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On Resigning from Google

alphabetworkers.org

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Re: On Resigning from Google

#21

Post by JimboOmega »

The post talks about Google supposedly persecuting LGBTQ employees for speaking up. But the linked articles only talk about them (possibly) getting retaliated against for protesting other issues, like border security or sexual harassment.

As an LGBT person (who does her fair share of activism), I'm not clear what the LGBTQ angle is here other than if the people involved happened to be LGBTQ. It seems like even if they are being retaliated against for their activism, it's not LGBTQ activism.

Did I miss something?

Re: On Resigning from Google

#22

Post by gnicholas »

> Attacks like this were an attack on people’s jobs and physical security: if you can strip a reform-oriented pastor of their PCUSA ordination, you also strip them of their employment and their health insurance

If I'm understanding correctly, the argument with regard to "physical security" is that if you try to get someone fired, which would result in them losing their employer-provided health insurance, that they would have less security in their physical body.

Is there some other linkage to physical security that I'm missing? Because if this is the only connection, then anytime someone tries to get anyone fired, it would be deemed "an attack on the physical security" of that person. That seems a bit of a stretch (and overlooks the fact that there are other ways to get health insurance, either via another job or via the health care exchanges).

To be clear, I'm not weighing in on the specific circumstances of the example — I'm just trying to understand how physical security was implicate, and how the term is being used.

Re: On Resigning from Google

#23

Post by tmpz22 »

shadowgovt wrote: post #9
bla3 wrote: post #2

> www.alphabetworkers.org/ > The trouble with deep belief > The reason it’s unlikely to work is that although you can persecute the prophets Sounds a bit full of themselves. They worked for a company, they no longer like the company, they quit. Great, move on. No need to make a big deal about it. It's just a job.

Bruce makes the excellent point that it's not just a company. It's a Fortune 50 with a reach to touch a couple billion users, the technical competency and contacts to make decisions that impact the future of humanity, and is undergoing a significant cultural shift from the kind of company it is perceived to be by past reputation. If one finds oneself in such a circumstance, it's a correct thing to do to speak out abo…

> Impact the future of humanity

If Google disappeared off the face of the earth, every system, server, and employee, mitigations would be in place by the end of the week - and a year later it would be like nothing ever changed.

Let's not overvalue an adserver, free email, etc. These services are important but never life defining outside of the relatively small number of people they have made RICH.

Re: On Resigning from Google

#25

Post by umeshunni »

shadowgovt wrote: post #14
commandlinefan wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google (and, really, all of Northern California) has been actively courting these high-minded idealists for a long time. The problem with these types of people is that they invent windmills to tilt at when they run out.

The problem with these types of people is that they actually care about more than the paycheck. ;)

Then they should have said no to the paycheck earlier on rather than sucking on it for 14 years.

As someone else said, just a bunch of whiny SJWs.

Don't they have some caucus-voting app or something to go work on?

Re: On Resigning from Google

#26

Post by paxys »

Random thoughts:

1. I applaud the fact that they are actually quitting the company to voice their disapproval of these policies. In my mind all the "internal activism" happening at Google and others is massively hypocritical. One cannot publicly criticize a company while enjoying cushy paychecks fueled by those very activities they despise.

2. If they think Google is discriminatory towards LGBT employees and minorities, contributing to climate change etc., they are in for a big shock once they are really out of the Google and SV bubble.

Re: On Resigning from Google

#27

Post by shadowgovt »

mberning wrote: post #16
bla3 wrote: post #2

> www.alphabetworkers.org/ > The trouble with deep belief > The reason it’s unlikely to work is that although you can persecute the prophets Sounds a bit full of themselves. They worked for a company, they no longer like the company, they quit. Great, move on. No need to make a big deal about it. It's just a job.

It is extremely self important. The fact that so many people with these proclivities have gravitated to Google can not be a good thing. I have to imagine Google HR is not too troubled by shedding noisy moralizers within their ranks.

Google spent decades selecting for these "moralizers" and is now reaping what it sowed; "don't be evil" was a cultural slogan that carries consequences if it attracts a particular kind of mindset.

And in a few cases, yeah; HR is shitting bricks because it's losing people who built the underlying fabric of the system (which anyone who has built a large system will tell you increases risk to the entire software company; they're pretty sure the exiting employee has written down all the mission-critical knowledge of how to operate the system riding around in their head, and Google has a corporate culture of minimizing the "bus factor" of key systems, but there's always a risk that the next time something significant catches fire, the employee with 1.5 decades of experience who just walked out the door is the one who could have fixed it fastest).

It'll be interesting to see if quality of product suffers (i.e. if there was actually correlation between technical competence and a care about the fate of the world and fellow employees).

Re: On Resigning from Google

#28

Post by Zyst »

shadowgovt wrote: post #17
AcerbicZero wrote: post #11

While I don't particularly agree with any of their points, (Seems a bit SJW-ish, mixed with some climate drama) at least they believe in them strongly enough to actually stop taking a paycheck from the company they've come to hate.

When you say SJW-ish in this context, do you mean you disagree with their assessment (i.e. helping oil companies do their job cheaper is bad, improving the technology underpinning combat drones is bad when the country that uses them demonstrates irresponsible use of them, supporting with labor a company that fires labor organizers is bad)?

I think this comment feels like trying blatantly to pin OP into a bad position, honestly this is quite disingenuous.

Re: On Resigning from Google

#29

Post by vharuck »

tmpz22 wrote: post #23
shadowgovt wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bruce makes the excellent point that it's not just a company. It's a Fortune 50 with a reach to touch a couple billion users, the technical competency and contacts to make decisions that impact the future of humanity, and is undergoing a significant cultural shift from the kind of company it is perceived to be by past reputation. If one finds oneself in such a circumstance, it's a correct thing to do to speak out abo…

> Impact the future of humanity If Google disappeared off the face of the earth, every system, server, and employee, mitigations would be in place by the end of the week - and a year later it would be like nothing ever changed. Let's not overvalue an adserver, free email, etc. These services are important but never life defining outside of the relatively small number of people they have made RICH.

This is like saying the President of the United States has no effect on the country because the person in office is replaced within the span of a day every four or eight years.

Re: On Resigning from Google

#30

Post by dblohm7 »

uoaei wrote: post #18
dblohm7 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems to me that "I work for Google" is the new "I'm a member of Mensa" or "I went to Harvard."

Only if their intention is to talk about how useless Mensa is and to break the fetishization of being a member of this club.

And working for Google hasn't been fetishized?
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