On Resigning from Google

I currently work at Google, but I am a newbie, i.e less than 5 years at Google.

I frequently run in to people who are: 1) always been at Google and enjoyed the fruits of its rise or at another similar environment 2) never had to deal with frugality or lack of funding for anything 3) see themselves are superior to everyone else - in terms of how enlightened they are, how they know whats best for everyone 4) feel that they have an absolute say in anything Google does

These people do not know the realities of the world. Plain and simple. They had a good life and think that is it.

One thing they dont seem to realize is that almost everyone else has had to deal with growth challenges, lack of capital and access to resources. No one exists to only make the world better. Contrary to their disbelief, most people and organizations, including themselves and Google, have the first priority to survive, to grow, to flourish and to abide by all applicable laws. Once this is satisfied, they move on to grander things like charity, investing in the well being of others etc.

The very reason these people have the capability to leave their jobs for whatever reason is that they already took care of the first priority - to survive and thrive, courtesy Google.

Google is a business, and as a business it has the fiduciary duty to serve itself and its interests first.

If these people have any conscience that they claim to have, they need to stop pointing at Google, stop riding in their luxury SUVs, stop eating in insanely expensive restaurants, stop vacationing in luxury resorts, stop purchasing multi million dollar homes, and first go try to serve in the government to change the laws and society in which we all live and abide by.

Stop trying to tell a large corporation to stop doing business and make profits, go change the society in which it operates. Then we will talk.

Enough of the BS.

You dont like working here, move on. Let us have the opportunity to contribute and grow and be successful.

A lot of people on hacker news get threatened by collective action. This is understandable, given the number of employers, wannabe employers and people with large portfolios who frequent this site.

This is kind of why I expected some people to make a big deal out of how this isn't a big deal. Tech unionisation is genuinely threatening to many here and this Google walkout stuff is a potential sign of things to come in this industry.

> Google employees provide a lot more value to Google than they are compensated for.

how? can you justify what makes these people (you) so special? IN all honesty, they are probably overvalued in every sense.

>Absolutely incorrect. Paychecks have nothing to do with whether you as a person find the company's policies palatable or not

You are right because they already made their money and can afford to quit over whatever. Of course it has to do with money. Anyone who thinks otherwise is lying to themselves. If money did not matter, they would have not worked at Google, there are other ways to make the world a better place than add snow effect on photos.

The irony, of course, is that it's a defining feature of some political cohorts to rejoice in getting people fired for things they've said online. I think it's clearly the case that an attempt on one's livelihood is a far more credible violation of "safety" than is, say, public speech on a topic with which you strongly disagree, but it's the latter that's described as such, while the former is often celebrated.

To be fair Google did downgrade their "do not evil" value to "it is possible to conduct business without being evil" but it's fair to be reminded of all the evil they do do that led them to downgrade themselves in their own estimation.