Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Google Employee Alleges Discrimination Against Pregnant Women in Viral Memo

vice.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 217 posts

Re: Google Employee Alleges Discrimination Against Pregnant Women in Viral Memo

#111

Post by groundlogic »

lclarkmichalek wrote: post #108
groundlogic wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

12-20 years ago, one of my largest life goals was to work for Google. (It's not anymore. I found other fun and rewarding jobs.) I don't get why the Google management team allowed their team to get so... well, violently politicized. Maybe I'm old-fashioned, but.. keeping politics out of the workplace worked very well for a very long time.

The workplace was always politicized. It's just being politicized in different ways now.

I.. disagree. At least here in Sweden, the workplace was and is a neutral place when it comes to politics (basically, it's considered extremely impolite to push your private political view at work.). Is it different in the US?

Re: Google Employee Alleges Discrimination Against Pregnant Women in Viral Memo

#112

Post by darkerside »

clairity wrote: post #56
ocdtrekkie wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My personal opinion is that fundamentally, upper management (but people, in general) will make decisions that positively impact the people they see and work with. In a small company (like where I work) where the CEO knows the bottom tier employees by name, they are going to have a very hard time making decisions that harm those people. In a large company, upper management works with middle managers, and therefore, wi…

yes, exactly. the whole point of layers of management is to insulate upper managers from the decisions they make, particularly those that slight the customer or the front-line worker. a more generous phrasing would be that insolation allows managers to take emotions out of a situation to make the most rational decisions for the business (and its shareholders). in any case, direct relationships are a big deal for soci…

I think that's a side effect, not the primary reason for introducing layers of management. The real reason is, you just can't scale am organization without it. Managers are there for enforcing accountability. If directors have few enough reports to enforce accountability on their own, there is no need for a manager.

Re: Google Employee Alleges Discrimination Against Pregnant Women in Viral Memo

#113

Post by sp332 »

jayd16 wrote: post #92

This is a pretty tough spot. You don't want to impede someone's career because of there reproductive choices but at the same time were the teams wrong in not wanting to introduce a new manager about to take a months long medical leave? You can look at the suggested early medical leave as being pushed out (and it certainly could have been) but it also strikes me as a good option if you only want to work in a rock star…

I think those are different things. To start with, you can "discriminate" about a worker not being available to do their job. You're just not allowed to discriminate against someone for being pregnant specifically. The manager made comments "that the Googler was likely pregnant again and was overly emotional and hard to work with when pregnant." Secondly, there is FMLA leave which is supposed to guarantee that a person has their job when they get back, but I'm not sure if that was even relevant here or how it would affect the role changes that happened in the months prior to taking leave.

Re: Google Employee Alleges Discrimination Against Pregnant Women in Viral Memo

#114

Post by fortran77 »

It's interesting the internal memer used the "Unpopular Opinion Puffin". This meme image was banned from Reddit because it was frequently associated with racist ideas.

(See https://www.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/26m7uq/why_ha... )

It almost seems like someone is trolling by using it. I wonder whose leg is being pulled here.

Re: Google Employee Alleges Discrimination Against Pregnant Women in Viral Memo

#115

Post by sfkdjf9j3j »

commandlinefan wrote: post #102
tracker1 wrote: post #99

Worth mentioning TFA is wrong about the Damore memo... it wasn't suggesting that women are less disposed to be "good engineers" only that they are less disposed to seek out a career in engineering to begin with. Quality isn't a part of it. But that doesn't fit an SJW narrative.

Nobody has ever refuted anything that Damore ever actually said - they've just said they didn't like the way it made them feel.

Here's an extremely detailed refutation that was published about two years ago: https://medium.com/@tweetingmouse/the-truth-has-got-its-boot...

It's on the first page of google search results for "refutation of james demore memo", as are several other similar pieces.

Re: Google Employee Alleges Discrimination Against Pregnant Women in Viral Memo

#116

Post by manigandham »

groundlogic wrote: post #111
lclarkmichalek wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The workplace was always politicized. It's just being politicized in different ways now.

I.. disagree. At least here in Sweden, the workplace was and is a neutral place when it comes to politics (basically, it's considered extremely impolite to push your private political view at work.). Is it different in the US?

No, it’s been like that for decades. Only recently, with the rise of social media and public identities, have we seen such blatant representation and direct exposure in the workplace. I don’t think it’s healthy or productive.

Re: Google Employee Alleges Discrimination Against Pregnant Women in Viral Memo

#117

Post by tgsovlerkhgsel »

nostrademons wrote: post #77
ben7799 wrote: post #13

I'm always amazed Google management tolerates things like internal message boards aimed at letting employees create Memes on company time. On the "evil point haired boss" level it seems these types of things like their internal message boards cause a lot of trouble for the company. On the less evil side it seems like employees waste a lot of time on these internal sites and all the internal social justice stuff. Mayb…

I think the theory behind it is that when you're dissatisfied with an organization, you have two options: Voice (speak up and hope to change things from within) or Exit (leave the organization and find or found a new one). And at least when I was there, ~5 years ago, Google executives really, really wanted you to choose Voice. Because the history of Silicon Valley is basically built upon talented engineers choosing E…

Also, "Voice" comes in two variants: Internally, or externally.

Much more preferable for the company if employees complain on an internal board rather than Reddit, HN, or Blind.

Re: Google Employee Alleges Discrimination Against Pregnant Women in Viral Memo

#118

Post by cdumler »

aiyodev wrote: post #100
cdumler wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From first-hand experience, I cannot stress this enough: HR's job is to protect management. Period. Full stop. Having going through this type of situation (high-performer until on the wrong side of someone in management), I really didn't understand things until someone pointed something out. I was asked: who hired the manager? The purpose of a manager is to handle the details of the goals of hirer. A musician hires a…

It’s the human resource’s department’s job to protect the company from liability. If they’re not protecting the company from renegade managers they’re not doing a very good job.

What makes you think the managers are being renegades? They know the company details that you don't know: we have too many women claiming maternity benefits, we have too many people with skill X and not enough Y, etc. Again, HR's job is to handle the needs of senior management, and only until then will HR act against a manager.

Re: Google Employee Alleges Discrimination Against Pregnant Women in Viral Memo

#119

Post by paulddraper »

groundlogic wrote: post #95
ben7799 wrote: post #13

I'm always amazed Google management tolerates things like internal message boards aimed at letting employees create Memes on company time. On the "evil point haired boss" level it seems these types of things like their internal message boards cause a lot of trouble for the company. On the less evil side it seems like employees waste a lot of time on these internal sites and all the internal social justice stuff. Mayb…

12-20 years ago, one of my largest life goals was to work for Google. (It's not anymore. I found other fun and rewarding jobs.) I don't get why the Google management team allowed their team to get so... well, violently politicized. Maybe I'm old-fashioned, but.. keeping politics out of the workplace worked very well for a very long time.

I agree.

Religion and politics.

Both super important. Both better discussed outside the workplace.

Re: Google Employee Alleges Discrimination Against Pregnant Women in Viral Memo

#120

Post by matthewmacleod »

paulddraper wrote: post #119
groundlogic wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

12-20 years ago, one of my largest life goals was to work for Google. (It's not anymore. I found other fun and rewarding jobs.) I don't get why the Google management team allowed their team to get so... well, violently politicized. Maybe I'm old-fashioned, but.. keeping politics out of the workplace worked very well for a very long time.

I agree. Religion and politics. Both super important. Both better discussed outside the workplace.

This is a glib answer from a position of security.

“Politics” is absolutely a core part of the workplace where it starts to affect your rights, those of your colleagues, and the actions your employer takes in support or opposition of these.

Post reply on HN