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

One Google Staffer Fired, Two Others Put on Leave Amid Tensions

bloomberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 603 posts

Re: One Google Staffer Fired, Two Others Put on Leave Amid Tensions

#81

Post by underpand »

dustingetz wrote: post #8
xhkkffbf wrote: post #3

I've liked many things about Google over the years and I still admire many parts of their stack. But this crazy internal political culture is bound to end in a big kaboom and it looks like this might be it. Evolution has created the rules that one doesn't mix politics with business. Google has skirted this rule for some time but now it's not going to be pretty.

seems less about Google and more about the balance of power shifting towards tech workers over the tech employer

Unfortunately, it's mostly non-eng and colorful SREs who are representing the supposed "tech worker" in these politically charged movements if you cross-reference the names that appear in public articles with LinkedIn profiles.

Re: One Google Staffer Fired, Two Others Put on Leave Amid Tensions

#82

Post by beerandt »

thephyber wrote: post #70
seibelj wrote: post #11

How about everyone goes to work and does their job and goes home. You can believe X, I can believe Y, and both of us believe Z, but XYZ doesn’t have anything to do with doing our jobs so we shouldn’t let it prevent us from doing our jobs. Super cool that everyone likes their own things though, I support liking things unrelated to job, just weird that people demand that their job adheres to whatever weird thing they l…

> just weird that people demand that their job adheres to whatever weird thing they like. This was literally a selling point at Google: > Larry Page and Sergey Brin ... had designed their company's famously open culture to facilitate free thinking. Employees were “obligated to dissent” if they saw something they disagreed with, and they were encouraged to “bring their whole selves” to work rather than check their pol…

It's been years now since "don't be evil" got deleted.

Re: One Google Staffer Fired, Two Others Put on Leave Amid Tensions

#83

Post by megous »

mason55 wrote: post #33
seibelj wrote: post #11

How about everyone goes to work and does their job and goes home. You can believe X, I can believe Y, and both of us believe Z, but XYZ doesn’t have anything to do with doing our jobs so we shouldn’t let it prevent us from doing our jobs. Super cool that everyone likes their own things though, I support liking things unrelated to job, just weird that people demand that their job adheres to whatever weird thing they l…

> You can believe X, I can believe Y, and both of us believe Z, but XYZ doesn’t have anything to do with doing our jobs so we shouldn’t let it prevent us from doing our jobs. It's easy to say this if your coworker likes football and you think sports are dumb. But what if your coworker likes attending KKK rallies and you're African-American? Or your co-worker is out there on the weekend holding signs that say "Death t…

Maybe if the coworker meets an actual gay, s/he'll hate gays less? People sometimes hate/dislike out of ignorance/unfamiliarity.

Re: One Google Staffer Fired, Two Others Put on Leave Amid Tensions

#84

Post by Pfhreak »

Mikeb85 wrote: post #24
Pfhreak wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you square that with stuff like whether your company should, for example, support same sex partner benefits, trans inclusive healthcare, prayer rooms, etc?

> same sex partner benefits, trans inclusive healthcare Aren't things like this governed by local laws? In Canada we have private insurance for things above and beyond basic health care, but only the government gets to decide who is a partner, dependant, etc... > prayer rooms Are they going to build chapels for every religion? Who decides which religions get chapels or prayer rooms? Or does only 1 religion get a pray…

> Aren't things like this governed by local laws?

Nope. In many places in the states you have little to no protections. (You can be fired for being trans, for example.)

> Are they going to build chapels for every religion?

Most workplaces I've worked have had a 'quiet room' or similar that was designed to be a private space for personal prayer if needed. It had a chair and clean carpet, but was otherwise unadorned. It just couldn't be booked as a conference room. There are folks whose religions require them to pray during the day, and having a space to quietly do so seems (to me) to be reasonable?

Re: One Google Staffer Fired, Two Others Put on Leave Amid Tensions

#85

Post by javagram »

RobertRoberts wrote: post #34
Mikeb85 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> same sex partner benefits, trans inclusive healthcare Aren't things like this governed by local laws? In Canada we have private insurance for things above and beyond basic health care, but only the government gets to decide who is a partner, dependant, etc... > prayer rooms Are they going to build chapels for every religion? Who decides which religions get chapels or prayer rooms? Or does only 1 religion get a pray…

The reference may be to the fact that Amazon (for example) provided only space for Muslims to have prayer rooms, but no one else.

I’d be shocked if amazon in fact had a policy that only Muslims could use the prayer rooms.

Christians and Jews should be able to use them if they choose. I googled around and could only find statements that Muslim employees of a security contractor for amazon were not allowed to use the rooms for a while, but after protests and NLRB intervention now are.

Re: One Google Staffer Fired, Two Others Put on Leave Amid Tensions

#86

Post by DeckOfSardines »

usr1106 wrote: post #60
robbya wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Installing an extension to monitor employee use of a company computer is legal and generally accepted behavior. If the Google calendar is for a personal gmail account, then accessing the calendar details server side is a huge privacy breach.

> Installing an extension to monitor employee use of a company computer is legal and generally accepted behavior. Legal and generally accepted in US jurisdiction. In Germany that would require approval by employee representatives, unlikely to happen in any bigger company. In Finland a somewhat related and highly controversive law was introduced many years ago that it would be legal if registered with data protection…

Can you expand on this point? I wasn't sure if your point was that this might hinder Google expanding in other countries or if you were just taking issue with the phrasing.

Re: One Google Staffer Fired, Two Others Put on Leave Amid Tensions

#87

Post by seibelj »

Pfhreak wrote: post #19
seibelj wrote: post #11

How about everyone goes to work and does their job and goes home. You can believe X, I can believe Y, and both of us believe Z, but XYZ doesn’t have anything to do with doing our jobs so we shouldn’t let it prevent us from doing our jobs. Super cool that everyone likes their own things though, I support liking things unrelated to job, just weird that people demand that their job adheres to whatever weird thing they l…

How do you square that with stuff like whether your company should, for example, support same sex partner benefits, trans inclusive healthcare, prayer rooms, etc?

I'm a live and let live kind of guy, if a company wants to compete for employees by offering all of that, that's great!

On the flip side, where do you draw the line? It's one thing not to work someplace, it's another to protest your own employer because they are not accommodating you with prayer rooms onsite.

Re: One Google Staffer Fired, Two Others Put on Leave Amid Tensions

#88

Post by javagram »

inferiorhuman wrote: post #32
xwdv wrote: post #29

At our company if the HR goes through your social media, and finds any evidence you may be socially activist or virtue signaling or otherwise very loudly proclaiming your disapproval of something some entity is doing, you will not be hired. You will not even get a call back. You will be labeled as a potential troublemaker (not in the good way) and be placed on the blacklist.

And what if you do not give HR access to your social media?

If you’re already keeping your social media protected/private, that seems like a pretty good sign that you’re not a political troublemaker or activist.

Private social media accounts don’t have virality or reach.

I keep my own twitter and facebook private because I have no interest in accidentally igniting a feeding frenzy if I post something wrong on social media. But it’s equally true that if I wanted to make a fuss about something at my employer or elsewhere, my posts will go nowhere since only a small number of people can see or access them.

Re: One Google Staffer Fired, Two Others Put on Leave Amid Tensions

#89

Post by gwbas1c »

mason55 wrote: post #33
seibelj wrote: post #11

How about everyone goes to work and does their job and goes home. You can believe X, I can believe Y, and both of us believe Z, but XYZ doesn’t have anything to do with doing our jobs so we shouldn’t let it prevent us from doing our jobs. Super cool that everyone likes their own things though, I support liking things unrelated to job, just weird that people demand that their job adheres to whatever weird thing they l…

> You can believe X, I can believe Y, and both of us believe Z, but XYZ doesn’t have anything to do with doing our jobs so we shouldn’t let it prevent us from doing our jobs. It's easy to say this if your coworker likes football and you think sports are dumb. But what if your coworker likes attending KKK rallies and you're African-American? Or your co-worker is out there on the weekend holding signs that say "Death t…

The problem with political causes is that there is no objective definition of "good" and "bad."

At this point, the co-worker's discomfort of working with an African-American or an openly gay person pretty much helps bring these issues out in the open rather quickly.

(And yes, I've been in a similar situation when a co-worker freaked out that I don't believe in Jesus, that I see the Bible as literature instead of factual, that I fully accept evolution as scientific fact, and yet I somehow see "Jesus" as a good role model for life.)

Spying is a very poor way to handle situations like this.

Instead, include some basic diversity training in all onboarding, and periodically renew it. It tends to scare away racists and homophobes.

Re: One Google Staffer Fired, Two Others Put on Leave Amid Tensions

#90

Post by geodel »

mason55 wrote: post #33
seibelj wrote: post #11

How about everyone goes to work and does their job and goes home. You can believe X, I can believe Y, and both of us believe Z, but XYZ doesn’t have anything to do with doing our jobs so we shouldn’t let it prevent us from doing our jobs. Super cool that everyone likes their own things though, I support liking things unrelated to job, just weird that people demand that their job adheres to whatever weird thing they l…

> You can believe X, I can believe Y, and both of us believe Z, but XYZ doesn’t have anything to do with doing our jobs so we shouldn’t let it prevent us from doing our jobs. It's easy to say this if your coworker likes football and you think sports are dumb. But what if your coworker likes attending KKK rallies and you're African-American? Or your co-worker is out there on the weekend holding signs that say "Death t…

I think more likely that someone donate to anti-gay cause in personal capacity and some gay right activist in Google finds out. So they go ahead and declare "GOOGLE IS A FESTERING HELL-HOLE OF ANTI-GAY SHITBAGS" or some such on Twitter. After that they organize a walkout demanding anti gay employee be fired to make Google a safe workplace.
Post reply on HN