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

Post by trenning » Tue, Dec 17, 2019, 7:54 PM UTC

tanilama wrote: post #457

ramraj07 wrote: post #76

I was initially tempted to side with Google, a code review process is not just rigorous enough for catching features being sneaked in. However, it looks like the sole purpose of the extension is to warn employees about security issues in websites, and this engineer coopted that to show a union forming message. The final paragraph suggests that there's legal precedence for doing this: “You’re allowed to put posters up…

But everyone's laptop is NO public place, and this extension is installed under the endorsement and requirement of the company. For someone who doesn't agree with her message, this is best case to shove a message down your throat, worst case a security breach to their computer.

Post by scarmig » Tue, Dec 17, 2019, 8:03 PM UTC

lr wrote: post #629

scarmig wrote: post #622

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, let's walk through the reasoning here. Data is simultaneously Google's greatest strength and its biggest liability. If an employee uploads data to a not-known-to-be-secure third party, it can literally cost Google billions of dollars depending on the data locality. Or, it could plausibly cause a severe security breach (if e.g. an employee uploads a security token into a third party decoder). And so the security t…

You obviously didn't read her blog post where she stated the following: "This kind of code change happens all the time. We frequently add things to make our jobs easier or even to just share hobbies or interests. For example, someone changed the default desktop wallpaper during the walkout last year so that the Linux penguin was holding a protest sign. The company has never reacted aggressively in response to a notif…

Post by claudiawerner » Tue, Dec 17, 2019, 8:07 PM UTC

School-Cotton wrote: post #92

Maxion wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It feels like a lot of astro-turfing going on here. Why would any sane person be against unions?

I'm sane, and don't want to join a union (I'm not against them in general ; there are certainly fields where they make sense). I don't know if your question was serious, but in case it was: I don't feel like my employer is a rival or an enemy; I feel like they are a partner in our mutual goal to make a lot of money. I've never worked at Google, but I've worked at similarly famous large companies, making several times…

Post by the_narrator » Tue, Dec 17, 2019, 8:10 PM UTC

ticmasta wrote: post #607

KirinDave wrote: post #322

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If those thoughts are factual and relevant to the topic at hand, it... does seem like it's reasonable? She's an engineer, not someone working a type pool.

Only because you brought it up, someone in the typing pool likely has more education and experience: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathryn-spiers-1b3048a1/ By any measure she's not an engineer.

Post by abj » Tue, Dec 17, 2019, 8:19 PM UTC

malvosenior wrote: post #503

drakonka wrote: post #409

It feels weird for me to read comments in this thread debating about and assuming a simple note about unionization or organization by an employee whose job it was to do exactly this kind of thing is "not in good faith" or a "violation". In my mind this kind of thing has the same sentiment as _any_ policy notice. The world in which notifying people that they have the right to organize is a "violation" is a really mess…

You can read her own words to see it wasn't in good faith: https://medium.com/@ksspiers/google-fires-another-worker-for... > Recently Google was forced to post a list of rights that we have in the workplace. So when I heard that Google had hired a union busting firm and started illegally retaliating against my coworkers, I decided to make sure that my coworkers knew about the posting. She was mad at her employer and…