You have to be careful with the line of reasoning that just because these certain managers and team members are part of a cult that is known to engage in bad acts, doesn’t mean you can cast the group’s shortcomings upon the individuals (without proof). If that were the case, I can point out a few mainstream religions that condone reprehensible practices, many of whose members you probably work with daily
A religious sect landed Google in a lawsuit
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Re: A religious sect landed Google in a lawsuit
#282Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not really... I love to bash Google as much as anyone but a religious cult within a department within a massive corporation doesn't really mean much about the company as a whole. Especially when you could pretty clearly see the difference between cult's teachings and the public stances for women's rights and for same-sex marriages that many Google employees have taken.
A modern religious ethnographer would distinguish between NRMs (new religious movements) and the minority thereof that are actually criminal, coercive, etc., as the term "cult" has come to imply. That said, NRMs aren't always free of toxicity. Pyramid schemes and actual cults often target them, exploiting a high-trust network of people considered to be gullible. The typical corporate "cult"--I don't think Google is a…
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Re: A religious sect landed Google in a lawsuit
#283Not really sure what the big deal is. Did the cult hurt this fellow? Abuse him? Discriminate against him? Mob him? No. The article really just talks about his own disapproval of the cult. It wasn't his business what these people got up to, frankly.
Did you read the article? They're funneling company funds into the cult. It's literally embezzlement.
First, questioning whether someone read the article is against the guidelines. Please don't do that.
Secondly, according to the article, "everyone" at Google knew, and he was a contractor. Once he raised his concerns, he did his duty. At that point, it's Google's business, and it's up to them to do something about it. Or not, if they'd rather. Maybe management liked their work and so looked past the "embezzlement", but would have to do something if this guy kept making a stink. Or some other scenario.
Re: A religious sect landed Google in a lawsuit
#284So, if the author was fired for the reasons they believe, that's pretty bad behavior. But if he had not been fired, what was management supposed to have done about the cult members working for this department? Yes, the cult's leader sounds like a pretty awful person, but he wasn't working there. What were the cult members doing in their work in the department that was clearly wrong? It's suggested that there was favo…
At minimum Google could have investigated the odd clustering of employees that indicated some sort of nepotistic hiring practice. Of course they might be doing exactly that, but it's not the sort of thing they can really comment on. Edit: also the self-dealing on hundreds of thousands of dollars in wine.
That is what DEI boards are for. Stamping out these natural clusters that form via social networks
Re: A religious sect landed Google in a lawsuit
#285Not really sure what the big deal is. Did the cult hurt this fellow? Abuse him? Discriminate against him? Mob him? No. The article really just talks about his own disapproval of the cult. It wasn't his business what these people got up to, frankly.
Did you read the article? They're funneling company funds into the cult. It's literally embezzlement.
> It's literally embezzlement
No. What's been alleged (steering alcohol purchase contracts to their own winery) is unethical and potentially illegal, but embezzlement is a very different type of theft.
Re: A religious sect landed Google in a lawsuit
#286Earlier quoted context omitted.
> they didn’t cover their tracks very well anyways ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I mean they actually told him where they were from (geographically, if not organizationally), so clearly they didn't consider it something that needed to be secret. Which is interesting, because it gives us insight into their way of thinking [1]. They clearly don't consider themselves to be in any way toxic like the author thinks they are. Cults are interes…
Jesus Christ dude, they're led by a man who routinely sexually assaults people. Being permissive about that is pretty damning. Kooky beliefs are one thing, but cults combine those with oppressive social structures. It's not that hard unless you're stuck in the middle of one with all it's filtering.
The similarities keep piling up! Google was co-founded by Sergey Brin, who insisted it was okay to screw his employees in the company massage room because "they're my employees".
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/07/valley-of-genius-exc...
Re: A religious sect landed Google in a lawsuit
#287Earlier quoted context omitted.
So, like Tesla and SpaceX.
Actually interested - are there multiple allegations against EM other than the recently reported horse-for-handjob offer?
Only one accusation:
https://www.dailyadvent.com/news/45a9223a5a878bd90c386109e55...
There are also consistent allegations of an abusive culture at both SpaceX and Tesla:
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jul/05/tesla-sex...
https://www.businessinsider.com/former-spacex-engineer-inter...
https://www.theverge.com/2021/12/14/22835181/tesla-lawsuit-s...
Re: A religious sect landed Google in a lawsuit
#288Not going as far to say "anyone currently at Google is morally compromised" - but anyone who knows about this, and stays is ... not somebody who I'd want to associate with. Or hire for that matter.
Not sure how black and white you'd have to see the world to immediately lump 150k Alphabet employees into the evil bucket due to a dozen people whom most of those employees never knew about or met.
Re: A religious sect landed Google in a lawsuit
#289Favoritism is rampant in some teams at Google, but it's harder to detect when you are not hiring your fellow cult friends.
Unconscious bias hiring training is there for a reason, but there are many situations when the bias is conscious.
But it's clear that some directors/managers have overly favoured their race/caste/people from their hometown/area.
Re: A religious sect landed Google in a lawsuit
#290So, if the author was fired for the reasons they believe, that's pretty bad behavior. But if he had not been fired, what was management supposed to have done about the cult members working for this department? Yes, the cult's leader sounds like a pretty awful person, but he wasn't working there. What were the cult members doing in their work in the department that was clearly wrong? It's suggested that there was favo…
At minimum Google could have investigated the odd clustering of employees that indicated some sort of nepotistic hiring practice. Of course they might be doing exactly that, but it's not the sort of thing they can really comment on. Edit: also the self-dealing on hundreds of thousands of dollars in wine.
Well if you expand that to a more generic "employees shouldn't be involved in hiring people who they know and associate with outside of work" then they'd have to fire half the company.