5 ms·
Some Google managers maintain personal blacklists
- la6470 9y agoWe all know that men and women are different but under no circumstances can you club a large section of population and say they are inferior in some respect ... hitler did it with the Jews, whites did it to the blacks , Japanese did it to the Chinese and history is rife with extreme examples of the Dangers of generalization of a large section of population. Our job as human civilization is to evolve positively and to survive by dispersion of empathy - not by corroding it every day and making a certain section feel weak and vulnerable. No matter what your point of view is there is no doubt the author of the article had touched a raw nerve deliberately which he could have easily avoided. Therefor Google is right to fire him and the majority is absolutely within their rights to condemn him.
- wolco 9y agoThe company culture is really starting to fall apart. I wouldn't be surprised to see internal changes structurally to teams. Managers should manage but not be able to pick their team.
- ariwilson 9y agoA junior employee publishes a memo, it gets leaked, there is a media shitstorm because anything one Google employee does reflects on the entire company. Now all of a sudden the culture is falling apart? Managers certainly should have influence on who is on their teams but obviously not absolute control.
- yuhong 9y agoI remember michaelochurch talking about closed allocation for a while now.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- Simon_says 9y agoI haven't thought about him in a long time. I miss him. HN is lessened by his absence.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- wolco 9y agoThe reaction from the new director who started in June sets a tone, the firing sets a tone and the managers who are using their power to blacklist employees sets a tone. These events are changing the culture and image of what it means to work at google.
- nkuln 9y agoSome people maintain personal blacklists.
- meitham 9y agoAs long as they don't upgrade them to "kill list" then that's fine!
- ZenPsycho 9y ago"some groups of people are just biologically inferior" is not a political disagreement and it is deliberately misleading to label it as such.
- StanislavPetrov 9y agoExcept what he said was "some people are just biologically different". Its not a political statement, its a statement a fact. It is indisputable that different people have different hard-wired genetic predispositions. Its incredibly Orwellian and another sign of our societal decay that people not only deny this simple truth, but consider it as so utterly offensive that it cannot be discussed or considered. As much as you would like the universe to be a truly egalitarian place where we are all born with the same skills, abilities, and aptitude - that's not the universe we live in.
- hoppa_liza 9y agoIn the context of hiring why is this even brought up? You have a certain skillset needed for a certain job. Some people have it, some people do not. Why is there a need for attributing this to their genes, upbringing, psychology or anything else for that matter?
- CountSessine 9y agoExactly - why the diversity initiatives? Or was that not the point you were making?
- Simon_says 9y agoExactly. That was the thrust of James Damore’s argument.
- ZenPsycho 9y agoit is not a political statement or a statement of fact. the very strong implications you are making are clear statement of supremecist ideology, which is an idea so toxic that it should be shut down wherever it is seen. it is not orwellian to shut this down, and it is a sad indictment of our current culture that it only took around 70 years for us to collectively forget the lessons of WWII, and to begin again peddling these eugenics ideas as mere differences of opinion
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- maruhan2 9y agoSo people don't like working with some people. That's surprising because?
- trendia 9y agoSuppose you decide not to hire someone. That might be OK. What if a coworker recommends not hiring them because they don't like the person? Again, that's probably OK. But now consider if you read a list created by various people, many of whom you've never met. The person you want to hire is on the list. You neither have the full feason the person is on the list nor the personal relationship with the perso who added the name to the list. Unlike in the previous cases, names can be added for no reason other than a personal vendetta or a political disagreement unrelated to work performance. And that's why blacklists are far more than jist "not liking to work with some people". You can't know whether you like working with that person if you don't even know why theu're on the list or if the person who added them is lying. From the worker's perspective, they get into an argument one day with a supervisor, get fired, and suddenly can't find work at any company they apply for. That's a chilling effect.
- TheAdamAndChe 9y agoI see what you're saying, but if in one interview someone is throwing a million red flags that show they are not and likely will never be fit to working there, then why not make the blacklist to ensure they don't interview again and fake their way through it?
- novembermike 9y agoEmployee gets sexually harassed by manager, tries to retaliate but can't prove anything. S/he leaves the team, but now they can't find any work in town because the manager put them on the blacklist.
- xxSparkleSxx 9y agoBut what if that person is black? And they don't want to work with you because your black? Or insert trait here_____ Woman Gay Right-wing Omnivore Muslim
- b3lvedere 9y ago"A Google spokesperson told Inc. that the practice of keeping blacklists is not condoned by upper management, and that Google employees who discriminate against members of protected classes will be terminated." Yikes! Actually terminated. Grammar jokes aside.. they can't really choose to not protect the protected classes eh? But everyone has their blacklists, whitelists, etc. No rocket science.
- huac 9y agoThese unconscious biases make it even more important that 'members of protected classes' join management, rather than people with discriminatory beliefs.
- LocalH 9y agoThat assumes that 'members of protected classes' cannot also hold 'discriminatory beliefs'. I dont believe the two are mutually exclusive.
- samfisher83 9y agoWell that is just the law. You can get in a lot of trouble for discriminating.
- pottersbasilisk 9y agoPersonal blacklists are a great way to get your company sued.