What happens when you talk about salaries at Google • Hacker News Board

Re: What happens when you talk about salaries at Google

#211

Post by emodendroket » Tue, Jul 21, 2015, 2:04 PM UTC

StevePerkins wrote: post #41

yc1010 wrote: post #3

Can someone please tl.dr this First we had articles spread over dozens of pages for the laugh, now we have articles split into 160char segments, grrrrrr

TL;DR - Google operates in a parallel universe called "California", where employees can share each other's salaries on a company-wide shared spreadsheet without getting fired. Not only did Google NOT fire anybody for it, they haven't even removed the spreadsheet from their own internal network. They simply refused to approve some $150 "peer-recognition" bonuses, meant to reward the employee for creating the spreadshe…

Shrugging and saying that companies blatantly violating labor law is predictable is a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Re: What happens when you talk about salaries at Google

#212

Post by fleitz » Tue, Jul 21, 2015, 2:05 PM UTC

Where is the data? Or at least a summation of it? What was the discrepancy? Was it adjusted for experience?

Re: What happens when you talk about salaries at Google

#213

Post by fixxer » Tue, Jul 21, 2015, 2:06 PM UTC

chasing wrote: post #171

This is not journalism. Do not treat it as such. Molly McHugh and Wired need to reach out to this woman and ask a few questions. They need to reach out to Google and ask a few questions. Otherwise, this information is just a shade better than useless. There's a lot of detail missing in these tweets. There's a lot of handwaving where the audience is essentially invited to fill in the blanks with whatever stereotypes -…

How do you define journalism? Obviously, this isn't an article, but it is information and I found it entertaining. True, only a single point of view... shall we call it Gonzo? If you compiled all those tweets into a paragraph, it wouldn't require substantial edits to generate smooth prose.

Re: What happens when you talk about salaries at Google

#214

Post by vonmoltke » Tue, Jul 21, 2015, 2:06 PM UTC

aaronem wrote: post #157

raisedbyninjas wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a fuck off comment because the manager asked an open-ended question and tweeter bluntly retorted that retaliation is illegal. The manager could be ascertaining the awareness and intent behind stirring up this substantial turmoil. It would be polite to give the manager the benefit of doubt until threats are actually made.

It would be polite for the manager not to allude to threats which would be unlawful to make outright. Where else do you see something like "Don't you know what could happen?" going in a situation like that? And let's be clear here. There is absolutely no downside to the sharing of salary information from the employee's perspective, and absolutely no upside to same from the perspective of management. So when it comes…

> absolutely no upside to same from the perspective of management

Are you asserting that 95%+ of companies in the US have, and sometimes enforce, a policy that actively hurts them? I know companies do stupid shit from time to time, but you are basically saying salary confidentiality policies are some sort of mass MBA psychosis. After all, if there is "absolutely no upside" to management, why do we need labor laws to prohibit these policies in the first place?

Edit: So, I totally mis-parsed that statement. I thought you were stating there was no upside to management prohibiting salary discussions.

Re: What happens when you talk about salaries at Google

#215

Post by icedchai » Tue, Jul 21, 2015, 2:06 PM UTC

This is nice and all, but where is a link to the actual spreadsheet?

Re: What happens when you talk about salaries at Google

#216

Post by seattle_spring » Tue, Jul 21, 2015, 2:07 PM UTC

littletimmy wrote: post #50

It is important that things like this come out into the open. When the typical doe-eyed college senior steps into the real world and is tempted to drink Eric Schmidt's kool-aid about changing the world (and how the honor of working at Google offsets the lower wage), such disclosures will help him understand that Google is just another money-making corporation. No more, no less.

Can you elaborate on what you mean by "offsetting the lower wage?" Isn't Google pretty well known as being one of the top paying tech companies?

Re: What happens when you talk about salaries at Google

#217

Post by fixxer » Tue, Jul 21, 2015, 2:07 PM UTC

billyhoffman wrote: post #208

chasing wrote: post #171

This is not journalism. Do not treat it as such. Molly McHugh and Wired need to reach out to this woman and ask a few questions. They need to reach out to Google and ask a few questions. Otherwise, this information is just a shade better than useless. There's a lot of detail missing in these tweets. There's a lot of handwaving where the audience is essentially invited to fill in the blanks with whatever stereotypes -…

Reposting tweets is not valid journalism. For that matter, including tweets from random people in reaction to a news event is also not valid journalism either. I don't care what muffycat1974 on Twitter has to say about the Iran nuclear deal, unless muffycat1974 is the Secretary of State.

By that same token, who cares what "billyhoffman" has to say?

Re: What happens when you talk about salaries at Google

#218

Post by tantalor » Tue, Jul 21, 2015, 2:08 PM UTC

GFK_of_xmaspast wrote: post #195

sergiotapia wrote: post #89

Other side of the story: https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/3e05wg/what_hap... Either way both are completely unverifiable. Take both with a huge fistful of salt until both parties are interviewed and quoted and research is done into what happened.

"My friend at google" is about as reliable a source as "my uncle who works at Nintendo".

Which is also a really awesome game for those who haven't played it!

http://correlatedcontents.com/?p=1868

Re: What happens when you talk about salaries at Google

#219

Post by Mikushi » Tue, Jul 21, 2015, 2:08 PM UTC

mhluongo wrote: post #91

spinchange wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This post isn't journalism by any stretch of the imagination. It's actually like a perfect caricature of whats wrong with digital publishing. Serious topic on a serious masthead with less than amateur treatment.

Someone sharing something on Twitter isn't supposed to be journalism. AFAIK the original author isn't a journalist, she's a technologist who got fed up.

Then why her writing is taken seriously by anyone? This piece at best is an opinion, mostly trash.

Hearsay, rumours, implication, this is professional gossiping. I don't deny the claims she makes, but the form in which she makes them really doesn't help her case, and the form clearly calls to create an online shitstorm.

We should shame publications who use "stories" like these. It's damaging for everyone involved and whatever the subject matter is. I refuse to take seriously what should not be.

Re: What happens when you talk about salaries at Google

#220

Post by vonmoltke » Tue, Jul 21, 2015, 2:08 PM UTC

emodendroket wrote: post #206

codingdave wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is probably exactly what she expected. And if this were a small group politely sharing with each, there likely would not be retaliation. But once you make it "a thing", and are impacting the culture of an organization, then you have stepped into politics. The reactions at that point are going to be exaggerated, and not necessarily relevant to the original topic. I don't like politics, and stories like this are e…

If you don't think there are politics at small orgs you must not have worked for one.

There are politics in every group of humans larger than one. Some just handle it better than others.