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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

#441

Post by Grombobulous »

michaellee8 wrote: post #229
Grombobulous wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And it's not just about open source, it's about the author of this tool using trademarks and effectively impersonating Google. Judging by the screenshot of the repo, I think most people who download this would think that it's official Google software.

tbh i assumed that is an official product too

You know this GitHub account might be more official than I thought? Maybe the problem is more to do with their approval process, which I guess negates a lot of my comments.

Re: Fired by Google for creating the Google workspace CLI

#442

Post by dnfmfnfnfb »

magicalist wrote: post #206
nailer wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s a CLI for Google Workspace. Google Workspace is a genuine Google Product. Edit reply to person below (sorry, rate limit): > Just because you work for Google does not mean you can release products under their name. Releasing open source projects that use company APIs is about 50% of the work of devrel staff. The rest is making content about what you and your customers did/could build.

I mean, the GP is being overdramatic but releasing a vibe coded cli frontend for an official product in a google github org and that uses your google account credentials is a big deal no matter how unofficial you claim it is in the readme.

This is extremely precedented. Google developer relations people do exactly that, all the time. Or at least they used to, all the folks I used to follow have left the company. You’ll find lots of open source projects in Google’s repositories which are just personal tools they built to scratch an itch, but are published under Google‘s name because that’s the preferred approach per their internal legal guidance.

I don’t know if this guy is telling the full story or not, I can see potential aggravating factors, but on the surface it’s a lot more reasonable than you’re letting on

Re: Fired by Google for creating the Google workspace CLI

#443

Post by frollogaston »

tlogan wrote: post #376
saghm wrote: post #360

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> However, this needs to be taken down, and you need to make sure this does not happen again. It's still up now, so it seems like they do not actually think it needs to be taken down

That part is odd, especially the fact that his boss tweeted about it. So there is probably much more to the story. My guess is that this is more of an internal fight, possibly with unwise executive involvement (meaning there were no grown-ups in the room). His team was supposed to develop GWS API samples. And very good samples can become quite sophisticated and start looking almost like an official product.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48654394 claims his boss is leaving too

Re: Fired by Google for creating the Google workspace CLI

#444

Post by msm_ »

Grombobulous wrote: post #228
gerdesj wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would encourage this sort of thing in my company. I'm not google. I'm not legally beholden to anyone except myself and my business partners ... and my own sense (which is worryingly odd!) Google can never be exciting or interesting evermore by design and intent. They dived on in and went "money" full on. They exist to generate revenue for their shareholders. They dumped the "Don't be evil" thing without blushing.

I think your encouragement is admirable but could be interpreted as naive. For one thing, the author of this tool used Google trademarks (the logo) to represent the project. If you are even slightly larger than a mom and pop small business you pretty much have to defend that trademark or else you risk losing it. But, okay, fine, you can just tell them not to use your trademark and have them say it's not an official t…

>Google has over 100,000 employees, which means statistically speaking a few of them have committed or will commit homicide

Nitpick, but the set of people who work at Google is highly non-random. I am pretty sure Google employees are much less likely to confirm homicide - they are older (homicide rates after 24 drop sharply), more educated (strongly inversely correlated with homicide), richer (same), etc.

Re: Fired by Google for creating the Google workspace CLI

#446

Post by fuck_google »

fg137 wrote: post #148

The repo clearly says "This is not an officially supported Google product." So what is this thing? Can anyone rely on it with confidence? Does Google even acknowledge its existence? If it's not officially supported, why is your name, a (former) Google employee, on it?

[dead]

Re: Fired by Google for creating the Google workspace CLI

#447

Post by account42 »

saghm wrote: post #347
usea wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another way to frame that question is: Should we remove the right for people to enter into such contracts?

"Right" is a pretty dubious way of framing it when basically every company works this way. You don't really have any choice in the matter. Passing a law about this wouldn't be removing any rights of individuals any more than we "removed" their right to enter a contract for pay lower than minimum wage or with unsafe working conditions. A more fair way of phrasing it would be to say that we should remove the right of c…

If you wanted you could also require companies to make this an option in the contract, which would it clear how much they are actually willing to pay for restricting peoples freedom outside of work in this way and gives employees the option of deciding if that tradeoff is worth it for them. I think that companies would not be willing to pay all that much for this if they couldn't just force it on everyone.

Re: Fired by Google for creating the Google workspace CLI

#448

Post by msephton »

jrochkind1 wrote: post #437
msephton wrote: post #337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He probably read the twitter thread, it's all in there

I read the twitter thread, don't see any clear information about what the t's and i's even are, or if they were crossed and dotted.

The twitter thread was more than enough for me to understand what has gone on.

Re: Fired by Google for creating the Google workspace CLI

#449

Post by mapkkk »

me-vs-cat wrote: post #390
mapkkk wrote: post #346

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Am I crazy for thinking that an employer should and has no say in whatever the fuck I do outside of work? As long as I'm not messing with company IP, I should be able to do what I want, no? Like, I should be able to even berate my employer, as long as I'm not doing it from a persona that's directly tied to my employer e.g. my real name or git handle etc. They might not like it, but they sure as shit shouldn't be able…

> I should be able to even berate my employer, as long as I'm not doing it from a persona that's directly tied to my employer e.g. my real name or git handle etc. They might not like it, but they sure as shit shouldn't be able to fire me for it. There are many things you should be able to do publicly without repercussion from your employer. However, your example is berating them, and I'm taking that literally: "to cr…

you raise a good point, I was trying to take the example to the logical extreme by specifically using berating. in essence, the example would be the same as whistleblowing (mechanistically speaking)

So one would have to weigh the risks of being let go (and legal consequences if it was indeed whistleblowing) depending on the level of criticism being levied.

Re: Fired by Google for creating the Google workspace CLI

#450

Post by mapkkk »

saghm wrote: post #349
mapkkk wrote: post #346

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Am I crazy for thinking that an employer should and has no say in whatever the fuck I do outside of work? As long as I'm not messing with company IP, I should be able to do what I want, no? Like, I should be able to even berate my employer, as long as I'm not doing it from a persona that's directly tied to my employer e.g. my real name or git handle etc. They might not like it, but they sure as shit shouldn't be able…

I pretty much agree with you in principle. I'm in the US (not in silicon valley but working in software for over a decade). Given my stance on a lot of things though I don't know how much evidence this is that this view isn't "too radical" but my (biased) take is that a lot of good ideas are radical until they aren't, and usually the ones don't ever become mainstream have better counterarguments than anything I've he…

Thank you, I appreciate you sharing your views on this.

Coincidentally, I've only recently learned of the Overton Window [0] which describes that the spectrum of acceptable ideas in a society is subject to shift.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overton_window>

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