Google cancels TGIF weekly all-hands meetings • Hacker News Board

Re: Google cancels TGIF weekly all-hands meetings

#511

Post by kanox » Sat, Nov 16, 2019, 2:28 PM UTC

nostrademons wrote: post #37

malvosenior wrote: post #5

I wonder if companies like Google and GitHub that actively courted activists are now regretting their decision. For a long time it was common knowledge that you would try to keep stuff like that out of the workplace. The past 10 years have been an about face to that strategy and now we're seeing more or less complete chaos internally at these previously pro-politics (some kinds of politics) workplaces. My guess is th…

I think it's more that they actively courted assertive people with opinions and then created a culture where you can bring your whole self to work. They did this so that they could get the benefits of creativity, which inherently requires emotional engagement, which requires that you not repress your emotions. (It turns out that it's not possible to selectively repress emotions: "I've got to watch what I say about po…

> actively courted assertive people with opinions

Is that something that companies do on purpose? Because such an environment sounds like absolute hell.

I want to spend my time dealing with technical problems not arguing with people's egos.

Re: Google cancels TGIF weekly all-hands meetings

#512

Post by sys_64738 » Sat, Nov 16, 2019, 2:28 PM UTC

lucasmullens wrote: post #231

sys_64738 wrote: post #149

Ad company cancels all hands meeting. Why is this news?

Because that "ad company" is one of the highest valued companies in the world, and Google's TGIF is something even many people outside of Google are familiar with.

Not sure why you’d put ad company in quotes.

Re: Google cancels TGIF weekly all-hands meetings

#513

Post by tomnj » Sat, Nov 16, 2019, 2:35 PM UTC

gerbler wrote: post #307

joshuamorton wrote: post #285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm still unclear on what the badge for meal thing was, but apparently its come and gone before. It was apparently a thing in 09, went away, came back sometime in like 2013 or 14, went away again, and is now again a requirement (and has been since sometime in 2018). It didn't spell any particular doom either of the other times, and other than some dubious tax related stuff, i'm not sure what the impact is/will be. Se…

The badging for meals is to show to the IRS that it's not a taxable perk. AFAIK it's just something that happens in the US.

Out of curiosity, why wouldn’t that be a taxable perk? (Not that I think tax codes make any sense)

Re: Google cancels TGIF weekly all-hands meetings

#514

Post by pmart123 » Sat, Nov 16, 2019, 2:43 PM UTC

ColanR wrote: post #436

scarmig wrote: post #365

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google throws away obscene amounts of money on non-adtech things. Some of those are pretty interesting and useful for humanity. You can say, well, those don't count, because Google isn't making money from them! But if you take that route, you also have to exclude all the startups working on "interesting" problems that don't and won't make money. You're left with a very small set of companies. I wouldn't be surprised…

Google is an ad company with delusions of grandure. It's nothing more, until it finds a way to turn a profit on its other ventures. (Just like those startups - realistically, until they turn a profit, they're just in the exploratory stage.)

In some ways, they could be not only a driver of innovation, but profit off of it. For instance, the initial idea of spearheading Waymo makes sense to me: self-driving cars lead to more search queries and YouTube video views when someone is in transit. They didn’t need to own this technology though and should have sold most of the equity last year to GM or Ford as the OEMs moved into the space. Verily makes more sense to me, but it’s goal should be specialized cloud infrastructure for healthcare.

Re: Google cancels TGIF weekly all-hands meetings

#515

Post by bborud » Sat, Nov 16, 2019, 2:53 PM UTC

bborud wrote: post #501

40acres wrote: post #64

Sounds like Googlers spoiled the well. I'm not sure exactly why but Google employees always seem to be in the news about something and have leaked conversations that management had with them. In some instances the controversy is warranted (Rubin Payout, etc.) but it must be annoying from a management perspective.

Leaving Google it became clear how extremely entitled the culture was. People lose perspective when embedded in a culture that is permissive about entitlement. Management will always attract its share of assholes, and enablers of assholes. And while I don't mean to excuse behaviors in management that are inexcusable, I think the sense of entitlement and overinflated egos of the rank and file did much to improve compa…

s/did much to improve/did little to improve/

(Not sure why I can't edit the comment)

Re: Google cancels TGIF weekly all-hands meetings

#516

Post by justinclift » Sat, Nov 16, 2019, 2:56 PM UTC

sabas123 wrote: post #496

buzzkillington wrote: post #489

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you value your work little, expect to be paid little. I see no reason why I should get paid less than a CEO, when most of their job is similar to that of a kindergarten teacher.

It also is much more than most politicians and ministers. Especially the latter are typically way more influential imo.

Kickbacks, future speaking appointments (for decades afterwards), etc probably raise the "official" salary for various politicians and ministers.

Re: Google cancels TGIF weekly all-hands meetings

#517

Post by CydeWeys » Sat, Nov 16, 2019, 3:20 PM UTC

buzzkillington wrote: post #464

mav3rick wrote: post #441

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pay is well above average. Regardless of what HN spews, Google foundationally made search and mobile more accessible around the world. I don't know what "great" company you work for but it's hard to top that for impact.

> Pay is well above average Depends on what you mean by average. When I talked to google I was looking at L5 for just over 300k with stock and bonus. In Evil Inc I was making well over over 500k all cash for the same job description.

What's Evil Inc.?

Re: Google cancels TGIF weekly all-hands meetings

#518

Post by CydeWeys » Sat, Nov 16, 2019, 3:28 PM UTC

natecavanaugh wrote: post #491

laughinghan wrote: post #448

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Genuine question: (you're on a throwaway, what's the harm in answering me, right?) What is there to buy into about pronouns? If my first name is Stan, named after my dad also named Stan, and my middle name is Jason, and my dad abandoned my family when I was young so I prefer people to call me Jason, you'd have no problem calling me Jason and be understanding that calling me Stan is a sore point, right? What if I don'…

I think the “buy into” aspect is possibly buying into the importance of it all. In the current climate, it’s a charged issue, because for one side it’s a matter of respect, dignity, and honoring a persons agency, and for the other it’s about coercive speech and toeing closer to coercive thought. And then there’s the the third side that can perhaps see that both sides have valid points, except that none of it matters…

>If words are so empty that they can be bent to call a woman a man, a man a woman

Based on this statement, I don't quite think you understand what being transgender actually is. It's not people asking to be called the opposite gender, it's people asking to be called the gender that they actually are, and have been their entire lives, but who had the vast misfortune of being born into the wrong body. There is not a 1:1 correlation between the body's sex and the mind's sex; usually they match up, but sometimes they don't. Gender dysphoria has severely negative outcomes for mental health and well-being, and no one chooses it willingly.

Re: Google cancels TGIF weekly all-hands meetings

#519

Post by CydeWeys » Sat, Nov 16, 2019, 3:32 PM UTC

fooker wrote: post #466

kccqzy wrote: post #461

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is badging for food even a small issue?

Would you want your employer to know about your exact food habits for years of your life? How about your government? How about your insurance company?

The badging for food thing is because the IRS is coming after tech companies saying that it should be treated as a taxable benefit. It helps to have metrics about how widely used the perk is in arguing that it shouldn't be taxable.

Badging for food doesn't say anything about the evolution of Google's culture over time; it only says that the IRS is now coming after Google.

Re: Google cancels TGIF weekly all-hands meetings

#520

Post by asguy » Sat, Nov 16, 2019, 3:35 PM UTC

seba_dos1 wrote: post #267

DoofusOfDeath wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The GP talked about a diversity of viewpoints , but you're talking about diversity of race and sexual identity. At the very least, most persons don't consider race to be a viewpoint.

It would be a good distinction to make if only "intolerant of my viewpoint" wasn't usually an euphemism for "not letting me being a hateful person".

It would be a good distinction to make if only "not letting me being a hateful person" wasn't usually an euphemism for "saying things you disagree with".

See that symmetry?