271–280 of 295 posts
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 minoriti…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Sure "it's a business" but does that give it a green card to act how it pleases? of course, yes! As long as it stays within the boundaries set by the law. Do you not act as you please? Do you not eat a $40 meal while a homeless person is lying outside in the cold? DO you not send your kid to a private school at $100k/year while the kid down the street (down the highway) struggles for school supplies? > So please, s…
You're telling me to accept the status quo and be fine with it. That's telling me how to behave. The company is just an entity that needs to follow the set of guidelines set by people living in that society.
Go change the guidelines. No need to tell anyone anything at that point.
* Worked at Google / FB / blah startup for long enough to put some serious $$ away
* Don't care about working becasue see above
* Pick a fight / select a topic that is niche enough to wrote a blog post about
* Quit (cough , retire,) young and afford to live luxuriously
* Stop working becasue now you are too lazy to give a shit about anything
* Bitch about how everyone attacks you
* Get a shitty rating in perf review becasue you stopped giving a shit
* Whine and whine
* Get a shitty rating again * Quit and make scene about how they were victimized
Here is a thought, * Quit
* thank the gods and Google for making you rich
* live life and relax
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Techies work in a seller's market (as evidenced by the comparatively huge salaries they command). There is definitely no "over supply of labor". One of Google's biggest assets is their huge army of talented techies. I'd go so far as to say losing that would be an existential threat to the business.
Comparative to what? Big tech companies are wildly profitable for their owners. Techies make a lot of money compared to other professions because we genuinely produce a disproportionate amount of value, but that doesn't imply we're in a seller's market. One way you can tell that there's no dearth of labor is that most companies round an "unsure" in the interview process to "no," not "yes."
I sugggest you ask a non-tech friend about their experience getting a new job: how many applications they've sent out, how many responses they've received and how many interviews they've actually been to. Then compare that to a software dev's hit rates.
I submit to you that a halfway decent software dev will have a hard time being unemployed: they might not get hired by FAANG and they might have to code in $LANGUAGE_I_HATE, but they'll be able to get a job at a reasonable salary.
Also, consider the fact that there's been a large number of businesses focused on recruitment specifically in the tech area. That's because everyone wants to hire devs and they're willing to pay recruiters to channel the funnel their way.
Few other industries have that luxury.
The oil and gas industry is essential to the well being of billions of people. It's literally the fuel for the world’s economy. Without it we would have substantially less food, travel would be all but impossible, and the technology sector would grind to a halt. Eliminating the industry would cause harm on a scale the world has never seen. An entirely predictable and preventable catastrophe done in the name of a naiv…
Your analysis isn't entirely incorrect, but you're kind of missing the point. Oil and gas companies one day were necessary and provided more value than destruction (as far as we knew). At this point though, it's clear that oil and gas will one day be a thing of the past, and these massive industries are desperately trying to cling on in the face of this. Evidence of this is present in the lobbying efforts funded to t…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Sure "it's a business" but does that give it a green card to act how it pleases? of course, yes! As long as it stays within the boundaries set by the law. Do you not act as you please? Do you not eat a $40 meal while a homeless person is lying outside in the cold? DO you not send your kid to a private school at $100k/year while the kid down the street (down the highway) struggles for school supplies? > So please, s…
You're telling me to accept the status quo and be fine with it. That's telling me how to behave. The company is just an entity that needs to follow the set of guidelines set by people living in that society.
Those guidelines are the laws. We elect congress and a president who passes laws, and what those are comes back to us.
Within those laws, we have capitalism. If company A goes beyond that, and company B doesn't, guess who survives?
Pressuring an employer to act outside of those bounds isn't helpful. What is helpful is realigning incentive structures at a system level. Radical proposals -- like eliminating NDAs, mandating open source for firmware, right-to-repair, and so on -- feel oppressive when one looks through the lens of private right to contract. When one looks at a systemic level, they result in much greater freedom for everyone.
Most executives would like to be good, but they're between a rock and a hard place, and walk a thin line. Laws are what determine where that line is.
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 minoriti…
Consider what happens if everyone who has a moral complaint about their employer immediately quits rather than staying around and attempting to chase the complaint up the management hierarchy and/or educate and organize other employees to voice the complaint. I think utilizing one's power as a worker and aligning other workers to increase workers' power is far from hypocritical. It's a great way (perhaps the only rel…
Holocaust would not happen. Modernity and the Holocaust by Z. Bauman should be obligatory read for corporate workers.
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 minoriti…
Consider what happens if everyone who has a moral complaint about their employer immediately quits rather than staying around and attempting to chase the complaint up the management hierarchy and/or educate and organize other employees to voice the complaint. I think utilizing one's power as a worker and aligning other workers to increase workers' power is far from hypocritical. It's a great way (perhaps the only rel…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This comment breaks the site guideline against insinuations of astroturfing on HN. Please read https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and stick to the rules when posting here. Please also note the bit about not using this site for ideological battle.
Good to know. Weird rule to have though.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Consider what happens if everyone who has a moral complaint about their employer immediately quits rather than staying around and attempting to chase the complaint up the management hierarchy and/or educate and organize other employees to voice the complaint. I think utilizing one's power as a worker and aligning other workers to increase workers' power is far from hypocritical. It's a great way (perhaps the only rel…
> Consider what happens if everyone who has a moral complaint about their employer immediately quits This is in fact the quickest way to ensure that this behavior immediately stops