

I don't know, this seems like a pretty weak article. Sometimes people just change jobs and there's nothing nefarious about it. If Whittaker had been fired for her activism, or even just felt forced out, wouldn't she herself be talking about it? She wasn't afraid to tell the media about Google mistreating her in the past.

Re: Google Protest Leader Leaves

#17

Post by SpicyLemonZest » Tue, Jul 16, 2019, 2:30 PM UTC

AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #13

I thought this story had already been reported a month ago. But no, I was wrong, that was the other organizer of the Google Protests, Claire Stapleton: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/jun/07/google-wa... So to clarify, both of the female Google employees who lead/organized the protests have now left because they say they faced retaliation. That looks very bad for Google.

Whittaker did not (as far as this article describes) say why she left.

Re: Google Protest Leader Leaves

#18

Post by dmix » Tue, Jul 16, 2019, 2:30 PM UTC

AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #13

I thought this story had already been reported a month ago. But no, I was wrong, that was the other organizer of the Google Protests, Claire Stapleton: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/jun/07/google-wa... So to clarify, both of the female Google employees who lead/organized the protests have now left because they say they faced retaliation. That looks very bad for Google.

What retaliation have they faced from Google exactly?

Re: Google Protest Leader Leaves

#19

Post by dmurdoch » Tue, Jul 16, 2019, 2:31 PM UTC

ulfw wrote: post #10

whatshisface wrote: post #5

Google works like crazy to hire all of the smartest and the best people, but do they really need them? Billions and billions in shareholder value could be extracted by hiring a bunch of mid-tier Java programmers and having them farm Ad Words for the next decade, until the first competition shows up.

Many great people are hired not necessarily to move Google forward, but so that they don’t move a Google-competitor forward.

This makes me think about something.

I don't work at a FAANG company, nor have I ever been to SV, nor do I know anyone who works at one of the many enormous tech companies around SV.

In the TV show Silicon Valley they have characters who sit around unassigned doing nothing at the Google-like company in the show. Does this actually happen? Are there people hired at these companies who just don't have a project? Its entirely feasible that Google could afford to do this just to create a dearth of engineers in the area.

Re: Google Protest Leader Leaves

#20

Post by cobookman » Tue, Jul 16, 2019, 2:32 PM UTC

ulfw wrote: post #4

Googlers haven’t realised yet that they have different leadership now. The open culture of discussing and opposing things that Google does is slowly degrading.

Realize Meredith and her crew are a minority of employees. We are talking Majority of googlers wanted maven. They wanted search in China.

Biggest change to culture is people getting tired of SJW outrage. And a focus back on our users and business