Google Doesn’t Want Staff Debating Politics at Work Anymore • Hacker News Board

Re: Google Doesn’t Want Staff Debating Politics at Work Anymore

#171

Post by clairity » Fri, Aug 23, 2019, 4:56 PM UTC

SkyBelow wrote: post #64

>I think they just overestimated the ability of their employees to respect each other when they hold differing world views. I think this can be quite difficult to do just because of the political views involved. For example, how should a gay man respect a colleague who honestly thinks that homosexuality should be punished with death. In such a case, I would say that even asking the first individual to tolerate, much…

the best way to dispel such ugly beliefs is for the homophobe to get to personally know gay folks, so yes, at least civilty if not respect needs to be shown by the lgbt person toward the homophobe.

compassion needs to go both ways, and someone has to offer their hand first. it's not fair to the lgbt person, but it's highly unlikely that the homophobe will make that first move.

Re: Google Doesn’t Want Staff Debating Politics at Work Anymore

#172

Post by yoz-y » Fri, Aug 23, 2019, 4:56 PM UTC

dunkelheit wrote: post #87

ceejayoz wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an example: https://twitter.com/Pinboard/status/1120320958382755840 @Pinboard has collected a bunch of these. https://twitter.com/search?q=from%3Apinboard%20PAC

The sums in question are for some reason ridiculously small. Seriously, $2500 donation? That is some serious political spending from Google!

Isn't there a cap of something like $4000 for any political donation?

Re: Google Doesn’t Want Staff Debating Politics at Work Anymore

#173

Post by xhkkffbf » Fri, Aug 23, 2019, 4:56 PM UTC

yters wrote: post #125

michaelt wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If timewasting was the problem, wouldn't they be clamping down on all unproductive conversation, not merely the political? I mean, wasting 10 minutes is wasting 10 minutes, whether I'm talking about politics or football or TV.

Right, if counterproductive conversation was the real problem, then Google should shut down access to HN, b/c I'm sure the aggregate drain on Googlers' productivity is much more than point to point office conversations...

I read HN to remain current. This is work for me.

And I'm going to brag that my company was lightyears ahead of Google on this one. We don't allow political debates. Such a time waster. But HN is educational.

Re: Google Doesn’t Want Staff Debating Politics at Work Anymore

#174

Post by xadhominemx » Fri, Aug 23, 2019, 4:56 PM UTC

zarkov99 wrote: post #11

No shit. I guess Google can no longer assume that there is a single correct world view that all good and smart people hold. Who knew.

I think what’s actually happened is that it’s become more obvious that aome world views are actually more correct, which has reduced the ability to engage in respectful debate

Re: Google Doesn’t Want Staff Debating Politics at Work Anymore

#175

Post by tehjoker » Fri, Aug 23, 2019, 4:56 PM UTC

It was ok until it started impacting the business... Like when the workers prevented the sale of AI technology to the people droning wedding parties in the Middle East. Yawn.

Re: Google Doesn’t Want Staff Debating Politics at Work Anymore

#176

Post by josteink » Fri, Aug 23, 2019, 4:56 PM UTC

tdb7893 wrote: post #115

SkyBelow wrote: post #64

>I think they just overestimated the ability of their employees to respect each other when they hold differing world views. I think this can be quite difficult to do just because of the political views involved. For example, how should a gay man respect a colleague who honestly thinks that homosexuality should be punished with death. In such a case, I would say that even asking the first individual to tolerate, much…

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".

> I've seen people at work defend trans hate as a "conservative value".

As long as you don’t define what you mean with “trans hate”, there’s no way for an outsider to judge if your “conservative” colleague held a reasonable position or not.

Constantly defining opposing views as “hate” is IMO one of the most effective ways you can kill reasonable discourse and increase polarisation.

And if “everything” is “hate”, clearly “hate” is no big deal, so why should we care?

Maybe what you encountered were not actually “hate”, but something we back in the days used to call “disagreement”?

It’s a pretty normal thing.

Re: Google Doesn’t Want Staff Debating Politics at Work Anymore

#177

Post by simplecomplex » Fri, Aug 23, 2019, 4:56 PM UTC

Great. Professional adults don’t talk about heated issues at work when it is not necessary. For obvious reasons.

Re: Google Doesn’t Want Staff Debating Politics at Work Anymore

#178

Post by ProAm » Fri, Aug 23, 2019, 4:57 PM UTC

dekhn wrote: post #161

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.

> what his referral headers redirect does

What's it do, first time Ive heard of that

Re: Google Doesn’t Want Staff Debating Politics at Work Anymore

#179

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Aug 23, 2019, 4:57 PM UTC

the-pigeon wrote: post #140

wutbrodo wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is so hilariously wrong that I don't even know where to start. Google's culture was predicated on hiring intelligent, emotionally-continent adults. Free discussion of politics wasn't banned during my time there because everyone was capable of understanding precisely the opposite of what you're describing: that differing views on the world exist and are attributable to more than just whether someone is a good or…

I've worked for a lot of small startups some mid-sized companies in California over the last decade. I would never ever share any views that are non-liberal because when I've seen anyone else do it it didn't go well for them at all. And I'm not at work to change people's political views so there's no reason to take the risk. I don't think this is a new shift at all. I think it's typical when you have smart but insecu…

[deleted]

Re: Google Doesn’t Want Staff Debating Politics at Work Anymore

#180

Post by wtdata » Fri, Aug 23, 2019, 4:57 PM UTC

tdb7893 wrote: post #115

SkyBelow wrote: post #64

>I think they just overestimated the ability of their employees to respect each other when they hold differing world views. I think this can be quite difficult to do just because of the political views involved. For example, how should a gay man respect a colleague who honestly thinks that homosexuality should be punished with death. In such a case, I would say that even asking the first individual to tolerate, much…

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".

Serious question, what do you define as trans hate (in regard to the people you are talking about)?

This is because, what you may be describing as "trans hate" may simply be someone that simply doesn't accept the non scientifically proven theory of gender fluidity. And may be people that simply are stating that transgenderism should be approached and supported like other cases of body dysphoria.