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Fired by Google for creating the Google workspace CLI

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Re: Fired by Google for creating the Google workspace CLI

#61

Post by freedomben »

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.

Really sorry to hear about this. It's so ironic because your tool is something that made G workspace so much more useful to me personally and was a deciding factor in which calendar project I used. Getting fired for making a product more useful to customers is quite ironic.

Thank you for your work on the tool! Paired with a claude skill I wrote around it, it saves me a ton of time creating a logseq meeting note page for important meetings.

I wish you the best of luck landing somewhere that appreciates you a lot more than G did.

Re: Fired by Google for creating the Google workspace CLI

#62

Post by throwaway23597 »

echoangle wrote: post #53

Interesting that people here seem so sympathetic to the fired guy. Wouldn’t you kind of expect to be fired if you release a project under your employers name that’s not even associated with them and hasn’t been cleared? Working for them actually makes it worse because people could look up your name and would see that you actually work for google. It’s kind of obvious that this is a bad idea, right?

I tend to agree with you here. This is the equivalent of that scene in Better Call Saul where Jimmy makes a commercial without getting sign-off from the partners. It doesn't matter whether the thing worked - this is essentially a mutiny from the product roadmap.

Re: Fired by Google for creating the Google workspace CLI

#63

Post by trollbridge »

tonfa wrote: post #48
lern_too_spel wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know many people at Google who have been waiting to get laid off to get better terms than they would from just quitting. Now they know what to do.

People don't typically get a nice severance package if they're fired for violating company policy. (edit: not saying that was the case here, working on devrel usually makes it part of your job to publish code)

Firings like this often include a technically voluntary separation agreement that gives you a few extra weeks' pay or some additional months of health benefits etc. precisely to avoid that problem. (Also gets them out of paying unemployment, and means they can get a fresh set of NDAs/nondisparagement etc. signed with the employee.)

I would never fire an employee unilaterally, especially over something like this, when there's valuable IP at stake and you can just talk the person into agreeing to sign over whatever it is you need.

Re: Fired by Google for creating the Google workspace CLI

#64

Post by trollbridge »

jkaplowitz wrote: post #28
alberth wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

> does Google have strict procedures (and approvals) before launching a product? I worked at Google in the past, most recently ending in early 2015, and can confirm that the answer to this question was yes when I was there - presumably still the case today with different details. I have no idea whether the procedures were followed in this case, nor do I have any other inside information on this story, nor am I speaki…

It was certainly the case for me back circa... I can barely remember, 2008/2009?

Everyone just launched tools internally, although it was pretty easy to get approval to launch something externally, although most people didn't bother. The environment back then had tons of internal tools all over the place.

Re: Fired by Google for creating the Google workspace CLI

#65

Post by ktm5j »

xnx wrote: post #40

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.

Yeah that's kind of the impression that I had.. should have ran it past his superiors. Hope he learns something from this instead of deflecting like he seems to be doing.

Re: Fired by Google for creating the Google workspace CLI

#66

Post by toomuchtodo »

lokar wrote: post #27
notfromhere wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

its what happens when a company runs out of ideas and is mostly run by people with MBAs. Good ideas are now risky because it steps on the toes of someone's fiefdom

There have always been lots of ideas. The issue is the management consultants and finance took over.

They’ve been GE’d.

Re: Fired by Google for creating the Google workspace CLI

#67

Post by dmazzoni »

nickv wrote: post #3

Yikes. I see Justin posted this, and I'm sure he can't say much - but this is an absolutely insane story. Google has gone from encouraging 20% time (to create amazing projects like this) to firing people for doing it. There seems to be some true maliciousness going on at Google. You have this, you have the open source Gemini CLI getting replaced with a shittier closed source Antigravity CLI, etc... etc... What is goi…

When has 20% projects ever been about bypassing every launch process and just posting your product publicly?

Google may be a big bureaucracy now, but launch approvals and processes are there for a reason.

Re: Fired by Google for creating the Google workspace CLI

#68

Post by trollbridge »

jasonlotito wrote: post #19
shevy-java wrote: post #8

> getting grilled by legal about why the Google logo and brand colors are on the Google Workspace GitHub code repositories. > I think the cause was that Workspace and certain leaders (and projects) were afraid of being disrupted. I normally don't defend Google - this pure Evil should not exist. Degoogling is a holy act. But it is also kind of silly to create a project, attach Google logo etc... to it while working at…

> But it is also kind of silly to create a project, attach Google logo etc... to it while working at Google. Nah. Fuck Google. Reasonable humans would talk to him, fix it, and move on. They don't need you carrying an ounce of water.

Yeah, the reasonable thing here is a stern talking-to about company policies, and then leveraging this thing to get more goodwill in the community about AI, which is an area Google is currently lacking in.

Re: Fired by Google for creating the Google workspace CLI

#69

Post by OJFord »

dekhn wrote: post #15
OJFord wrote: post #11

I don't get it – you called the GitHub org 'googleworkspace' and used the Google logo? Presumably without permission? Don't Googlers regularly open-source side projects under the official org(s)? Did you really think this was going to be fine, or was it 'growth hacking' with tougher consequences than expected?

I believe it's an official or semi-official Google github org. Typically at Google there is some process you are supposed to follow when opensourcing your code, and a repo like this exists specifically to get more people to use the API. The CLI still exists at the repo and the repo still has the Google branding, so it's 99% certain this is a Google repo. If you do an end-run around the normal open source publishing y…

Ah ok, that makes a lot more sense. Makes it a lot less clear why he was fired, but his side as told makes more sense at least!

Re: Fired by Google for creating the Google workspace CLI

#70

Post by 827a »

IMO: If the project leverages Google branding or authority improperly, then it shouldn't be on github and should not be under active development by Google employees; yet it is. If Google is suddenly alright with the way the project leveraged Google branding and authority, then the cause for firing the original developer, especially given Google's famously lax stance toward 20% projects and internal open source, is a lot weaker. In other words: Healthy companies do not fire individuals simply for breaching branding guidelines in a way that is ultimately beneficial and looked favorably upon by the company. That's literally just not a thing that happens; at worst you get a reprimand, and in many healthy companies you'd actually get a promotion.

So, something does not add up. It might be the story of the person fired. It might also be on the other side; that our external impression on what's been going on inside of Google needs to be re-adjusted, and this company will be a lot weaker in ten years than I would have originally estimated.

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