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Why I'm Forced to Say Farewell: Google Management Has Lost Its Moral Compass

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Re: Why I'm Forced to Say Farewell: Google Management Has Lost Its Moral Compass

#81

Post by madrox »

localhoster wrote: post #33

Not that I care in particular But claiming that google lost it's "moral compass" just now is a claim only rich people can make because they retire, not quit. Google is literally the largest, most organized, tracking and profiling company in the world. Which they tend to grow even larger with the rise of LLMs. Turning a blind eye of that for the opportunity or whatever, and than claim that _just now_ they lost their m…

I tend to agree. My first reaction to this post was to check the date, because I would have assumed this had been published around 2014.

Google's moral compass was gone long before this man even joined. That doesn't make them particularly evil, but they have joined the ranks of ordinary, publicly traded corporations.

Re: Why I'm Forced to Say Farewell: Google Management Has Lost Its Moral Compass

#83

Post by paulryanrogers »

raffael_de wrote: post #32
spiralcoaster wrote: post #22

[flagged]

there are plenty of people who are financially independent but who don't choose to follow their moral compass.

I think the implication is that their moral compass was disregarded or non-existent until they gained their independence. Therefore not worthy of serious consideration.

People who don't ever consider or speak of morals or ethics are beside the point.

Re: Why I'm Forced to Say Farewell: Google Management Has Lost Its Moral Compass

#84

Post by rayiner »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #18
ashleyn wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Considering they rolled back DEI along with everyone else after Trump's second victory, it's difficult to view those previous "values" as anything other than cynical kissing-up to the previous holders of power.

It’s the cost of buying goodwill and lower regulatory burden from the administration in power at the time of implementation. DEI? Non DEI? Like an umbrella, just depends on the weather, its business as usual regardless.

I agree with your broader point, but DEI versus no DEI is a bad example. That's not an example of companies sucking up to the preferred policies of whatever administration is in power. Instead, they are responding to decisive legal decisions. There is a clear legal principle at issue: the civil rights laws are symmetric as to race. The Supreme Court held that in SFFA in 2023, and again in Ames in 2025 (which was a 9-0 decision). Most "DEI" programs create unacceptable legal exposure because they involve literature or practices as to white people that would be held up as evidence of racial discrimination in a Title VII lawsuit if the races were switched.

Re: Why I'm Forced to Say Farewell: Google Management Has Lost Its Moral Compass

#86

Post by harry8 »

Google's entire "do no evil" bring your own identity to the job and all of that was pure marketing to hire better engineering talent.

Instead of monetising software sales, they monetised access to Free software performing an end run around the GPL by distributing access to it over the internet allowing them to make the public good proprietary google property. They threw out some crumbs at best.

Remember the un-publicised puzzles to paradoxically get media attention, hiring highschool kids with a demo that made the news because it made the news and all the rest of the BS. I guess it worked. Now they're big and bad and the Free software optimism is largely dead so they don't have to bother and now make killbots for the Pentagon.

Where else you gonna work? Go test the market, nerd.

Re: Why I'm Forced to Say Farewell: Google Management Has Lost Its Moral Compass

#87

Post by inlined »

hsuduebc2 wrote: post #80
hiddencost wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You really haven't ever encountered someone who believed in anything, have you?

I mean, it is quite obvious for years that Google is now classical immoral tech corporation, which now means current administration servant. They changed their code of conduct in 2018 along with they “Don’t be evil” to “Do the right thing” because world is not "black and white". This obvious shift into moral ambiguity with then changed code of conduct should signal the shift in policy. Eight years ago. Not even menti…

I think it can at least be said they are amoral not immoral. It’s a very low bar, but still

Re: Why I'm Forced to Say Farewell: Google Management Has Lost Its Moral Compass

#88

Post by [deleted] »

rayiner wrote: post #55
ashleyn wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Considering they rolled back DEI along with everyone else after Trump's second victory, it's difficult to view those previous "values" as anything other than cynical kissing-up to the previous holders of power.

> Considering they rolled back DEI along with everyone else after Trump's second victory, it's difficult to view those previous "values" as anything other than cynical kissing-up to the previous holders of power. The previous policies simply reflected the culture of employees and HR managers that had graduated from universities that openly practiced race-conscious admissions after Grutter v. Bollinger . The change in…

[deleted]

Re: Why I'm Forced to Say Farewell: Google Management Has Lost Its Moral Compass

#89

Post by Jensson »

danpalmer wrote: post #77
socalgal2 wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like you're responding to incorrect summaries? He was not intolerant of woman in the workplace. His memo was specifically in support of women in the workplace. https://web.archive.org/web/20170813080340/https://www.theat...

No, I read the memo. What I was not doing is taking him at his word that he "values diversity and inclusion", I was reading his actual words and the sexist dogwhistles. Stating acceptance does not absolve other intolerance. We must also look at the effect of his memo, which was to alienate many, and which caused a backlash that led to his firing. The company did not make a big deal of it just to fire him, it was indi…

Google did fire a lot of people when this happened on both sides, seems like they were just tired about the whole thing and wanted political fights out of the company. Damore since he started it, and anyone that got too upset about it and said things they shouldn't have was also fired, as were the people who got too upset about those that got upset.

Re: Why I'm Forced to Say Farewell: Google Management Has Lost Its Moral Compass

#90

Post by [deleted] »

[deleted] wrote: post #88
rayiner wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Considering they rolled back DEI along with everyone else after Trump's second victory, it's difficult to view those previous "values" as anything other than cynical kissing-up to the previous holders of power. The previous policies simply reflected the culture of employees and HR managers that had graduated from universities that openly practiced race-conscious admissions after Grutter v. Bollinger . The change in…

[deleted]

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