Margaret Mitchell fired from Google • Hacker News Board

Re: Margaret Mitchell fired from Google

#451

Post by undoware » Sat, Feb 20, 2021, 3:56 AM UTC

kleer001 wrote: post #336

2-tpg wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The political activist collective is slowly falling apart. If you get blamed for racism when firing an employee for telling colleagues not to pursue KPIs, there is not much you can do to continue placating these professional victims. They are now resorting to calling Google gaslighting for replacing Gebru with a Black person. It is low-brow ugly neo-racism, but then again, I don't really want Google AI in charge of A…

> The political activist collective is slowly falling apart. In my heart and heart and dream of dreams, yes I wish that to be true. However my intuition tells me another generation with the same persona will pick up the banner again in a few years.

Dearest ones,

we have only just begun. See you next summer.

Re: Margaret Mitchell fired from Google

#452

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Feb 20, 2021, 3:56 AM UTC

monocasa wrote: post #443

refenestrator wrote: post #435

Earlier quoted context omitted.

She probably should have discussed this plan with her lawyer before exfiltrating the documents.

Who's to say she didn't. Some of the wrongful termination suits I've seen personally lived and died based on if an employee had their own copy of emails. Discovery doesn't always work against an entity that's already behaving illegally.

[deleted]

Re: Margaret Mitchell fired from Google

#453

Post by marricks » Sat, Feb 20, 2021, 3:58 AM UTC

jeffbee wrote: post #414

marricks wrote: post #401

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s pretty cool we can just take Google at it’s word after a 5 week investigation with literally no details coming out. Google also decided to drop this bombshell on a Friday the same day they are announcing a rebranded ethics team. It’s clear they wanted to bury this story and the leaders of the old team. I for one don’t plan to in any way give Google the benefit of the doubt here...

A company, Google included, will not comment on the circumstances of an employee's exit unless provoked. It is uncharacteristic for them to comment at all. If they are willing to go public with any statements, that indicates to me that they feel their reasons are iron-clad.

Or this group was a thorn in their side and thousands of employees are disgusted by their actions and they want to bury this as effectively as possibly.

They don’t need an iron clad case they have millions of dollar to throw at lawyers.

Once again, why should we give them the benefit of the doubt? Why should we ever give multi billion dollar companies the benefit of the doubt?

Re: Margaret Mitchell fired from Google

#454

Post by sn41 » Sat, Feb 20, 2021, 4:00 AM UTC

tired_goog wrote: post #437

sn41 wrote: post #404

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The mandate of the department is ethics. Ethics is not agnostic to one's personal convictions, unlike code. People assume that because someone got fired, they "lost". Another viewpoint is that they retained their ethical integrity at great personal cost - doing so is precisely their actual job.

I’ve seen this bait and switch a couple of times now, but there’s not really any reason to expect a researcher working in an Ethics Research team to only do ethical things, in the same way that you wouldn’t expect someone working on a Truth Team to only do true things. The nominal mandate over her team does not extend as if a veneer to all of her personal actions. It’s just a name. Her team was very specifically enga…

I don't disagree with your frustrations. It is hard for anyone to be accused, including the Google management, of being insensitive when you are acting out of good intentions yet getting lumped with blatant racists. Perhaps there was security violations as well with these documents leaking.

But can't there be an ombudsman mechanism within Google to settle such acrimony before it spills over into the larger public domain? Perhaps there is such a mechanism, I don't know about it. An outright firing seems very high-handed, and this is what dismays people.

Re: Margaret Mitchell fired from Google

#455

Post by bitcharmer » Sat, Feb 20, 2021, 4:01 AM UTC

doe88 wrote: post #395

On friday PM. Classy.

On what day would you do it? If anything, I'd rather be fired on a Friday than any other day.

Re: Margaret Mitchell fired from Google

#456

Post by JamesBarney » Sat, Feb 20, 2021, 4:03 AM UTC

pseudalopex wrote: post #447

JamesBarney wrote: post #413

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You think their job responsibilty was to publically shame their employer? (With private internal documents no less)

What private internal documents did she publish?

> “After conducting a review of this manager’s conduct, we confirmed that there were multiple violations of our code of conduct, as well as of our security policies, which included the exfiltration of confidential business-sensitive documents and private data of other employees.”

I assume this was to release to the press to shame/pressure Google, and wasn't corporate espionage. But what reason do you think she was doing it for?

Re: Margaret Mitchell fired from Google

#457

Post by gmadsen » Sat, Feb 20, 2021, 4:03 AM UTC

spicyramen wrote: post #390

Good riddance, work is work, political agendas outside the office space please.

not sure if you understand this or not, but google is a massive global company dealing with sensitive personal data which makes its work inherently political. They are not manufacturing bolts...

Re: Margaret Mitchell fired from Google

#458

Post by infoseek12 » Sat, Feb 20, 2021, 4:03 AM UTC

duckfang wrote: post #99

At the same time, Google unveiled a "Black owned businesses near me" on Google Maps. How has that been received? We need look no further than Twitter: (the Tl;Dr. racists are using this to lower all ratings of these Black owned businesses) https://twitter.com/dmetaxak/status/1362856231212212224 Google recently added a feature allowing users to search for "Black-owned businesses near you". They're advertising it all o…

I would very much like to know how much testing Google did on the “Black-owned businesses near you” feature. I know they extensively test algorithm changes to their search engine before rolling them out to everyone. It would be really disturbing if they didn’t do due diligence on this feature, to make sure it has a positive impact for businesses using it.

Re: Margaret Mitchell fired from Google

#459

Post by prepend » Sat, Feb 20, 2021, 4:03 AM UTC

ggm wrote: post #335

svnpenn wrote: post #320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is wrong with you? Why do you talk like that? It's like you take a normal sentence, then swap out some random words until it no longer makes sense. It's not cool, it's just weird.

How old are you? I'm 59. In my peer set, this is normal.

I want to learn more about your peer set, this is really curious.

Re: Margaret Mitchell fired from Google

#460

Post by bitcharmer » Sat, Feb 20, 2021, 4:04 AM UTC

just_steve_h wrote: post #363

The white bro tone-deaf circle jerk continues apace! Stunning!

HN crowd doesn't typically promote racist and sexist remarks like yours. That - among other things - is why most of us are here instead of any other social network.

With this kind of input you will find your comments much more appreciated on Twitter.