Engineer says Google fired her for notifying co-workers of right to organize • Hacker News Board

Re: Engineer says Google fired her for notifying co-workers of right to organize

#31

Post by ninly » Tue, Dec 17, 2019, 2:32 PM UTC

cj wrote: post #5

> Kathryn Spiers, who worked as a security engineer, updated an internal Chrome browser extension so that each time Google employees visited the website of IRI Consultants — the Troy, Michigan, firm that Google hired this year amid a groundswell of labor activism at the company — they would see a pop-up message that read: “Googlers have the right to participate in protected concerted activities.” So basically, the Go…

Certainly bold and perhaps ill-advised, but I would hardly characterize this as "injection"

> Spiers told NBC News that she was inspired to create a digital notification because “a poster in the cafeteria is not the best way of reaching the majority of Googlers.”

> The message included a link to a statement that the NLRB required the company to post for employees following the settlement of a complaint that was filed against Google in 2016.

> Spiers, 21, said she went through the standard approval process, which requires two co-workers to greenlight changes, before updating the Chrome browser extension. Another source at Google familiar with the update approval process confirmed to NBC news that those two approvals are standard practice for a browser extension update.

Re: Engineer says Google fired her for notifying co-workers of right to organize

#32

Post by kawfey » Tue, Dec 17, 2019, 2:32 PM UTC

Touche wrote: post #13

The article is confusing. She says she was fired for doing one thing. Google says she did something else (modified Chromium without permission). Does she deny their claims, or is her statement just spin? Given just her quotes you would think that she was fired for literally telling coworkers that they have a right to organize.

that's the problem with seeing one side of the story, and the other side being a megacorporation which will never explain the firing more than "abusing privileges."

Re: Engineer says Google fired her for notifying co-workers of right to organize

#33

Post by save_ferris » Tue, Dec 17, 2019, 2:33 PM UTC

kache_ wrote: post #7

>Kathryn Spiers, who worked as a security engineer, updated an internal Chrome browser extension so that each time Google employees visited the website of IRI Consultants — the Troy, Michigan, firm that Google hired this year amid a groundswell of labor activism at the company — they would see a pop-up message that read: “Googlers have the right to participate in protected concerted activities.” You should get fired…

The article says that she went through the standard approval process.

Re: Engineer says Google fired her for notifying co-workers of right to organize

#34

Post by jpmontez » Tue, Dec 17, 2019, 2:33 PM UTC

kache_ wrote: post #7

>Kathryn Spiers, who worked as a security engineer, updated an internal Chrome browser extension so that each time Google employees visited the website of IRI Consultants — the Troy, Michigan, firm that Google hired this year amid a groundswell of labor activism at the company — they would see a pop-up message that read: “Googlers have the right to participate in protected concerted activities.” You should get fired…

"Spiers, 21, said she went through the standard approval process, which requires two co-workers to greenlight changes, before updating the Chrome browser extension. Another source at Google familiar with the update approval process confirmed to NBC news that those two approvals are standard practice for a browser extension update."

She alleges it was done by the book.

Re: Engineer says Google fired her for notifying co-workers of right to organize

#35

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Dec 17, 2019, 2:33 PM UTC

kache_ wrote: post #7

>Kathryn Spiers, who worked as a security engineer, updated an internal Chrome browser extension so that each time Google employees visited the website of IRI Consultants — the Troy, Michigan, firm that Google hired this year amid a groundswell of labor activism at the company — they would see a pop-up message that read: “Googlers have the right to participate in protected concerted activities.” You should get fired…

[deleted]

Re: Engineer says Google fired her for notifying co-workers of right to organize

#36

Post by scarface74 » Tue, Dec 17, 2019, 2:34 PM UTC

iwantagrinder wrote: post #19

kache_ wrote: post #7

>Kathryn Spiers, who worked as a security engineer, updated an internal Chrome browser extension so that each time Google employees visited the website of IRI Consultants — the Troy, Michigan, firm that Google hired this year amid a groundswell of labor activism at the company — they would see a pop-up message that read: “Googlers have the right to participate in protected concerted activities.” You should get fired…

Did you not read the part where she did, where she followed the process by the book and it was approved? Or did you just have your mind made up to decide to side with Google instead?

From the article, it doesn’t appear to be the case. She said she was allowed to inject JS code as a “digital extension” to putting a poster up.

Re: Engineer says Google fired her for notifying co-workers of right to organize

#37

Post by eitland » Tue, Dec 17, 2019, 2:34 PM UTC

Maxion wrote: post #16

cj wrote: post #5

> Kathryn Spiers, who worked as a security engineer, updated an internal Chrome browser extension so that each time Google employees visited the website of IRI Consultants — the Troy, Michigan, firm that Google hired this year amid a groundswell of labor activism at the company — they would see a pop-up message that read: “Googlers have the right to participate in protected concerted activities.” So basically, the Go…

If you further read the article, she went through the standard approval process for changes. She did it by the book. That's hardly "injecting code".

Social engineering isn't better than other forms of hacking.

Re: Engineer says Google fired her for notifying co-workers of right to organize

#38

Post by save_ferris » Tue, Dec 17, 2019, 2:34 PM UTC

kawfey wrote: post #18

Bad headline. It should read "Engineer fired her for abusing privileged access to modify an internal security tool." That's a pretty dumb way to notify co-workers of their right to organize, but I guess it's a really good way to get fired and draw up a big media stink about it.

Wrong. She went through the standard review process to get the notification change out.

Read the article.

Re: Engineer says Google fired her for notifying co-workers of right to organize

#39

Post by acollins1331 » Tue, Dec 17, 2019, 2:34 PM UTC

kache_ wrote: post #7

>Kathryn Spiers, who worked as a security engineer, updated an internal Chrome browser extension so that each time Google employees visited the website of IRI Consultants — the Troy, Michigan, firm that Google hired this year amid a groundswell of labor activism at the company — they would see a pop-up message that read: “Googlers have the right to participate in protected concerted activities.” You should get fired…

You either can't read or you're a shill. Sucks you can't delete HN comments huh.

Re: Engineer says Google fired her for notifying co-workers of right to organize

#40

Post by mytailorisrich » Tue, Dec 17, 2019, 2:35 PM UTC

Maxion wrote: post #20

Did no one read the article? > Spiers, 21, said she went through the standard approval process, which requires two co-workers to greenlight changes, before updating the Chrome browser extension. Another source at Google familiar with the update approval process confirmed to NBC news that those two approvals are standard practice for a browser extension update. She did it exactly according to internal policy. The exte…

That sounds like a code review, which is not the same as project/management approval for the 'feature' at all.