Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Fired by Google for creating the Google workspace CLI

twitter.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 472 posts

Re: Fired by Google for creating the Google workspace CLI

#31

Post by manwithopinions »

arjie wrote: post #14

The concerns seem to be primarily around trademark and logos? Unless there's more to it, those seem trivial to remedy by requiring removal of logos and renaming in the style of Clawdbot -> Moltbot -> OpenClaw. Google is well-known to be pretty sparing with firing people even for performance, so either this is a change in stance (entirely possible) or there's more to it.

I think that’s a good instinct but this line…

“I think the cause was that Workspace and certain leaders (and projects) were afraid of being disrupted.”

Suggests that there is much more to it. I suspect it’s actually about disregarding Google’s internal processes (which is forgivable) and then demanding to work unilaterally (unforgivable). The amount of positive feedback may have given the author too much confidence that he could dictate to leadership what comes next.

A Google Workspace CLI is a useful project idea but it isn’t groundbreaking, it’s something that the Google Workspace team should be involved in. I suspect he just wanted go steamroll over them. Shipping stuff in a team is never about just producing the code.

Re: Fired by Google for creating the Google workspace CLI

#33

Post by tracerbulletx »

dang wrote: post #21
_doctor_love wrote: post #7

[flagged]

Can we please focus on thoughtful conversation instead of importing the worst comments from other forums*? Not to judge the feeling you express - I'm sure we can all relate. But as an HN comment it's pretty well guaranteed to turn the thread away from good places. (* I suppose I'm more sensitive about this since the episode I wrote about here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48427800 ("in one case I saw"))

Agreed. You've probably noticed this too, but I think 90% of the very dumb, mean spirited, and inflammatory things I see are from someone purporting to dunk on it, or refute it, or tell us how it made them mad. Its probably the main mechanism by which is spreads. I think a lot of people do it organically, but I also think coordinated marketing campaigns will intentionally post things as if they're in opposition because its such an effective mechanism of spreading it. TLDR rage bait is bad don't fall for it!

Re: Fired by Google for creating the Google workspace CLI

#34

Post by cs702 »

Looks like a textbook example of Pournelle's Iron Law of Bureaucracy.[a]

People like the OP, Justin Poehnelt, who build cool things out of self-motivation that others find interesting and want to use, are now at the mercy of those inside Google who care more about the company's internal bureaucracy and their own role and importance within it. To them, the fact that the OP's project was an instant github hit meant nothing.

--

EDIT: Others here are saying that Justin released his code with Google's branding without asking for approval. If that's true, it wasn't right of him, and his firing was justifiable. See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48650310 and https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48650192

---

[a] https://jerrypournelle.com/reports/jerryp/iron.html

Re: Fired by Google for creating the Google workspace CLI

#35

Post by Tomte »

alberth wrote: post #25
justinwp wrote: post #2

I am not going to share much more than what I already have, but I think this speaks to the experience of working in big tech and the disruption caused by AI both at the level of teams/roadmaps/incentives and changing user behavior.

Sorry to hear your story. Since I’ve never work at FAANG, does Google have strict procedures (and approvals) before launching a product? And if so, did this go through that process?

Their process is a well-known template other organizations look at when creating their own:

https://opensource.google/documentation/reference/releasing

Re: Fired by Google for creating the Google workspace CLI

#36

Post by outside1234 »

firefax wrote: post #23

So... they fired him for doing a 20% time project? I'm glad I don't have any of their stock to sell, what terrible management.

20% time project != able to just launch it YOLO style

I suspect the core issue here is that he launched it with Google logos without following any sort of process

Re: Fired by Google for creating the Google workspace CLI

#37

Post by justinwp »

anon84873628 wrote: post #29
justinwp wrote: post #2

I am not going to share much more than what I already have, but I think this speaks to the experience of working in big tech and the disruption caused by AI both at the level of teams/roadmaps/incentives and changing user behavior.

It would help if you clarify whether you followed the OSS release process guidelines, which are very clearly documented. "Fired for making a thing" is different from "fired for not following the rules".

To clarify, I was on the Google Workspace Developer Relations team, the majority of my work was that exact OSS release process. It is not clearly documented and always changing. You can read some of it here, https://opensource.google/documentation/reference/releasing/..., but like I said it is always changing. Relevant: https://www.theregister.com/software/2023/01/27/what-is-goog...

Re: Fired by Google for creating the Google workspace CLI

#38

Post by collabs »

cynicalkane wrote: post #18
arjie wrote: post #14

The concerns seem to be primarily around trademark and logos? Unless there's more to it, those seem trivial to remedy by requiring removal of logos and renaming in the style of Clawdbot -> Moltbot -> OpenClaw. Google is well-known to be pretty sparing with firing people even for performance, so either this is a change in stance (entirely possible) or there's more to it.

For over the last >1 year, Google has been dismissing people without warning or cause. The days where it was nearly impossible to be fired are over; now you might be severed by surprise for no given reason at all.

Anecdotally speaking, I have seen a change in behavior even from early 2024. I was in a meeting (online) with a few people from Google shortly before Google IO about something fairly small. The technical engineer actually spoke(!) and he talked about revenue and stuff. I was dumbfounded that technical engineers at Google would ever care about "moving the needle".

Re: Fired by Google for creating the Google workspace CLI

#40

Post by xnx »

Yikes. The lack of judgement involved in personally releasing something that could be confused for an official release (I was confused) by your employer is someone who has huge wildcard risk in the future. I would expect significant disciplinary action if they didn't follow procedure, and termination if they were directly warned at any point.
Post reply on HN