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I work at Google, and I am really happy that someone got punished for leaking this memo. A firing like this increases accountability and shows that loyalty and

I work at Google, and I am really happy that someone got punished for leaking this memo. A firing like this increases accountability and shows that loyalty and keeping confidentiality mean something. When it is done fairly and with cause, firing an employee can make a huge positive difference in an organization. The best situation is where a problem employee who was lowering the morale of others is fired.

seldo 16y ago
Wow, that just seems kind of mean. Obviously the notice at the top says otherwise, but there's really nothing very sensitive in this memo and it was so broadly distributed there's no way it wouldn't have found its way out eventually. Why, personally, is your morale lowered by knowing people leak stuff? I just don't see get it.
- nostrademons 16y ago
  Imagine the following hypothetical situations: You come from a working-class family, but through long years of studying hard, you get a job at Google. Your extended family all have blue-collar or service jobs. Your cousin gets laid off, and then reads in the paper that you just got a 10% raise, plus $1000 holiday bonus, plus a portion of your bonus pay up-front. Awkward Thanksgiving ensues. You have a long-time sibling rivalry with your brother, including a game of one-upmanship that extends back to grade school. Finally, you got tired of it, and after his latest raise, you just stopped telling him your salary. Now he hears on CNN that you just got a 10% raise, which leads to much whining about how come you're making more money than him. Awkward Thanksgiving ensues. He goes to his boss and asks for a raise because Google gave one, and his boss replies that he's not worth it, which results in him quitting his job with no plans for what to do next. Awkward Christmas ensues. Your mom calls you because she just heard on the radio that you got a 10% raise and $1000 bonus, and you didn't tell her, and why do you never talk to her anymore? Awkward...oh hell, if your mother is that neurotic, Thanksgiving would probably be awkward anyway. You go out for drinks with your friends from other companies, but since you are now apparently rolling in dough, the expectation is that you're buying. These people probably aren't the type that you'd invite to Thanksgiving anyway. You've been trying to teach your kid about the importance of managing money prudently, and so have restricted their allowance. They come home from school saying, "My friend told me that her daddy said that he heard on the radio that you just got a raise, but you said that you didn't have money to give me a raise. I hate you forever." Sullen, miserable Thanksgiving ensues. The point isn't that any one person was financially harmed by the leak: it's that by leaking, the leaker has robbed his coworkers of the ability to control to whom and when they break the news. There's no way that the leaker could possibly know the personal circumstances of 30,000 Google employees. Many of them may have very valid reasons for not having details of their compensation plastered across the evening news. When and how they reveal that should be for them to decide, not for one person to decide.
  - antirez 16y ago
    Well this is to work very hard to find some justification where I think the reality is a bit different: it was a good move to fire the employee because a rule is a rule. If it is confidential you can't leak it, even if it is the simplest and harmless of the things. But I don't think that here the problem is that the leak may harm workers. You work at google so everybody already know you have a good salary. 10% raise is really marginal in the game of big numbers, who freaking cares? Instead I think that the company had some reason to avoid leaking this. Either because they wanted to keep this secret to don't appear weak, or because they wanted to divulgate the news in a moment where the mediatic resonance is at max. Still a rule is a rule. You can't leak a confidential company secret, whatever it is, otherwise you deserve to be fired.
  - dtf 16y ago
    Great set of employee-centric examples. And there was me thinking only of the market effects!
  - loewenskind 16y ago
    Why did such yarn spinning get so many upvotes. This is a really silly post. There are lots of people for which their salary is completely known by anyone who cares to. What happens at Thanksgiving for those people in your fantasy land? Why do you assume a shitty, selfish, envious family who would look at your raise with contempt instead of being happy for you that you're finally moving toward getting market rate for your work?
- throwaway1675 16y ago
  First, it lowers my morale because it drains my confidence that very important secrets are safe. Some corporations do not leak at all - Apple comes to mind. They are notoriously mean at hunting down leaks, and it makes people paranoid. This is good. The ability to shock and amaze with new products has contributed substantially to Apple's brand. Other companies envy it. Do you think it is mean for traffic officers to give speeding tickets? We know some people speed despite posted limits, but we are all safer because most people do obey the limits.
loewenskind 16y ago
You sound really naive and honestly it might do you good to get fired so you learn a simple life lesson: Google is a company that only exists to make money. That's its sole purpose. It's not your friend, it's not your family. You don't work their because they enjoy your company. You work there because the right people assume that you provide more value than your salary costs (i.e. they make a profit on their exchange with you). You need to grow past this "loyalty" nonsense. It's true that I wouldn't personally go releasing information like this, but that's because I can make more money if I'm known as someone who doesn't air company laundry, not because of some misplaced and immature sense of "loyalty". Ironically, the leak probably helped Google as some good talent out there never gave them a second look because they have a reputation of not being competitive with their salaries. They make billions so there is no valid excuse for paying less than places who only make hundreds of millions.
- blueben 16y ago
  Just because you are jaded and have given up on loyalty and the idea of responsible corporations that care for their employees doesn't mean the rest of us must do so as well. You paint a very black and white picture. Either the world can have caring corporations, or it can't. Your opinion leaves no room for middle ground. That alone should convince you to re-evaluate what you believe.
  - loewenskind 16y ago
    What you're saying makes no sense. A corporation is there to make money. Full stop. It's a thing, not a person. It doesn't care because it can't care, it has no feeling only a purpose. If you get in an accident and lose both arms are they going to pay you to sit around because they care? Of course not. They will (hopefully) try to soften your landing, but that's less because they care and more about moral of existing and future employees. Life is going to be a painful experience until you learn to only give the amount of loyalty that is given to you. No matter what a company says or does, they are going to drop you the second you don't make sense on paper (including if they find someone who can do what you do cheaper). If you behave any other way you've been brain washed [1]. [1] This doesn't mean that if you get an offer for $1/yr more you have to drop your current company. You have to keep the short and long term in view.

seldo 16y ago

Wow, that just seems kind of mean. Obviously the notice at the top says otherwise, but there's really nothing very sensitive in this memo and it was so broadly distributed there's no way it wouldn't have found its way out eventually. Why, personally, is your morale lowered by knowing people leak stuff? I just don't see get it.

nostrademons 16y ago
Imagine the following hypothetical situations: You come from a working-class family, but through long years of studying hard, you get a job at Google. Your extended family all have blue-collar or service jobs. Your cousin gets laid off, and then reads in the paper that you just got a 10% raise, plus $1000 holiday bonus, plus a portion of your bonus pay up-front. Awkward Thanksgiving ensues. You have a long-time sibling rivalry with your brother, including a game of one-upmanship that extends back to grade school. Finally, you got tired of it, and after his latest raise, you just stopped telling him your salary. Now he hears on CNN that you just got a 10% raise, which leads to much whining about how come you're making more money than him. Awkward Thanksgiving ensues. He goes to his boss and asks for a raise because Google gave one, and his boss replies that he's not worth it, which results in him quitting his job with no plans for what to do next. Awkward Christmas ensues. Your mom calls you because she just heard on the radio that you got a 10% raise and $1000 bonus, and you didn't tell her, and why do you never talk to her anymore? Awkward...oh hell, if your mother is that neurotic, Thanksgiving would probably be awkward anyway. You go out for drinks with your friends from other companies, but since you are now apparently rolling in dough, the expectation is that you're buying. These people probably aren't the type that you'd invite to Thanksgiving anyway. You've been trying to teach your kid about the importance of managing money prudently, and so have restricted their allowance. They come home from school saying, "My friend told me that her daddy said that he heard on the radio that you just got a raise, but you said that you didn't have money to give me a raise. I hate you forever." Sullen, miserable Thanksgiving ensues. The point isn't that any one person was financially harmed by the leak: it's that by leaking, the leaker has robbed his coworkers of the ability to control to whom and when they break the news. There's no way that the leaker could possibly know the personal circumstances of 30,000 Google employees. Many of them may have very valid reasons for not having details of their compensation plastered across the evening news. When and how they reveal that should be for them to decide, not for one person to decide.
- antirez 16y ago
  Well this is to work very hard to find some justification where I think the reality is a bit different: it was a good move to fire the employee because a rule is a rule. If it is confidential you can't leak it, even if it is the simplest and harmless of the things. But I don't think that here the problem is that the leak may harm workers. You work at google so everybody already know you have a good salary. 10% raise is really marginal in the game of big numbers, who freaking cares? Instead I think that the company had some reason to avoid leaking this. Either because they wanted to keep this secret to don't appear weak, or because they wanted to divulgate the news in a moment where the mediatic resonance is at max. Still a rule is a rule. You can't leak a confidential company secret, whatever it is, otherwise you deserve to be fired.
- dtf 16y ago
  Great set of employee-centric examples. And there was me thinking only of the market effects!
- loewenskind 16y ago
  Why did such yarn spinning get so many upvotes. This is a really silly post. There are lots of people for which their salary is completely known by anyone who cares to. What happens at Thanksgiving for those people in your fantasy land? Why do you assume a shitty, selfish, envious family who would look at your raise with contempt instead of being happy for you that you're finally moving toward getting market rate for your work?
throwaway1675 16y ago
First, it lowers my morale because it drains my confidence that very important secrets are safe. Some corporations do not leak at all - Apple comes to mind. They are notoriously mean at hunting down leaks, and it makes people paranoid. This is good. The ability to shock and amaze with new products has contributed substantially to Apple's brand. Other companies envy it. Do you think it is mean for traffic officers to give speeding tickets? We know some people speed despite posted limits, but we are all safer because most people do obey the limits.

loewenskind 16y ago

You sound really naive and honestly it might do you good to get fired so you learn a simple life lesson: Google is a company that only exists to make money. That's its sole purpose. It's not your friend, it's not your family. You don't work their because they enjoy your company. You work there because the right people assume that you provide more value than your salary costs (i.e. they make a profit on their exchange with you). You need to grow past this "loyalty" nonsense. It's true that I wouldn't personally go releasing information like this, but that's because I can make more money if I'm known as someone who doesn't air company laundry, not because of some misplaced and immature sense of "loyalty". Ironically, the leak probably helped Google as some good talent out there never gave them a second look because they have a reputation of not being competitive with their salaries. They make billions so there is no valid excuse for paying less than places who only make hundreds of millions.

blueben 16y ago
Just because you are jaded and have given up on loyalty and the idea of responsible corporations that care for their employees doesn't mean the rest of us must do so as well. You paint a very black and white picture. Either the world can have caring corporations, or it can't. Your opinion leaves no room for middle ground. That alone should convince you to re-evaluate what you believe.
- loewenskind 16y ago
  What you're saying makes no sense. A corporation is there to make money. Full stop. It's a thing, not a person. It doesn't care because it can't care, it has no feeling only a purpose. If you get in an accident and lose both arms are they going to pay you to sit around because they care? Of course not. They will (hopefully) try to soften your landing, but that's less because they care and more about moral of existing and future employees. Life is going to be a painful experience until you learn to only give the amount of loyalty that is given to you. No matter what a company says or does, they are going to drop you the second you don't make sense on paper (including if they find someone who can do what you do cheaper). If you behave any other way you've been brain washed [1]. [1] This doesn't mean that if you get an offer for $1/yr more you have to drop your current company. You have to keep the short and long term in view.