5 ms·

No one outside of the HN crowd and a couple of bubbles on twitter has heard a single thing about this, or cares in the slightest. There was no PR hit.

throwaway2048 8y ago
We are talking about the realm of "Google being a place people want to work" Demonstrating that management takes petty actions like this is far more convincing than people silently quitting.
- DuskStar 8y ago
  I'd be more willing to work for Google if they had a history of not caving in to lynch mobs and punishing the leaders, instead of the other way around.
  - kelnos 8y ago
    I'm confused. Are you likening people who are upset about mishandled sexual misconduct allegations to lynch mobs?
    - deleted 8y ago
      [deleted]
  - TKWasRight 8y ago
    I currently work for Google and share your sentiment. There is a small minority of employee activists that really drag the place down and their voices are unfortunately the ones that seem to get amplified. I don't get how they aren't put on PIPs or told to hit the road.
    - dekhn 8y ago
      I'd like to say, clearly: I worked at Google and really felt uncomfortable with how a small fraction of the employees dominated the inner communication channels and pretended like everybody agreed with them. Many of us were afraid to speak up after a number of incidents due to the climate. However, over team it really became clear that a small number of people were repeatedly dominating the discourse in an unreasonable way. I don't think the management is just gonna toss the protestors on PIPs without strong evidence they aren't getting their daily jobs done.
      - joshuamorton 8y ago
        A small group of the most outspoken people always dominates discourse in any group of reasonable scale. It's how group dynamics work. The question that matters is if those attitudes reflect wider attitudes at the company. And I think the answer is yes. The dominant speakers spoke popular opinions.
        TKWasRight 8y ago
        Maybe for MTV and NYC...but go out to Google's DCs and you'll find 80%+ conservatives who don't agree with all the anti-military and demonization of the right that goes on internally.
        joshuamorton 8y ago
        Which is different than what you said before. That there are some who disagree with those views is obvious. But you're claiming a large majority dissent. Even if every DC employee shared your views, which they don't, it wouldn't back your claim
        TKWasRight 8y ago
        What did I say before that conflicts with the regional and office differences I pointed out? I never claimed that a large portion dissent.
        joshuamorton 8y ago
        I'm making statements about absolute numbers. If something like 80% of google employees as a whole are democratic, and 80% of DC techs are conservative, then what you said about regional differences is true, however your claims about the ideas you dislike being held by a small but vocal minority would not be true. The specific claim I'm addressing is the one that you made and that dekhn echoed, that these are the views of only a minority. To give an extreme example, extrapolating from the opinions of DC techs wouldn't make sense if google employed only a single DC tech.
- glenrivard 8y ago
  They are the #1 most desired place to work by people under 30. I mean the very top. https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/12/23000-millennial-and-gen-z-workers-listed-their-dream-employers.html https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/12/23000-millennial-and-gen-z-w... So what they are doing is working well. I would guess they will keep doing it. BTW, Not this survey but there are others that put Google #1. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/top-companies-2019-where-us-wants-work-now-daniel-roth/ https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/top-companies-2019-where-us-w...
ModernMech 8y ago
It's on the NYTimes: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/22/technology/google-walkout-employees-retaliation.html https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/22/technology/google-walkout... Their readership is certainly outside of the HN crowd.
- dekhn 8y ago
  to be clear, the folks who are subjects of the NY Times article are fairly friendly with the article authors. You may want to take a look at the history of the authors, and see that the same names come up (mcmillen, whittaker) over and over. It's a complicated situation but the Times tend to cover labor relations at Google far in excess of the true impact of these events.
- hammock 8y ago
  Not as much as you might think.

throwaway2048 8y ago

We are talking about the realm of "Google being a place people want to work" Demonstrating that management takes petty actions like this is far more convincing than people silently quitting.

DuskStar 8y ago
I'd be more willing to work for Google if they had a history of not caving in to lynch mobs and punishing the leaders, instead of the other way around.
- kelnos 8y ago
  I'm confused. Are you likening people who are upset about mishandled sexual misconduct allegations to lynch mobs?
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
- TKWasRight 8y ago
  I currently work for Google and share your sentiment. There is a small minority of employee activists that really drag the place down and their voices are unfortunately the ones that seem to get amplified. I don't get how they aren't put on PIPs or told to hit the road.
  - dekhn 8y ago
    I'd like to say, clearly: I worked at Google and really felt uncomfortable with how a small fraction of the employees dominated the inner communication channels and pretended like everybody agreed with them. Many of us were afraid to speak up after a number of incidents due to the climate. However, over team it really became clear that a small number of people were repeatedly dominating the discourse in an unreasonable way. I don't think the management is just gonna toss the protestors on PIPs without strong evidence they aren't getting their daily jobs done.
    - joshuamorton 8y ago
      A small group of the most outspoken people always dominates discourse in any group of reasonable scale. It's how group dynamics work. The question that matters is if those attitudes reflect wider attitudes at the company. And I think the answer is yes. The dominant speakers spoke popular opinions.
      - TKWasRight 8y ago
        Maybe for MTV and NYC...but go out to Google's DCs and you'll find 80%+ conservatives who don't agree with all the anti-military and demonization of the right that goes on internally.
        joshuamorton 8y ago
        Which is different than what you said before. That there are some who disagree with those views is obvious. But you're claiming a large majority dissent. Even if every DC employee shared your views, which they don't, it wouldn't back your claim
        TKWasRight 8y ago
        What did I say before that conflicts with the regional and office differences I pointed out? I never claimed that a large portion dissent.
        joshuamorton 8y ago
        I'm making statements about absolute numbers. If something like 80% of google employees as a whole are democratic, and 80% of DC techs are conservative, then what you said about regional differences is true, however your claims about the ideas you dislike being held by a small but vocal minority would not be true. The specific claim I'm addressing is the one that you made and that dekhn echoed, that these are the views of only a minority. To give an extreme example, extrapolating from the opinions of DC techs wouldn't make sense if google employed only a single DC tech.
glenrivard 8y ago
They are the #1 most desired place to work by people under 30. I mean the very top. https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/12/23000-millennial-and-gen-z-workers-listed-their-dream-employers.html https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/12/23000-millennial-and-gen-z-w... So what they are doing is working well. I would guess they will keep doing it. BTW, Not this survey but there are others that put Google #1. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/top-companies-2019-where-us-wants-work-now-daniel-roth/ https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/top-companies-2019-where-us-w...

ModernMech 8y ago

It's on the NYTimes: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/22/technology/google-walkout-employees-retaliation.html https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/22/technology/google-walkout... Their readership is certainly outside of the HN crowd.

dekhn 8y ago
to be clear, the folks who are subjects of the NY Times article are fairly friendly with the article authors. You may want to take a look at the history of the authors, and see that the same names come up (mcmillen, whittaker) over and over. It's a complicated situation but the Times tend to cover labor relations at Google far in excess of the true impact of these events.
hammock 8y ago
Not as much as you might think.