Earlier quoted context omitted.
They disagree with the direction the company is going so they ... quit? They apply at some other company comparable to Google, uproot their family, move across country, and get a job somewhere else? I don't blame the engineers one bit. I certainly don't expect the poor engineer that had to implement the cookie changes to refuse and quit his job over it.
Yes. That’s how values work. You VALUE them, meaning—objectively—you are willing to make some sacrifice for them. Same goes for working for a predatory financial institution, a manufacturer who makes dangerous products, or for that matter, a company with a toxic culture. How is this different from working for a tobacco company? Decades ago we had the same conversation about people who ”were just following orders.” If…
>If you take the engineer off the hook because “they can’t change things,”
He never said this, and in my reading is not trying to say this. What I read him trying to say is:
"Quitting is not the only way to handle the problem."
Or the harsher:
"The solution is not to run away from the problems."
More or less the equivalent of:
"If the US is going downhill, the solution isn't to run away from the country, but work to fix it"
As an engineer you're part of the company. And putting a recent unfortunate case aside, Google is relatively open to engineers voicing their opinions. If you're fatalistic or meek, sure, you can leave. But that's the weakest of all options.