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So - the tesla driving facebookers get a day off from work - paid - not even using their vacation - and this is a walkout? Are they forfeiting their stock to p

So - the tesla driving facebookers get a day off from work - paid - not even using their vacation - and this is a walkout? Are they forfeiting their stock to protest facebooks offensive conduct? This is the look at me style of protesting. Quit your job and work a better company if you think facebook is a scum company.

GaryNumanVevo 6y ago
<parody> Even better, if you're a production engineer at FB reading this. Please erase a few database VM sets on the way out. </parody>
- geodel 6y ago
  Erasing virtual machines to support virtual protest. Now that is very virtual.
chickenpotpie 6y ago
The whole point of a walkout is to cost the company money. If they forfeited their stocks and used up vacation time it wouldn’t be nearly as effective. Also why go straight to quitting when you can keep your job and change the company?
- taurath 6y ago
  It also less effective when one isn't shutting down a production line. The underlying business doesn't need new code shipped constantly - just the NOC employees to be paying attention. Facebook makes the same revenue on a day when half their employees walk off.
- geodel 6y ago
  Change the company? Is this an amateur hour? I do not know at this point that is FB fooling its employees or its employees are fooling the world.
- thoraway1010 6y ago
  This I think illustrates nicely how privileged and out of touch Facebook engineers are. --- I demand the right to protest my own employer. Facebook: Sure I demand the right to take unplanned time off to protest even if it disrupts operations. Facebook: Sure I demand to post my feelings on my company email autoreply so other employees and customers are informed of my opinion via company resources. Facebook: Sure. I demand to get paid for my time off. Facebook: Sure - we give you lots of generous PTO and don't really track you that carefully in terms of hours worked. I demand to get paid for my unplanned time designed to disrupt operations to protest my employers actions and post my feelings on company email including communication with customers / partners and get paid for this WITHOUT using PTO (but as regularly working hours). Facebook: Sure!! ----- Wow!!
  - chickenpotpie 6y ago
    I would say they’re very in touch if they can successfully walkout without any repercussions. They seem to know they have the upper hand right now and have the power to influence the company.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
kmonsen 6y ago
Maybe the like the general idea of the company and their co-workers and want to change the company? I don't understand why you telling them what they can and cannot do.
- friedxenon 6y ago
  Seems like he's making the point that it's costing them nothing to do this, that they are not really putting anything on the line. That their money is not where their mouths are. Did you miss that?
skrtskrt 6y ago
The "just quit and work elsewhere" argument comes up every time on Hacker News. Maybe they think the company can be a force for good or at least not evil, but it's not living up to that or taking advantage of its opportunity? If everyone just quits companies instead of pushing them to do better, the only people left at those companies will be at best morally apathetic and at worst actively evil (in the eyes of whoever is trying to reform them). By operating speech platforms, these companies are inherently political. It's not like they're making nuts and bolts. Inaction is still action. Letting people run ads with hate speech or building recommendation algorithms that start with mild conservative views and then send you down a rabbit hole that ends at full Nazi-ism, is still a political action even if you intended the platform to be neutral or unbiased.
- thoraway1010 6y ago
  Let's be totally clear. These employees don't want free speech on the platform - they want their speech to be the one selected on the platform. The MINUTE Facebook starts censoring some of what they like they'll be out protesting that too. It's shut down the other folks views. And BTW - free speech does not mean Nazi-ism - in fact, the Nazi's had perhaps one of the most famous censorship ops going with Goebbels. It's actually a pretty good tell for fascism, dictators etc - make it hard for other voices to be heard. When I read Trumps stuff, I just want to vote him out of office.
- chickenpotpie 6y ago
  Not to mention quitting to change a company is all cost and no benefit. I ragequit my last job and they made huge improvements afterwards. I don’t get to see any of those benefits, but my coworkers that stood their ground get to.

GaryNumanVevo 6y ago

<parody> Even better, if you're a production engineer at FB reading this. Please erase a few database VM sets on the way out. </parody>

geodel 6y ago
Erasing virtual machines to support virtual protest. Now that is very virtual.

chickenpotpie 6y ago

The whole point of a walkout is to cost the company money. If they forfeited their stocks and used up vacation time it wouldn’t be nearly as effective. Also why go straight to quitting when you can keep your job and change the company?

taurath 6y ago
It also less effective when one isn't shutting down a production line. The underlying business doesn't need new code shipped constantly - just the NOC employees to be paying attention. Facebook makes the same revenue on a day when half their employees walk off.
geodel 6y ago
Change the company? Is this an amateur hour? I do not know at this point that is FB fooling its employees or its employees are fooling the world.
thoraway1010 6y ago
This I think illustrates nicely how privileged and out of touch Facebook engineers are. --- I demand the right to protest my own employer. Facebook: Sure I demand the right to take unplanned time off to protest even if it disrupts operations. Facebook: Sure I demand to post my feelings on my company email autoreply so other employees and customers are informed of my opinion via company resources. Facebook: Sure. I demand to get paid for my time off. Facebook: Sure - we give you lots of generous PTO and don't really track you that carefully in terms of hours worked. I demand to get paid for my unplanned time designed to disrupt operations to protest my employers actions and post my feelings on company email including communication with customers / partners and get paid for this WITHOUT using PTO (but as regularly working hours). Facebook: Sure!! ----- Wow!!
- chickenpotpie 6y ago
  I would say they’re very in touch if they can successfully walkout without any repercussions. They seem to know they have the upper hand right now and have the power to influence the company.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

kmonsen 6y ago

Maybe the like the general idea of the company and their co-workers and want to change the company? I don't understand why you telling them what they can and cannot do.

friedxenon 6y ago
Seems like he's making the point that it's costing them nothing to do this, that they are not really putting anything on the line. That their money is not where their mouths are. Did you miss that?

skrtskrt 6y ago

The "just quit and work elsewhere" argument comes up every time on Hacker News. Maybe they think the company can be a force for good or at least not evil, but it's not living up to that or taking advantage of its opportunity? If everyone just quits companies instead of pushing them to do better, the only people left at those companies will be at best morally apathetic and at worst actively evil (in the eyes of whoever is trying to reform them). By operating speech platforms, these companies are inherently political. It's not like they're making nuts and bolts. Inaction is still action. Letting people run ads with hate speech or building recommendation algorithms that start with mild conservative views and then send you down a rabbit hole that ends at full Nazi-ism, is still a political action even if you intended the platform to be neutral or unbiased.

thoraway1010 6y ago
Let's be totally clear. These employees don't want free speech on the platform - they want their speech to be the one selected on the platform. The MINUTE Facebook starts censoring some of what they like they'll be out protesting that too. It's shut down the other folks views. And BTW - free speech does not mean Nazi-ism - in fact, the Nazi's had perhaps one of the most famous censorship ops going with Goebbels. It's actually a pretty good tell for fascism, dictators etc - make it hard for other voices to be heard. When I read Trumps stuff, I just want to vote him out of office.
chickenpotpie 6y ago
Not to mention quitting to change a company is all cost and no benefit. I ragequit my last job and they made huge improvements afterwards. I don’t get to see any of those benefits, but my coworkers that stood their ground get to.