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Google cancels TGIF weekly all-hands meetings

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Re: Google cancels TGIF weekly all-hands meetings

#41

Post by tpmoney »

zorpner wrote: post #26
markovbot wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be clear, "keep politics out of the workplace" is another way of saying "I'm okay with the status quo, and if you don't like it I don't want to hear about it at work".

I'm sorry you're getting downvoted. What you're saying is absolutely true -- keeping politics out of anything is endorsement of the status quo. And even more specifically, as it relates to the workplace, anything you build with your labor is endorsement of that thing . That endorsement may be (and often is) coerced, whether by circumstance of lack of resources, H-1B visa, et cetera. But pretending that the things we…

This is, of course, absolute nonsense. If I’m running a mini golf enthusiasts group, keeping discussion on topic and not going off on the latest Trump fail or the most recent celebrity to reveal themselves as a serial sexual assaulter is neither an endorsement of Trump nor of sexual assault. It’s recognizing that not everyone wants to spend every minute of every day in every place discussing your particular bugaboo. There are literally thousands of places to have these discussions, they don’t need to happen everywhere and you don’t need to be constantly getting confirmation from everyone around you that they agree with your political views.

Re: Google cancels TGIF weekly all-hands meetings

#42

Post by notadoc »

markovbot wrote: post #9
malvosenior wrote: post #5

I wonder if companies like Google and GitHub that actively courted activists are now regretting their decision. For a long time it was common knowledge that you would try to keep stuff like that out of the workplace. The past 10 years have been an about face to that strategy and now we're seeing more or less complete chaos internally at these previously pro-politics (some kinds of politics) workplaces. My guess is th…

To be clear, "keep politics out of the workplace" is another way of saying "I'm okay with the status quo, and if you don't like it I don't want to hear about it at work".

Someones job function at work is to perform their job duties. Unless someone works directly in politics, then politics do not belong in the workplace.

There are plenty of other impolite subjects that are inappropriate to discuss at work too.

Re: Google cancels TGIF weekly all-hands meetings

#43

Post by triceratops »

malvosenior wrote: post #34
threeseed wrote: post #19

Nobody actively courted activists. It's more just than tech startups generally skew younger and newer generations want their companies to reflect their own values. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. And these companies are not in complete chaos. In fact apart from the James Damore incident there hasn't been any significant change in the company cultures.

> Nobody actively courted activists. Yes, actually they did actively court them. Here's one of many examples: https://diversity.google/ Younger generations are not politically homogeneous, Google picked a political position and pushed it hard.

What is the political position picked by the site you provided?

Re: Google cancels TGIF weekly all-hands meetings

#44

Post by breck »

pmoriarty wrote: post #10

Are all-hands meetings actually ever useful to anyone or ever more than merely internal PR?

I think so. To put in Taleb's turns, they are very "anti-fragile". They allow a company to benefit from randomness.

Satya started them at Microsoft (monthly though, IIRC), and I personally loved them and derived a lot of value from them about what was going on company wide and perhaps learning new places I might be able to contribute. It also just made me trust leadership more and more motivated to work there. Was only an ~hour a month and I'm sure led to many unpredicted positive effects.

Re: Google cancels TGIF weekly all-hands meetings

#45

Post by nostrademons »

nradov wrote: post #39
nostrademons wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's more that they actively courted assertive people with opinions and then created a culture where you can bring your whole self to work. They did this so that they could get the benefits of creativity, which inherently requires emotional engagement, which requires that you not repress your emotions. (It turns out that it's not possible to selectively repress emotions: "I've got to watch what I say about po…

Why do you think that creativity requires emotional engagement? I haven't found that to be the case.

Personal experience, but it's also been born out by studies:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/creativity-the-art-a...

https://hbr.org/2015/08/the-emotions-that-make-us-more-creat...

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.0266...

TL;DR: It's not the specific emotion that matters (indeed, there's evidence that having mixed emotions, where you can synthesize aspects of them, is crucial to creativity), it's the motivational intensity behind it.

Re: Google cancels TGIF weekly all-hands meetings

#46

Post by manigandham »

triceratops wrote: post #43
malvosenior wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Nobody actively courted activists. Yes, actually they did actively court them. Here's one of many examples: https://diversity.google/ Younger generations are not politically homogeneous, Google picked a political position and pushed it hard.

What is the political position picked by the site you provided?

Google and most SV companies are somewhere between left to far-left.

Re: Google cancels TGIF weekly all-hands meetings

#47

Post by triceratops »

malvosenior wrote: post #33
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I wonder if companies like Google and GitHub that actively courted activists You say that like it's a given truth - do you have anything to back up that assertion? FWIW, I don't recall Google courting "activists", though they obviously did court people who were highly invested in their education and careers, and of course there is probably a non-0 correlation with those types of people and "activists". I also would…

> You say that like it's a given truth - do you have anything to back up that assertion? Sure, and this is just one of many examples: https://diversity.google/ They have been very proactive in this space for a long time.

How is trying cast a wider net in hiring the same as "courting activists"?

Re: Google cancels TGIF weekly all-hands meetings

#48

Post by arkitaip »

m0zg wrote: post #3
pixiemaster wrote: post #2

So, the executives stopped attending and then the employers stopped attending as well. what a shocking correlation.

More likely: employees were attending too much for the reasons inconvenient to the executives. As an ex-Googler: this is the surest indication yet that Google is in deep trouble. TGIF would be canceled from time to time before when the execs suspected things would get confrontational and employees wouldn't like even remotely honest answers. But to cancel them basically permanently is going to blow up in Sundar's face…

What might happen is the rise of an informal communications channel managed by employees that Google executives cannot direct let alone cancel. That's far worse in a way.

Re: Google cancels TGIF weekly all-hands meetings

#49

Post by streb-lo »

malvosenior wrote: post #34
threeseed wrote: post #19

Nobody actively courted activists. It's more just than tech startups generally skew younger and newer generations want their companies to reflect their own values. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. And these companies are not in complete chaos. In fact apart from the James Damore incident there hasn't been any significant change in the company cultures.

> Nobody actively courted activists. Yes, actually they did actively court them. Here's one of many examples: https://diversity.google/ Younger generations are not politically homogeneous, Google picked a political position and pushed it hard.

Generic corporate commitment to 'diversity' is activism?

Yeesh.

Re: Google cancels TGIF weekly all-hands meetings

#50

Post by techie128 »

paggle wrote: post #25
acruns wrote: post #18

I turned down an offer from Google (cloud) because I didn't want to work for a company that was so focused on politics internally. This was just after they fired Damore, not that I agree or disagree with his opinion, but because Google seems promote internal fighting. That type of culture doesn't appeal to me.

You should consider Microsoft and Apple... employees there don't really care too much about these things

Microsoft and Apple employees might care. However, workplace is not an appropriate forum to fight over politics or other non-work related topics. More importantly, it is important to maintain professionalism and focus on the job you've been hired to do. You can be an activist in your spare time. You may also not like your coworkers due to their political views but we live in a diverse world. Acknowledge that and work with them regardless of their political leanings.
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