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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

#361

Post by saghm »

zipy124 wrote: post #321
tlogan wrote: post #278

I never worked for Google, but I do have fairly extensive experience with these kinds of situations. From that perspective, I assume there has to be more to the story for it to lead to a firing. In general, when a talented employee (like OP) does something like this, the response is usually something like: “We appreciate and love your initiative, and we want to encourage you to keep doing this kind of work. However,…

Given their manager was the one who announced their project I'm leaning closer to Google handling this badly? Which is understandable in an organisation so large tbh. Sometimes things are done badly, no one is perfect, especially not large organisations.

It's amazing how quickly so much of this thread is people vehemently arguing that this person deserved to be fired for not following proper procedures, but when it's the company not following proper procedures for literally firing someone (which is a way more egregious thing to screw up than publishing some code that can easily be deleted, not that Google apparently has bothered to do that yet), there's so much room for patience and understanding because "nobody's perfect".

We're in a pretty messed up place in society if we hold individual people to this much of higher bar than a multi-trillion dollar company

Re: Fired by Google for creating the Google workspace CLI

#362

Post by bArray »

qmarchi wrote: post #168
cdata wrote: post #131

I'm noticing a few commenters who work (worked?) at Google (inferred from comment history) who are critical of this person's actions. First: you ought to disclose that information when commenting on a topic that relates in some way to your financial incentives. Second: when I worked at Google under Chrome it was very common for individuals and teams to publish projects to open source repositories under Google-managed…

Former Googler here, and one that has open-sourced projects while working in Cloud. This is certainly not the case in other product areas and for specifically for something that uses the Google name. If I was expected to go through a full IARC committee in order to get my little Discord bot open sourced under my own account, something that uses the Google name would likely have to get IARC + Legal approvals, along wi…

> This is certainly not the case in other product areas and for specifically for something that uses the Google name.

Sure, but it's a slap on the wrists. It seems like an extreme reaction.

> The OP also notes that they had a competing product in the process of development when they "launched" theirs, likely leading to significant internal confusion, and is something that would've been caught during a review.

Again, they could have just asked them to retire theirs in favour of the official one. Rather than be a problem, it could have been an opportunity.

Re: Fired by Google for creating the Google workspace CLI

#364

Post by fooqux »

ashdksnndck wrote: post #247
bonsai_bar wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it so extreme? If you work at Google, there's a very clear policy for doing any outside "work" (volunteering, an open source side project, a business, being on a board, etc.): if it's related to your day-to-day work and/or related to Google's business (which virtually anything software is), you need to fill out a disclosure form and get a go-ahead from legal. Obviously a Google Workspace CLI is related to Google.…

It seems like the guy believed he was just doing his job for Google, not moonlighting? He released the project on Google’s own GitHub. It seems more like he misunderstood the necessary steps before making that release.

Exactly my thoughts. This reads to me like a case of the right hand not knowing what the left is doing, and a scape goat being jettisoned to save face afterwards.

The repo wasn't even taken down.

Re: Fired by Google for creating the Google workspace CLI

#365

Post by tomaytotomato »

AJRF wrote: post #316
antonvs wrote: post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apparently LinkedIn doesn’t stop you from adding Google or any other company to your employment history. Go for it!

I'm gonna do it! A dream come true!

Why stop there?

I am considering adding Bell Labs, Xerox and Skunkworks Lockheed Martin to my work experience

Re: Fired by Google for creating the Google workspace CLI

#366

Post by burakemir »

whstl wrote: post #302
no-name-here wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. If google said ok but don't release under google’s name/in google’s repo, do that. 2. If google said no this goes against our goals for the product, don't release it if you want to keep working for google?

It was clearly greenlighted by management. The person who made the announcement was Addy Osmani, who was manager of the fired developer at the time. This is in a Google-owned organization, with several other similar repositories, a lot of them using the same API.

Looks like Addy Osmani is leaving, too.

Re: Fired by Google for creating the Google workspace CLI

#367

Post by jfoster »

echoangle wrote: post #105
chaostheory wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ofcourse. This is HN and not LinkedIn. We have a lot more people here who like bending rules as opposed to following them.

You’re supposed to bend stupid rules but the one bent here is kind of important. I couldn’t trust an employee that does this, so I wouldn’t want to continue to employ them.

In this case it seems like a bit of coaching could have retained a talented employee who has a preference for taking initiative.

I have a hunch that the order of the day within big tech is to let go of anyone they can. As long as they provide a reason, it's one less headcount that needs to be laid off in the next round.

Re: Fired by Google for creating the Google workspace CLI

#368

Post by neya »

LoganDark wrote: post #350
neya wrote: post #336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Siri recordings are only ever stored to improve Siri. Apple does not share personal data or recordings with advertisers. There was a lawsuit based on coincidence alone. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/jul/26/apple-con... Apple told the Guardian: “A small portion of Siri requests are analysed to improve Siri and dictation. User requests are not associated with the user’s Apple ID. Siri responses are anal…

How does that disprove anything I said? > That's what they told you to believe. Every other manufacturer also had smartphones with batteries at the time and they were not doing this FYI. That was just marketing speak by Apple. Please stop citing marketing speak. So? Apple could just be the only vendor that cares enough about older devices in the wild to ensure they continue to function properly. Keep in mind that thi…

> How does that disprove anything I said?

>> Siri recordings are only ever stored to improve Siri. Apple does not share personal data or recordings with advertisers. There was a lawsuit based on coincidence alone.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/jul/26/apple-con...

Re: Fired by Google for creating the Google workspace CLI

#370

Post by romanovcode »

assimpleaspossi wrote: post #363

Couldn't this just be an "Oops! Sorry. I didn't know." and rename it? I don't know why it couldn't be that simple instead of dropping the hammer by firing.

This is how these things usually play out. Unless OP was being difficult and defending his position that he did nothing wrong.
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