Google cancels TGIF weekly all-hands meetings • Hacker News Board

Re: Google cancels TGIF weekly all-hands meetings

#241

Post by vkou » Sat, Nov 16, 2019, 12:15 AM UTC

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…

> I wonder if companies like Google and GitHub that actively courted activists are now regretting their decision.

I am really, really tired of people framing "Hiring (mostly) from the typical tech 22-35 college graduate demographic" as "Actively courting activists."

What were you expecting tech companies to do? Not hire anyone under the age of 40, or anyone who grew up, schooled, or worked in a blue state? If they did that, I suppose they'd get a largely 'activist-free' (But not politics-free!) workforce.

Google's business is inherently political. Its relationship with governments and regulators across the world is inherently political. The employee-employer relationship is inherently political. Of course you're going to get employees acting on their political opinions, in those contexts.

Re: Google cancels TGIF weekly all-hands meetings

#242

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Nov 16, 2019, 12:17 AM UTC

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…

[deleted]

Re: Google cancels TGIF weekly all-hands meetings

#243

Post by zarkov99 » Sat, Nov 16, 2019, 12:17 AM UTC

Sebguer wrote: post #235

zarkov99 wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How did being assertive and bringing your whole self to work work out for James Damore?

If you're saying his 'whole self' was 'women are inherently inferior to me' than I'd say it worked out as it should have.

Can you link to where he said that as specifically as possible? I have read his paper and it doesn't say that.

Re: Google cancels TGIF weekly all-hands meetings

#244

Post by crappy-doo » Sat, Nov 16, 2019, 12:20 AM UTC

be evil.

Re: Google cancels TGIF weekly all-hands meetings

#245

Post by RickJWagner » Sat, Nov 16, 2019, 12:21 AM UTC

CydeWeys wrote: post #99

manigandham wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Google is currently fighting unionization efforts. That's not leftist.

Yes. I think Google (and others) are selectively leftist.

Sort of like Bill Gates on taxing billionaires.

If they lean left, they get love from the media. But when it's really, really against their self-interest they'll resist and show their true colors.

It's just corporate hypocrisy. I hope it ends and corporations go back to being apolitical.

Re: Google cancels TGIF weekly all-hands meetings

#246

Post by Gunax » Sat, Nov 16, 2019, 12:21 AM UTC

burtonator wrote: post #232

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…

Interviewed at Etsy about a year or two ago and the interviewer was asking me about politically charged topics. How I would handle workplace gender complaints. How they should handle racial diversity in the work place, etc. It was really clear I was giving wrong answers. I told them flat out that I think people should be judged by the quality of their character, not the color of their skin and that the company should…

Wait... those are the wrong things to say? They are practically textbook PR cliches.

They are not necessarily what people would actually do, but they sound like the correct answer in interview-speak.

Re: Google cancels TGIF weekly all-hands meetings

#247

Post by hughtrevorroper » Sat, Nov 16, 2019, 12:21 AM UTC

I just want to say as a person in DC watching the president get impeached...you guys are all out of touch. Stuff your ideology and the comfortable lifestyle (funded by a industry that could not exist without MAU and click fraud) that enables it. The rest of us have to get up and go to work.

Re: Google cancels TGIF weekly all-hands meetings

#248

Post by throwGuardian » Sat, Nov 16, 2019, 12:21 AM UTC

nostrademons wrote: post #37

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…

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…

I do not believe chronic bouts of performative outrage leads to anything creative, inside or out of the workplace. If one's "whole self" cannot meaningfully function without getting constantly triggered, the problem is with the normalization of such "whole self" concepts

Re: Google cancels TGIF weekly all-hands meetings

#249

Post by paulgb » Sat, Nov 16, 2019, 12:21 AM UTC

vanniv wrote: post #158

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.

Google very much courted political activists in it's employee base, and encouraged its employees to participate in 'woke' culture. All seemed great for a while, and then suddenly one day, management found itself the target of the woke cancel culture they fostered.

As a former Googler, I'm curious what you are referring to by this:

> encouraged its employees to participate in 'woke' culture.

Re: Google cancels TGIF weekly all-hands meetings

#250

Post by lbjwasbadass » Sat, Nov 16, 2019, 12:22 AM UTC

I just want to say as a person in DC watching the president get impeached...you guys are all out of touch. Stuff your ideology and the comfortable lifestyle (funded by a industry that could not exist without MAU and click fraud) that enables it. The rest of us have to get up and go to work.