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Even in california, it's the companies choice what a "fireable" offense is, not the employee, nor what social media thinks "seems fireable". If you violate any

by fargle 7y ago

Even in california, it's the companies choice what a "fireable" offense is, not the employee, nor what social media thinks "seems fireable". If you violate any company policy, or even if google does not think you are performing, you can quite legally be fired. There is very little chance of any recourse. Don't misunderstand, it's not that I'm really trying to defend google. This is to serve as a reality check and warning to those who don't understand the rules of employment. And I'm guessing the Engineer in question understood the risk full well.

geofft 7y ago
> Even in california, it's the companies choice what a "fireable" offense is, not the employee, nor what social media thinks "seems fireable". If you violate any company policy, or even if google does not think you are performing, you can quite legally be fired. There is very little chance of any recourse. I don't disagree with that either. I'm just saying that, if this is the company's choice of fireable offense if the company actually considers it normal to exercise the right to dismiss an employee (which they legally do have) for this sort of mistake, I'm glad I don't work there. As I mentioned in another comment, I recently did something at work that you could spin in an equally sinister way, if you want. My company would be within its rights to fire me for it. My employer would be within its rights to fire me for sneezing at the wrong time, or even for no reason at all. I choose to continue working at this company because I trust that, despite their legal ability, they have no intention of actually doing so. If I ever lost that trust, I would leave. (In fact, my employer and Google's also have very similar employment agreements about ownership of outside IP / personal open source, but I had reasons to trust my employer to act more reasonably than Google, which was part of why I chose my current employer when deciding about it and Google. In practice that trust has turned out to be well-placed, and there's now a thread on the front page about how Google loves to follow the letter of the employment agreement and arbitrarily deny IARC requests.)

by fargle 7y ago

geofft 7y ago

> Even in california, it's the companies choice what a "fireable" offense is, not the employee, nor what social media thinks "seems fireable". If you violate any company policy, or even if google does not think you are performing, you can quite legally be fired. There is very little chance of any recourse. I don't disagree with that either. I'm just saying that, if this is the company's choice of fireable offense if the company actually considers it normal to exercise the right to dismiss an employee (which they legally do have) for this sort of mistake, I'm glad I don't work there. As I mentioned in another comment, I recently did something at work that you could spin in an equally sinister way, if you want. My company would be within its rights to fire me for it. My employer would be within its rights to fire me for sneezing at the wrong time, or even for no reason at all. I choose to continue working at this company because I trust that, despite their legal ability, they have no intention of actually doing so. If I ever lost that trust, I would leave. (In fact, my employer and Google's also have very similar employment agreements about ownership of outside IP / personal open source, but I had reasons to trust my employer to act more reasonably than Google, which was part of why I chose my current employer when deciding about it and Google. In practice that trust has turned out to be well-placed, and there's now a thread on the front page about how Google loves to follow the letter of the employment agreement and arbitrarily deny IARC requests.)