This is one strange company.
Imagine if governments worked like this? Holy hell. This is what Assange should have aimed for instead of getting involved in geopolitical intrigue.
Gitlab considers not hiring SREs and Support Engineers in China and Russia
31–40 of 584 posts
Re: Gitlab considers not hiring SREs and Support Engineers in China and Russia
#32Do they already block Australia, because of the backdoor laws passed a while back?
I suspect this is driven more by surveillance or sabotage risks posed by employee access rather than jurisdictional risks. Australian law is likely to have little impact on what an SRE or support engineer might be able to do. Australia having an established practice of recruiting and placing enterprise surveillance moles would. China and Russia have some history with this latter. Though one might say similarly of the…
Alright, I also thought about Israel and AU at first but this thing is so political
that no way can they include US allies in there because gov wouldn't approve this sort of thing.
To my eye, american companies are becoming more and more like chinese companies in the amount of control governments can extort on them and that is highly troublesome.
Re: Gitlab considers not hiring SREs and Support Engineers in China and Russia
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm surprised we (Australia) aren't already on more of these lists. After having this discussion with my manager and colleagues (the conversation with my manager was in my interview process where I bluntly stated if I was asked to comply with anything from this law, I'd immediately resign, my manager also agreed). Everyone I've spoken to agreed we'd immediately resign since it was the only potential option to protect…
> I'd immediately resign You are assuming that is actually an option. There is nothing to suggest the current Australian government would not prevent you from resigning until the task had been completed. This is the same government currently attempting to make it illegal to boycott businesses that are damaging to the environment.
They don't have legal authority to prevent you from resigning.
Also, the proposed anti-boycott rules have been widely criticized as unconstitutional, unworkable and ludicrously against the conservatives free speech pronouncements. Unlikely they would get support from Senate cross bench.
Re: Gitlab considers not hiring SREs and Support Engineers in China and Russia
#34While I acknowledge the pragmatic approach taken by the company to protect their user's data, I am curious as to how this will play out over time. Factors such as longer term travel or working vacations to these countries by their employees?
Or, What about if one of their employees is married (or wants to get married) to a legal resident of one of these countries? How far removed does the employee have to be from this risk? And how much of an impact on their (and their family's) civil liberties could this have?
Re: Gitlab considers not hiring SREs and Support Engineers in China and Russia
#35Do they already block Australia, because of the backdoor laws passed a while back?
They can't. It seems that the only way to do this would be if AU and US wasn't close allies and the US gov sanctioned it.
Re: Gitlab considers not hiring SREs and Support Engineers in China and Russia
#36I'm shocked (in a positive way) about the amount of transparency Gitlab provides. Even as a reader, it almost feels as if someone misconfigured the ACLs or I'm reading leaked internal documents, not an intentional decision to make this open. Some of the discussions seem highly sensitive, and yet it seems to work for them. Thank you, Gitlab, for being so open! I've learned a lot about compliance from just reading this…
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Re: Gitlab considers not hiring SREs and Support Engineers in China and Russia
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I'd immediately resign You are assuming that is actually an option. There is nothing to suggest the current Australian government would not prevent you from resigning until the task had been completed. This is the same government currently attempting to make it illegal to boycott businesses that are damaging to the environment.
They don't have legal authority to prevent you from resigning. Also, the proposed anti-boycott rules have been widely criticized as unconstitutional, unworkable and ludicrously against the conservatives free speech pronouncements. Unlikely they would get support from Senate cross bench.
They could compel your employer not to accept the resignation before the correct procedures are done and you have completed the task.
Re: Gitlab considers not hiring SREs and Support Engineers in China and Russia
#38I'm shocked (in a positive way) about the amount of transparency Gitlab provides. Even as a reader, it almost feels as if someone misconfigured the ACLs or I'm reading leaked internal documents, not an intentional decision to make this open. Some of the discussions seem highly sensitive, and yet it seems to work for them. Thank you, Gitlab, for being so open! I've learned a lot about compliance from just reading this…
Thanks! We try to be transparent by default and even when it is difficult. I think the OP is a good example of something that is hard to be transparent about because the decision isn't obvious and it takes discussion to come to the best conclusion.
I just read your CEO page section about flaws and how to engage you about your flaws. On the topic of transparency, I'm curious if this has been working. Do people feel comfortable bringing them up? Is it helping you improve?
I'm eager to find ways to be a more transparent person at work. I want to eliminate "politics" and "games" where possible and for work to be Wysiwyg.
Re: Gitlab considers not hiring SREs and Support Engineers in China and Russia
#39Super ignorant question that I'm sure has an obvious answer because nobody else is asking:
How is this not a form of Japanese internment camps? Russia and China are a problem so we block Russian and Chinese citizens? Also, wouldn't I just have my Russian agents living and working in Sweden or Canada or something?
Re: Gitlab considers not hiring SREs and Support Engineers in China and Russia
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
I appreciate that Gitlab discusses this in open, the only real disappointment that it's so one sided.
How is it one sided. They are actively providing info on a third party website. Others can weigh in if they choose. That's up to them Although they will probably choose to hack them instead
I meant from the US perspective, Gitlab seems to have a few remote workers that aren't Americans, but still...