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Google Employees Explain How They Were Retaliated Against for Reporting Abuse

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Re: Google Employees Explain How They Were Retaliated Against for Reporting Abuse

#71

I hope that Googlers can work toward creating a labor organization that helps them resolve these issues, because in light of all this and after Google HR’s involvement in the wage-fixing scandal, it seems obvious that things are pretty rotten in terms of their internal governance.

That raises some interesting questions about dynamics and alternatives. HR is infamous for their primary role being liability prevention or more crudely stated ass-covering. Do you know of any alternative systems in place to resolve issues? Even if Google wanted to form some sort of employee handled board or arbitration to decide how to handle accusations they would still be liable. And that is ignoring messy office…

Possibly: recognise a union.

Re: Google Employees Explain How They Were Retaliated Against for Reporting Abuse

#72
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you ever want to proceed with legal actions against the company then you have to put it into record somewhere which typically means reporting incidents to HR. Which ultimately leads to getting fired. What else are people supposed to do? It's a shitty unwinnable situation for employees, I've been on the shit end of this stick before at a different tech co for complaining and was retaliated against. It's not fun and…

If only there was some way that employees could create their own organization that can act as an alternative resources to the companies HR department that puts the employees interests ahead if the companies.

If both employees are in the union, it may just be another venue for one side to get railroaded.

Re: Google Employees Explain How They Were Retaliated Against for Reporting Abuse

#73

What came of the employees threatening physical violence against James Damore? Were they fired?

I think a few of them were, I know at least one did.

https://www.cnet.com/news/google-engineer-says-he-was-fired-...

Re: Google Employees Explain How They Were Retaliated Against for Reporting Abuse

#74
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

okay I understand people downvoting me because they don't like what I say but I wish I'd at least get an explanation why I'm constantly being flagged if I'm just stating an unpopular opinion without any trolling, spam, or personal attacks (against other commentators. People here regularly attack article subjects so I assume thats okay).

Taking HN threads further into generic ideological flamewar is against the site guidelines, so downvotes and flags are correct. Would you mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and not doing that anymore? Edit: on closer inspection, this account has been using HN primarily for ideological battle and ignored our requests to stop, so I've banned it. If you don't want to be banned, you're welcom…

I normally don't do specific call outs, but he's been doing this for months now and hasn't shown any attempt to stop. That's why I try to avoid engaging with his posts and just move on.

Re: Google Employees Explain How They Were Retaliated Against for Reporting Abuse

#75
This boycott and these comments are being orchestrated by [redacted]. [redacted] is a transexual activist, and an offender in sexual harassment themselves. I'm posting this on a throwaway for obvious reasons.

I worked at Google from 2010-2014. Over the summer of 2012 or 2013, I joined an Eve Online "Corporation" (guild) with [redacted], and another one of my coworkers. It was a crazy place. [redacted] had a fanatical hatred of "Rape Jokes". Rape was not a joke to [redacted]. Rape was a fantasy that [redacted] was all too happy to describe in great detail. The corporation was "Kink Friendly". I'm embarrassed to say that that was part of the appeal to me - I'm happy to tie my girlfriends up as part of roleplay. [redacted]'s fantasies were a great deal more detailed and a great deal less fantasy oriented than I would like. I left that corporation after a while, though not as quickly as I should have. I was young, I was confused, and based on the success of her "Real Names Considered Harmful" letter, I believed that [redacted] was a credible, accredited leader.

The same coworker who introduced me to [redacted] would, several times, invite me to join them for lunch at "Club Z". I declined - Partially because something seemed off, mostly because I was satisfied with the lunches at Google. I would only later find out that "Club Z" is not a lunch place - It's a (rather infamous) Gay Bathhouse here in Seattle.

While I was in that corp, though, I was sexually assaulted by a former friend. About a year I knew and had considered a friend had some out as bi, and had "Confessed their love" to me... by forcefully kissing me at a party. I was embarrassed, I was not interested, and I made it pretty politely clear, to which they reacted badly. Now they had come out as "trans", and received an outpouring of support from mutual friends. Said friends convinced me to give them another chance. At their urging, I agreed to hang out with this friend, at a "Movie Night". A movie night which no-one else showed to. Said former friend pressured me to try weed, which I had never done before. Okay. Red flag. I was dumb, and I regret it. Said friend offered to show me his "Uncle's" stash of Child Pornography. I already suspected they were a pedo, but, yeah. Should have run right then, was drunk. Said "friend" then tried to force himself on me. I am not bigger, but I am strong, and I forced them off. I was also drunk, and spent several uncomfortable hours waiting to sober up, repeatedly fending off unwanted advances.

Anyway: Being dumb, having listened to too much of the bullshit excuses, I went to the only Trans* person I knew to talk about it. [redacted]. They told me how much I was in the wrong, how important it was for Trans* people to explore their sexuality, and called me a monster for not having responded positively. "What if a biological woman had hit on you?" - The tired old canard was trotted out.

I do not have any direct evidence of wrongdoing by [redacted]. I only know that they hang out with, and are supported by, people who were long overdue for censure. People who were repeatedly able to convince others that they were the victims despite their clear aggression.

Re: Google Employees Explain How They Were Retaliated Against for Reporting Abuse

#76
post #20

HR is not your friend and HR will never be your friend. In a post-2008 world, it baffles me that people still think that somewhere, deep-down, multi-billion dollar conglomerates have employees' best interests at heart. How quickly we forgot people losing their lifelong savings and entire pension funds going bust. Only to have the government bail out the exact same charlatans that dropped the ball in the first place.…

HR as an organization is not your friend. However, the individual you encounter in HR may be more or less favorably inclined towards you. As an example, I suffered a serious health issue and it just so happened that the HR person assigned to my case had gone through the exact same thing. That person was extremely helpful advising me of my rights and how to exercise them.

Organizations are prone to various pathological behaviors, but the individuals in them are still thinking breathing feeling human beings and sometimes they choose to act decently. Be willing to give them that chance.

Re: Google Employees Explain How They Were Retaliated Against for Reporting Abuse

#77
post #20

HR is not your friend and HR will never be your friend. In a post-2008 world, it baffles me that people still think that somewhere, deep-down, multi-billion dollar conglomerates have employees' best interests at heart. How quickly we forgot people losing their lifelong savings and entire pension funds going bust. Only to have the government bail out the exact same charlatans that dropped the ball in the first place.…

There are companies that buck the trend of growth and profits at all cost. None of them are publicly traded.

Re: Google Employees Explain How They Were Retaliated Against for Reporting Abuse

#78

This boycott and these comments are being orchestrated by [redacted]. [redacted] is a transexual activist, and an offender in sexual harassment themselves. I'm posting this on a throwaway for obvious reasons. I worked at Google from 2010-2014. Over the summer of 2012 or 2013, I joined an Eve Online "Corporation" (guild) with [redacted], and another one of my coworkers. It was a crazy place. [redacted] had a fanatical…

If this former friend is still walking the streets please file a police report in regards to the child pornography. I know its difficult to put yourself out there but it needs to be done.

Re: Google Employees Explain How They Were Retaliated Against for Reporting Abuse

#79

This boycott and these comments are being orchestrated by [redacted]. [redacted] is a transexual activist, and an offender in sexual harassment themselves. I'm posting this on a throwaway for obvious reasons. I worked at Google from 2010-2014. Over the summer of 2012 or 2013, I joined an Eve Online "Corporation" (guild) with [redacted], and another one of my coworkers. It was a crazy place. [redacted] had a fanatical…

Not to belittle you but the level of WTF in this comment makes me check out. If you’re serious you could start by gaining some credibility here...

> This boycott and these comments are being orchestrated by [redacted].

Do you have _any_ evidence for this? The comments seem fairly normal HN to me.

Re: Google Employees Explain How They Were Retaliated Against for Reporting Abuse

#80

I don't really know what anyone* can do to address some of these, as unacceptable as the occurrence of these stories are. Reading through the document (linked to by SolaceQuantum), there's one case where someone felt unprotected by HR because they asked HR not to investigate and HR did, and claimed to have fired the person for other HR problems. I'm not sure what HR should have done there. Are they supposed to not at…

> There are other stories where someone claims something that can't be proven and that was either not witnessed, or must have been denied by everyone. Yeah it sucks if everyone on your team is protecting a douche, but... is HR supposed to intervene and fire someone because only one person claims something happened? That's the gist of the #believeallwomen movement. No due process or innocent until proven guilty, just…

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