“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
Hundreds of Facebook employees walk out as Zuckerberg plans town hall tomorrow
11–20 of 241 posts
Re: Hundreds of Facebook employees walk out as Zuckerberg plans town hall tomorrow
#12Walkouts will achieve nothing, but the tragic part of the story is Silicon Valley engineers are sitting on a massive amount of power to affect real change IF they collectively organize, which they have various irrational hang ups about doing. Zuckerberg does not care if 50% of his engineers skip a video meeting. He would greatly care if he found out 50%+ of his SREs were going on strike. But the word union is stigmat…
So we should hand over control and censorship of the President's communications to a small group of Silicon Valley engineers?
Do you really think — if Facebook and Twitter hypothetically decided to ban him — that the President of the United States would have trouble getting a message out?
Re: Hundreds of Facebook employees walk out as Zuckerberg plans town hall tomorrow
#13Note that this so-called walkout consists of people already at home taking a personal day and changing their autoreply email.
They actually don't have to take a personal day - they get a day off work paid by facebook as a regular day. They can go on strike from home, set their auto-reply, and not even have to use vacation time.
Re: Hundreds of Facebook employees walk out as Zuckerberg plans town hall tomorrow
#14Walkouts will achieve nothing, but the tragic part of the story is Silicon Valley engineers are sitting on a massive amount of power to affect real change IF they collectively organize, which they have various irrational hang ups about doing. Zuckerberg does not care if 50% of his engineers skip a video meeting. He would greatly care if he found out 50%+ of his SREs were going on strike. But the word union is stigmat…
Some of us have been in unionized industries prior. It also lead to promotion based on years served. Pay scales. And the protection of low performers. Right now engineers have incredible leverage. What do they gain by a union. Don’t like what Facebook is doing. Quit and work elsewhere. There’s plenty of jobs available
> Right now engineers have incredible leverage.
If the engineers’ leverage is so great, why have they been unable to enact policies they support?
Re: Hundreds of Facebook employees walk out as Zuckerberg plans town hall tomorrow
#15Walkouts will achieve nothing, but the tragic part of the story is Silicon Valley engineers are sitting on a massive amount of power to affect real change IF they collectively organize, which they have various irrational hang ups about doing. Zuckerberg does not care if 50% of his engineers skip a video meeting. He would greatly care if he found out 50%+ of his SREs were going on strike. But the word union is stigmat…
We're in this situation because of police unions. Fuck any SWE union. It'll be full of xenophobic crackpots.
Re: Hundreds of Facebook employees walk out as Zuckerberg plans town hall tomorrow
#16Earlier quoted context omitted.
Some of us have been in unionized industries prior. It also lead to promotion based on years served. Pay scales. And the protection of low performers. Right now engineers have incredible leverage. What do they gain by a union. Don’t like what Facebook is doing. Quit and work elsewhere. There’s plenty of jobs available
> Right now engineers have incredible leverage. If the engineers’ leverage is so great, why have they been unable to enact policies they support?
Why can they make hundreds of thousands in total compensation?
Re: Hundreds of Facebook employees walk out as Zuckerberg plans town hall tomorrow
#17The real protest will be to quit unless one genuinely thinks they can make a change in the ideology of a company (so somebody in upper management or with some pull). If you are a senior or lower engineer, I don't imagine this has any effect on anything. Just look on "who's hiring" every month here. Lots of local companies (and many remote) that pay good salaries and work towards great goals. If somebody disagrees with facebook's ideals, there is no shortage of jobs out there for them to apply for that pay well and have a net positive effect on the world (as far as I can tell, I could be wrong about some of these companies).
Re: Hundreds of Facebook employees walk out as Zuckerberg plans town hall tomorrow
#18Journalists are quoting Trump's statement as newsworthy. Everyone knows what he said. What's the point of censoring it ineffectually?
Re: Hundreds of Facebook employees walk out as Zuckerberg plans town hall tomorrow
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
Some of us have been in unionized industries prior. It also lead to promotion based on years served. Pay scales. And the protection of low performers. Right now engineers have incredible leverage. What do they gain by a union. Don’t like what Facebook is doing. Quit and work elsewhere. There’s plenty of jobs available
> Right now engineers have incredible leverage. If the engineers’ leverage is so great, why have they been unable to enact policies they support?
Policies that engineers in general truly support are rare. Many engineers - I suspect the majority - just don't feel that strongly about most causes.
Re: Hundreds of Facebook employees walk out as Zuckerberg plans town hall tomorrow
#20Walkouts will achieve nothing, but the tragic part of the story is Silicon Valley engineers are sitting on a massive amount of power to affect real change IF they collectively organize, which they have various irrational hang ups about doing. Zuckerberg does not care if 50% of his engineers skip a video meeting. He would greatly care if he found out 50%+ of his SREs were going on strike. But the word union is stigmat…
1. It's my understanding that doctors and lawyers have professional organizations, which aren't really the same thing as a union. 2. Unions and professional organizations, and really all organizations intended to consolidate power for one group over another, have both good points and bad. Obviously, unions have played an important role in improving worker safety and security, and that's great. But they've also contri…
> 1. It's my understanding that doctors and lawyers have professional organizations, which aren't really the same thing as a union.
False. Professional organization give licensure. The union represents those who have licenses and or work for an agency where majority of those license holders work.
> 2. ...Obviously, unions have played an important role in improving worker safety and security, and that's great. But they've also contributed negatively in some ways...
You can add a "not having a union" in that sentence and flip those contradictory sentences and they still don't mean anything. It's not about not wishing to organize. It's about coming up with a few set goals that the union can represent. Then the members vote on what else is there that is important to majority of the members. Unions work like a democracy. There's some shortcomings but the overall outcome is beneficial to the people being represented.