I feel like Google should have started their orientation with a link to jwz's rba gruntle (not linking because HN people hate what his referral headers redirect does). The lawyer in that article is now an SVP of Legal at Google.
Google Doesn’t Want Staff Debating Politics at Work Anymore
161–170 of 1001 posts
Re: Google Doesn’t Want Staff Debating Politics at Work Anymore
#162Earlier quoted context omitted.
Because they have work to do. That's why they're there.
Exactly. If I'm working on a team that is rolling out a new Google drive feature, I really don't need to hear you talk about why drinking straws are a phallic symbol and used by the patriarchy to keep woman down. We have work to do.
I wish your comment was top level, because most of the comments in this thread are snarky responses that don't understand how politics turned Google's workplace toxic.
Re: Google Doesn’t Want Staff Debating Politics at Work Anymore
#163So once China starts to violently crack down on Hong Kong protesters, is Google going to hide it all?
Re: Google Doesn’t Want Staff Debating Politics at Work Anymore
#164How about we do our jobs instead? Yes please!
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Re: Google Doesn’t Want Staff Debating Politics at Work Anymore
#165Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've seen people at work defend trans hate as a "conservative value". It's fine if people have different opinions on taxes but to reject people's identity like that, especially one held by some of their colleagues, should cross a line and they shouldn't be able to hide behind "conservative values".
That's the point, you should be able to hold that opinion, but you should not publicly state it openly at work in the first place.
Taking the other side, how do you counter the "So some opinions are okay to state publicly, while others are not?" I think this is the rub... For any given X, you'll find groups of people that are pro-X, and someone anti-X.
Re: Google Doesn’t Want Staff Debating Politics at Work Anymore
#166Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is exactly right. At my small startup we may have heated discussions about monads, or tabs vs spaces, but you'll never hear any talk about any elected official or laws or current events. It's not that we don't care. It's just that it's not the reason we spend 8+ hours/day together.
The difference is that Google's product is almost inherently political, especially when it comes to how they tailor search results and rank news results. I think it is productive that people who work on products that have political ramifications should be allowed to talk about politics because what they do has political ramifications. I would hate for dissenting voices within google to be silenced and everyone to sim…
But not for the vast majority of people working there. Most folks are running infrastructure and building products completely unrelated to their *news offerings. And I think a big chunk of this discussion is just folks sitting on internal boards and wasting a lot of time arguing with people they've never met in some other corner of the company.
Re: Google Doesn’t Want Staff Debating Politics at Work Anymore
#167The problem is that what constitutes politics? Guns shouldn't be political, who you have sex with shouldn't be political...but in our current climate, they are both considered political. ..and no debating? Most people at Google are shades of left. It sounds like they are just trying to drown out dissenting views once again.
Everything is political, and politics affect everything. If you think there are no politics in something it's likely that the politics involved in it are not close to you, but that doesn't mean they don't exist. Identity isn't political, until you have one that isn't an accepted norm. Sexual orientation isn't political, until people want to deny you insurance over yours. Race isn't political, until people refuse to s…
If you demanded the "privilege" of discussing politics at work, I'd promptly not hire/fire you.
Re: Google Doesn’t Want Staff Debating Politics at Work Anymore
#168One of the their core values is "don't be evil", isn't that statement inherently political? I think a lot of people chose to work at Google (instead of say Oracle or etc) because of those ideals. Kinda disingenuous to advertise that reputation and then switch to a policy of "actually shut up and do the work".
That "core value" was removed some time ago.
Re: Google Doesn’t Want Staff Debating Politics at Work Anymore
#169I'm not at Google but my guess is that the number of Chinese employees and the current protests in HongKong might create some internal political fights.
I haven't been at Google in 5 years but I worked with a lot of Chinese coworkers from all three of mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong when I was there (as well as ABCs of those descents). Honestly, I never saw a Chinese employee get into a political argument. Mostly they were just happy to be in the U.S. and draw a Google-level salary. ABCs (including myself) would, but usually about American politics, not Chinese.
I think most Americans underestimate the extent to which most Chinese are apolitical and pragmatic. Chinese culture doesn't have the tradition of civic engagement and vigorous debate that Anglo-American culture does, and skews more towards Exit than Voice. A typical Chinese response to a looming civil war is more akin to "Well shit. Better emigrate (if I can) or pay off the right soldiers and officials (if I can't) so this doesn't harm my family" than to demonstrate in the streets and call for the ouster of the leaders in question. This is a double-edged sword: it's how the CCP maintains social controls that would be unacceptable violations of civil liberties in Western democracies, it's also behind the "model minority" image of Asian-Americans, but it also means that you don't get a lot of disruptive political talk in groups with Asian immigrants.
Re: Google Doesn’t Want Staff Debating Politics at Work Anymore
#170Earlier quoted context omitted.
At work? A lot of other things.
Not if your work directly impacts these things as Google's often does.
For profit companies should not choose sides. Google's only discussion of politics in the workplace should be on how to make their systems be as unbiased as possible.