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Google fires employee who protested Israel tech event, shuts forum

cnbc.com

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Re: Google fires employee who protested Israel tech event, shuts forum

#111

Post by aaomidi »

When I was at Google, Google was systematically silencing Arabs and Palestinians. They had brought in a specific team to comb through memegen and silence any pro-Palestinian (literally pro the people, while anti Hamas) messaging.

While I was there, multiple Googlers actively reached out to me and other Arabs and asked them "Do you support Hamas?" These also weren't just low-level employees either. I had these experiences from software developers all the way to managers and HR people.

These employees that did that are still employed at Google despite the complaints. Multiple Arab and Palestianian coworkers of mine have also left Google since then.

Re: Google fires employee who protested Israel tech event, shuts forum

#112

Post by Workaccount2 »

mise_en_place wrote: post #22

My old manager put it best: No politics and religion in the workplace. Seriously, it's as simple as that. We are here to work, not philosophize about politics and current events.

Google dug itself into a hole where they hired a bunch of DEI folks when it was trendy, but now that that turned out to be just another psuedo-religion, they are trapped in a religious mire.

It's like hiring a bunch of Christians because the "Jesus loves you" PR angle was hot at the time, and now almost a decade later your company struggles to acknowledge the existence of gay people. Don't hire ideologues, especially en masse.

The faster google can get these people out the door, the better. Focus on the tech, not social issues.

Re: Google fires employee who protested Israel tech event, shuts forum

#113

Post by sanderjd »

hayst4ck wrote: post #21
siva7 wrote: post #2

> Google fired an employee who disrupted an Israel executive’s conference keynote this week, CNBC has learned. Rightfully so. Name me the big tech company who wouldn't fire such an employee instantly.

This is why we need tech unions. We should be able to take an ethical stance without getting fired.

Honest question: Is this a common function of a union? For instance, I don't seem to recall hearing much about auto-workers taking ethical stances and being protected from termination by their union. But it's also not something I've paid much attention to, so maybe this is indeed something unions do. I'm genuinely curious.

Re: Google fires employee who protested Israel tech event, shuts forum

#114

Post by duxup »

rs_rs_rs_rs_rs wrote: post #88
duxup wrote: post #34

I'm all for some good old civil disobedience as far as every day choices go in the outside world. However, I also think if you're employed somewhere there are reasonable expectations as far as workplace behavior goes that would prohibit the same "protest" or "civil disobedience" type behavior. It is interesting that the protestor immediately declares that they don't wan to work for such a company. It sorta begs the q…

[flagged]

I'm thinking someone does some sit in at city hall or such. Things along those lines.

Some folks do a sit in one day, they make themselves heard, there ya go.

There are of course limits.

Re: Google fires employee who protested Israel tech event, shuts forum

#115

Post by anon-sre-srm »

dekhn wrote: post #7
blueflow wrote: post #5

Why is employee dissent such a problem in google and not a problem in other companies?

because the company pitched itself as "socially responsible" and attracted a large number of people who believed they could work there and change the world to look like what they wanted it, and then google sort of changed directions for business purposes that aren't compatible.

[flagged]

Re: Google fires employee who protested Israel tech event, shuts forum

#116

Post by ivan_gammel »

hayst4ck wrote: post #21
siva7 wrote: post #2

> Google fired an employee who disrupted an Israel executive’s conference keynote this week, CNBC has learned. Rightfully so. Name me the big tech company who wouldn't fire such an employee instantly.

This is why we need tech unions. We should be able to take an ethical stance without getting fired.

Unions are to defend employees rights, not to defend ethical stance on random topic. For political issues there exists normal democratic process, where you can take your stance to the streets, boycott, vote, be elected etc. You must understand that stable and successful democracy is a sophisticated mix of checks and balances, including what powers are given to unions and worker councils. Give them too much power beyond the original scope and the consequences can be disastrous for society. Imagine pro- and anti-immigrant activists halting operations of a big business and you can do nothing to them, because taking one side will result in the protest from another side. What value does that bring? Don’t they have other venues?

Re: Google fires employee who protested Israel tech event, shuts forum

#117

Post by goethes_kind »

mise_en_place wrote: post #22

My old manager put it best: No politics and religion in the workplace. Seriously, it's as simple as that. We are here to work, not philosophize about politics and current events.

There's politics and then there's writing code that some Israeli fascist might directly plug into a system that will decide which apartment complex to bomb next.

Re: Google fires employee who protested Israel tech event, shuts forum

#118

Post by ghaff »

godelski wrote: post #33

Wouldn't this be expected? He announced himself as a Google employee and this "represented." I do think it is dumb we act as if some random employee acts as a representative for their company, but here we are with all our social media taglines "my views are that of my own and not of my sugar daddy." I'll totally stand by these peoples' rights to make such protests. You gotta ruffle some feathers for what you believe…

I've been acutely aware for a very long time that anything I post on the Internet or say at a conference, whether explicitly public or to people who are all trusted to keep it private (and good luck with that as they repeat it to one or two people), could be attributed to me as a company employee in print. Maybe you get far enough away from your professional context or have a pseudonymous personal social media account but it's pretty risky to believe there is any hard separation between personal and professional sphere. And this is not a new thing.

Re: Google fires employee who protested Israel tech event, shuts forum

#119

Post by surgical_fire »

smashah wrote: post #74

Is there a word for the "If I don't get paid for building a baby-killing-machine someone else will" type of regressive attitude that many self-deluded contrarians exhibit in the tech industry? Many such people would be diligent VW/Mercedes/Tesch and Stabenow/Degesch employees during WW2.

[flagged]

Re: Google fires employee who protested Israel tech event, shuts forum

#120

Post by bluefishinit »

sanderjd wrote: post #113
hayst4ck wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why we need tech unions. We should be able to take an ethical stance without getting fired.

Honest question: Is this a common function of a union? For instance, I don't seem to recall hearing much about auto-workers taking ethical stances and being protected from termination by their union. But it's also not something I've paid much attention to, so maybe this is indeed something unions do. I'm genuinely curious.

The UAW recently called for a ceasefire:

https://uaw.org/uaw-statement-israel-palestine/

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