Republican engineer fired by Google hits back
1–10 of 35 posts
Re: Republican engineer fired by Google hits back
#2Why does google continue to have these internal message boards about non-work topics? What I’ve heard from friends at google is that discussion is dominated by a tiny, vocal minority with extreme views, much like a college campus. It seems like 99% of googlers and certainly the company would be better off if they just dropped the “bring your whole self to work” message and closed these forums.
Re: Republican engineer fired by Google hits back
#3Why does google continue to have these internal message boards about non-work topics? What I’ve heard from friends at google is that discussion is dominated by a tiny, vocal minority with extreme views, much like a college campus. It seems like 99% of googlers and certainly the company would be better off if they just dropped the “bring your whole self to work” message and closed these forums.
Just like an Twitter flame war people are too worried about ending up on the wrong side of what is considered correct in whatever social group stumbles around, so you stay silent, and then the conversation is dominated by the idiots and NBC reports on it. 2019 is great.
Re: Republican engineer fired by Google hits back
#4Why does google continue to have these internal message boards about non-work topics? What I’ve heard from friends at google is that discussion is dominated by a tiny, vocal minority with extreme views, much like a college campus. It seems like 99% of googlers and certainly the company would be better off if they just dropped the “bring your whole self to work” message and closed these forums.
Yes let's make work even more alienating. Hurray
Re: Republican engineer fired by Google hits back
#5I wonder what he was actually saying on these boards. Sometimes people clothe fairly repugnant stuff in 'political free speech'. Being toxic in the workplace shouldn't be tolerated, even if the would-be bully happens to claim some political leaning or another. The fact that the most damning quote we saw called him a "toxic asshole" and not a "conservative asshole" or something seems to imply he was just a not so great human being.
For the record, and I regret having to say this, but I do enjoy debate and have a healthy respect for free speech etc, and I'm by no means a pro-Google or pro-any hegemony type.
Re: Republican engineer fired by Google hits back
#6> “I very much regret joining Google,” he says. “I figured it would be a good place to see intelligent arguments through."
Um, here I thought it was a place to get some work done, not have political arguments? I don't see why so many people bring politics into the workplace unnecessarily. I have very strong political feelings, and I just try to keep them to myself at work, and talk about them outside of work. Especially if other people voice opinions to the opposite.
Work is hard enough to get done with just normal feelings about one's work, let alone getting politics involved.
Re: Republican engineer fired by Google hits back
#7Why does google continue to have these internal message boards about non-work topics? What I’ve heard from friends at google is that discussion is dominated by a tiny, vocal minority with extreme views, much like a college campus. It seems like 99% of googlers and certainly the company would be better off if they just dropped the “bring your whole self to work” message and closed these forums.
I am so puzzled that this kind of forum can exist at work. My current position is also at a web company but any kind of non-biz chatter like above would quickly get self-policed out of existence.
Re: Republican engineer fired by Google hits back
#8Why does google continue to have these internal message boards about non-work topics? What I’ve heard from friends at google is that discussion is dominated by a tiny, vocal minority with extreme views, much like a college campus. It seems like 99% of googlers and certainly the company would be better off if they just dropped the “bring your whole self to work” message and closed these forums.
Yes let's make work even more alienating. Hurray
Does closing the message boards make work more alienating? Or does their existence make work more alienating (for most of the workers)?
Re: Republican engineer fired by Google hits back
#9It will be very hard for anyone outside of the people directly involved to have an informed opinion about this, simply because Google will never release their side of the story.
That being said, I have seen several people claiming "I was fired/removed/banned for having opinion X" and in MOST of those cases my view was that they were at a minimum being very insensitive on multiple occasions.
Engineers often seem to have a tendency to treat Internet debating as a sport, relentlessly pointing out small logical flaws or playing Devil's Advocate, and then to entrench themselves further when facing backlash. If you pair that with political topics (where other people can get very, very emotionally invested quickly) on a workplace message board it's a recipe for a hostile discussion.
Re: Republican engineer fired by Google hits back
#10I wonder what he was actually saying on these boards. Sometimes people clothe fairly repugnant stuff in 'political free speech'. Being toxic in the workplace shouldn't be tolerated, even if the would-be bully happens to claim some political leaning or another. The fact that the most damning quote we saw called him a "toxic asshole" and not a "conservative asshole" or something seems to imply he was just a not so grea…
Unfortunately, modern discussions tend to conflate dissenting opinions with toxicity, so that adjective isn't as informative as it could be otherwise.