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That's all well and good, but I'm sure many of these "decisions" are of dubious legality and really morally reprehensible. When hearing that an employee has a p

by xigency 11y ago

That's all well and good, but I'm sure many of these "decisions" are of dubious legality and really morally reprehensible. When hearing that an employee has a pregnancy, an expectant child, or an illness, the answer should never be to consider termination... The Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA) forbids discrimination based on pregnancy when it comes to any aspect of employment, including hiring, firing, pay, job assignments, promotions, layoff, training, fringe benefits, such as leave and health insurance, and any other term or condition of employment. Completely illegal.

ChuckMcM 11y ago
And, sadly, completely irrelevant. Any organization as large as Google can, and does, construct nearly litigation proof ways to eliminate folks they don't want working for them. They are particularly careful around people who might fall under a protected group, but if you read the original comment it was "PIP or quit". PIP, short of Performance Improvement Plan, is a document between you manager and you which describes what you must do to maintain your job. It can be simple (like come to work reliably every work day for 180 days) it can be complex (enable the delivery of complex project X through co-ordination with people involved in the project), and if you are on your way out, it is unlikely you will satisfactorily meet the required remediation. So good in theory, not really useful in practice. Sometimes a useful tool for enhancing your severance package. And you have to think about fighting to stay employed at a company that is kicking you to the curb because you're pregnant. What else might they do? It does push people closer to unionizing though, and that is becoming a bigger threat for tech companies than it was due to shennanigans like this.
- xigency 11y ago
  That sort of assignment still falls under the broad umbrella of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (job assignments and other conditions of employment). As others have said, no one sane person wants to jump into a legal fight, but that does not mean that any sort of treatment like this is not expressly illegal. An organization as large as Google... can violate as many laws as they wish to. That does not mean that they should not suffer gravely for it.

by xigency 11y ago

ChuckMcM 11y ago

And, sadly, completely irrelevant. Any organization as large as Google can, and does, construct nearly litigation proof ways to eliminate folks they don't want working for them. They are particularly careful around people who might fall under a protected group, but if you read the original comment it was "PIP or quit". PIP, short of Performance Improvement Plan, is a document between you manager and you which describes what you must do to maintain your job. It can be simple (like come to work reliably every work day for 180 days) it can be complex (enable the delivery of complex project X through co-ordination with people involved in the project), and if you are on your way out, it is unlikely you will satisfactorily meet the required remediation. So good in theory, not really useful in practice. Sometimes a useful tool for enhancing your severance package. And you have to think about fighting to stay employed at a company that is kicking you to the curb because you're pregnant. What else might they do? It does push people closer to unionizing though, and that is becoming a bigger threat for tech companies than it was due to shennanigans like this.

xigency 11y ago
That sort of assignment still falls under the broad umbrella of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (job assignments and other conditions of employment). As others have said, no one sane person wants to jump into a legal fight, but that does not mean that any sort of treatment like this is not expressly illegal. An organization as large as Google... can violate as many laws as they wish to. That does not mean that they should not suffer gravely for it.