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Google parts with Cloud VP over his manifesto renouncing his antisemitism

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Re: Google parts with Cloud VP over his manifesto renouncing his antisemitism

#31

Post by mbg721 »

dogorman wrote: post #15

"When you surround an army, leave an outlet free. Do not press a desperate foe too hard." -Sun Tzu You should allow your opposition to at least believe they have an alternative to digging in and fighting you to the bitter end. Even if you have no intention of allowing them to escape or surrender, you should let them believe it's still possible.

When you surround an anthill, you can just stomp on it, though. Corporate political correctness is built on the perceived certainty of being so far on the winning side of history that any other point of view isn't worth considering.

Re: Google parts with Cloud VP over his manifesto renouncing his antisemitism

#32

Post by asah »

Like many large organizations, Google condone controversial material expressions of individualism, without approval by PR/legal/HR (which are granted only when it benefits the organization, and typically with carefully sanitized scripts). At Google, this has been true for 15+ years and is not new.

If you look at the top brass at any large org, they all subjugate their individualism to focus on reinforcing carefully crafted PR/legal sound bites.

Re: Google parts with Cloud VP over his manifesto renouncing his antisemitism

#33

Post by esens »

This is a fact of life for Israelis and surrounding Arab countries. I am unsure why we pretend that these negative sentiments about each other do not exist -- they are incredibly widespread in these populations.

Unfortunately in the countries around Israel with whom they have had wars, there is significant anti-Semitism: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3136059.stm

And in Israel there is significant anti-Arab sentiment, which rose significantly as a result of Palestinian terrorist attacks in the early 2000s: https://www.timesofisrael.com/poll-shows-large-swaths-of-isr...

Re: Google parts with Cloud VP over his manifesto renouncing his antisemitism

#34

Post by nbvxhnvc »

mfer wrote: post #13

If we look at things in terms of positive and negative reinforcement this has some interesting consequences. So, he admitted to antisemitism in the past and shared how he has grown or is growing past it. This kind of admission by him has the ability to challenge other and positively reinforce others who are in a similar situation to him. That _positive_ reinforcement for change away from antisemitism. He was pushed o…

His manifesto is a self-congratulatory virtue signal that does more to show off his prejudices that still exist and which he demonstrates zero self awareness of, so it's no surprise that it backfired.

These kinds of manifestos/confessionals on LinkedIn are so completely inappropriate. There's no reason this guy needed to ever publicly say anything on this topic no matter his intentions real or perceived, and it is absolutely predictably that he stepped in it.

Re: Google parts with Cloud VP over his manifesto renouncing his antisemitism

#35

Post by nnnnnnhfcc »

brodouevencode wrote: post #27
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #21

We definitely don’t have the full story in situations like this. Google can’t and won’t provide their side of the story because it’s internal company HR business. Meanwhile, the employee can and will use LinkedIn to shape the narrative in a way that is beneficial to their reputation. Is the LinkedIn post renouncing their anti-semitism a spontaneous act that triggered the firing? Or were they internally in trouble wit…

You may not be wrong (to your point, no one knows), but is such a cynical approach beneficial?

It's cynical to support the firing of an executive that admits to the worst sort of extreme racism publicly as a misguided attempt to build his own brand? Lol

Re: Google parts with Cloud VP over his manifesto renouncing his antisemitism

#36

Post by SQueeeeeL »

brodouevencode wrote: post #27
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #21

We definitely don’t have the full story in situations like this. Google can’t and won’t provide their side of the story because it’s internal company HR business. Meanwhile, the employee can and will use LinkedIn to shape the narrative in a way that is beneficial to their reputation. Is the LinkedIn post renouncing their anti-semitism a spontaneous act that triggered the firing? Or were they internally in trouble wit…

You may not be wrong (to your point, no one knows), but is such a cynical approach beneficial?

It's extremely beneficial to avoid uproar and having your emotions manipulated. Knowing when someone may be taking advantage of an absence of information helps you focus on real issues and not manufactured ones

Re: Google parts with Cloud VP over his manifesto renouncing his antisemitism

#37

Post by GVIrish »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #21

We definitely don’t have the full story in situations like this. Google can’t and won’t provide their side of the story because it’s internal company HR business. Meanwhile, the employee can and will use LinkedIn to shape the narrative in a way that is beneficial to their reputation. Is the LinkedIn post renouncing their anti-semitism a spontaneous act that triggered the firing? Or were they internally in trouble wit…

Yeah I would be careful about drawing conclusions and assigning blame in this situation because it's hard to know all the factors leading to his dismissal. At the least, it sounds like there were problems with his leadership for months before this:

> Employees who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation, said the frustration with Awadallah’s leadership style had been building for months, leading up to this week’s all-hands meeting, where employees confronted him about their discomfort with his manifesto, working with him and the leadership attrition of his reporting leaders.

At the very least, if your job is dev relations you've got to be somewhat adept at how to communicate publicly. It sounds like his manifesto didn't hit the mark.

And I'd have to question why he decided to do that in the first place? Did something force his hand? I feel like many people have had the experience of growing out of past prejudices but posting a manifesto about it is not something I've seen too often, certainly not in the workplace.

Re: Google parts with Cloud VP over his manifesto renouncing his antisemitism

#38

Post by arkitaip »

csours wrote: post #4

I understand that this is embarrassing to Google any way they handle it, but surely this is the worst thing to do? To me, this is the work, the hard part of inclusion. Understanding that people are not always perfect and sometimes very flawed.

This is the easy solution, just fire the guy and go back to being a Happy Corporate Family.

But then again, he seems to be lacking in leadership skills if he keeps getting "misunderstood" regarding his manifesto.

Protip: your VPs should never write any kind of manifesto involving jews in any shape or form. Stick to banal business management tropes like anyone else.

Re: Google parts with Cloud VP over his manifesto renouncing his antisemitism

#39

Post by [deleted] »

esens wrote: post #33

This is a fact of life for Israelis and surrounding Arab countries. I am unsure why we pretend that these negative sentiments about each other do not exist -- they are incredibly widespread in these populations. Unfortunately in the countries around Israel with whom they have had wars, there is significant anti-Semitism: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3136059.stm And in Israel there is significant anti-Arab s…

[deleted]

Re: Google parts with Cloud VP over his manifesto renouncing his antisemitism

#40

Post by asdfasgasdgasdg »

brodouevencode wrote: post #27
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #21

We definitely don’t have the full story in situations like this. Google can’t and won’t provide their side of the story because it’s internal company HR business. Meanwhile, the employee can and will use LinkedIn to shape the narrative in a way that is beneficial to their reputation. Is the LinkedIn post renouncing their anti-semitism a spontaneous act that triggered the firing? Or were they internally in trouble wit…

You may not be wrong (to your point, no one knows), but is such a cynical approach beneficial?

Cynical? It seems like a measured and realistic approach to me. There's no upside in getting riled up when there's every reason to believe you are missing important context.
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