4 ms·

Almost 100k Google employees are about to get a hard-fought $20

51 points by sowbug 3y ago

Rebelgecko 3y ago
Full disclosure, am googler, opinions are my own, etc etc From the article it sounds like it's actually $42-$79 that most of us didn't have to fight particularly hard for
- johntiger1 3y ago
  Congrats! looks like you hit the jackpot
  - klipt 3y ago
    That's almost a 0.01% annual bonus!
    - anuraaga 3y ago
      I think it's closer to 1%. If the average Googler drinks 500 lattes per year on campus, this seems to enable about 5 more off campus.
- joshl32532 3y ago
  Unless you're Google SVP+, nobody will think you're speaking for Google...
  - Freedom2 3y ago
    Or even speaking on behalf of a significant part of Google employees. The hubris of HN Googlers is astounding, sometimes.
    - nabogh 3y ago
      They're trying to avoid repurcussions from saying something their employer doesn't endorse
      - Freedom2 3y ago
        No reasonable person would think that Google, the company, would endorse a message like this: > it's actually $42-$79 that most of us didn't have to fight particularly hard for
  - Rebelgecko 3y ago
    Mostly just trying to avoid an awkward gotcha moment where someone digs through my comment history, finds a reference to my employer, and accuses me of some sort of shilling. I've seen it happen to other people and IMO it's better to go with the lame disclaimer.
  - aleksiy123 3y ago
    There's quite a bit of news stories that start of with "Googlers <verb> ..." which is based on the comments of a couple employees. Better to just play it safe.
- O1111OOO 3y ago
  > Full disclosure, am googler, opinions are my own, etc etc > From the article it sounds like it's actually $42-$79 that most of us didn't have to fight particularly hard for Lots of litigation most of us aren't even aware of. Early this year, I came across a Google class-action relating to "the inclusion of Google search queries in referrer headers": https://www.refererheadersettlement.com/ https://www.refererheadersettlement.com/ I normally would have closed the tab but this time... why not.
bugglebeetle 3y ago
[flagged]
mjthrowaway1 3y ago
This is a PAGA lawsuit. Person filing it will get quite rich.
fragmede 3y ago
The interesting ramifications from this are going to be at Apple. Their corporate secrecy is well known in the industry - employees aren't even supposed to tell outsiders what department they work in, never mind small potatoes like Google employees agreed to that they're getting $20 for.
Full_Clark 3y ago
"In the end, Google will pay out only $27 million, a drop in the bucket for such a titanic company." The article compares that payout against the $20,000 million Alphabet profited just last quarter, a significant difference considering that the lawsuit took ~28 quarters to generate this outcome. Does anyone think the confidentiality clauses were pivotal in generating that scale of profit? Would Google or Alphabet be significantly poorer if their employees had been suddenly unburdened of the confidentiality clauses back in 2016?
- deltaburnt 3y ago
  Put another way, is it possible these actions led to a >$27m increase in profits? That's a 0.1% increase for that quarter, so maybe not so far fetched. If so then it was financially advantageous to break the law.
ur-whale 3y ago
The real cost to Google is not the payout, but the lawyer fees over 7 years.
jusssi 3y ago
20$, and more freedom? Unless they settled for keeping the illegal contracts for a free lunch.

51 points by sowbug 3y ago

Full disclosure, am googler, opinions are my own, etc etc From the article it sounds like it's actually $42-$79 that most of us didn't have to fight particularly hard for

johntiger1 3y ago
Congrats! looks like you hit the jackpot
- klipt 3y ago
  That's almost a 0.01% annual bonus!
  - anuraaga 3y ago
    I think it's closer to 1%. If the average Googler drinks 500 lattes per year on campus, this seems to enable about 5 more off campus.
joshl32532 3y ago
Unless you're Google SVP+, nobody will think you're speaking for Google...
- Freedom2 3y ago
  Or even speaking on behalf of a significant part of Google employees. The hubris of HN Googlers is astounding, sometimes.
  - nabogh 3y ago
    They're trying to avoid repurcussions from saying something their employer doesn't endorse
    - Freedom2 3y ago
      No reasonable person would think that Google, the company, would endorse a message like this: > it's actually $42-$79 that most of us didn't have to fight particularly hard for
- Rebelgecko 3y ago
  Mostly just trying to avoid an awkward gotcha moment where someone digs through my comment history, finds a reference to my employer, and accuses me of some sort of shilling. I've seen it happen to other people and IMO it's better to go with the lame disclaimer.
- aleksiy123 3y ago
  There's quite a bit of news stories that start of with "Googlers <verb> ..." which is based on the comments of a couple employees. Better to just play it safe.
O1111OOO 3y ago
> Full disclosure, am googler, opinions are my own, etc etc > From the article it sounds like it's actually $42-$79 that most of us didn't have to fight particularly hard for Lots of litigation most of us aren't even aware of. Early this year, I came across a Google class-action relating to "the inclusion of Google search queries in referrer headers": https://www.refererheadersettlement.com/ https://www.refererheadersettlement.com/ I normally would have closed the tab but this time... why not.

bugglebeetle 3y ago

[flagged]

mjthrowaway1 3y ago

This is a PAGA lawsuit. Person filing it will get quite rich.

fragmede 3y ago

The interesting ramifications from this are going to be at Apple. Their corporate secrecy is well known in the industry - employees aren't even supposed to tell outsiders what department they work in, never mind small potatoes like Google employees agreed to that they're getting $20 for.

Full_Clark 3y ago

"In the end, Google will pay out only $27 million, a drop in the bucket for such a titanic company." The article compares that payout against the $20,000 million Alphabet profited just last quarter, a significant difference considering that the lawsuit took ~28 quarters to generate this outcome. Does anyone think the confidentiality clauses were pivotal in generating that scale of profit? Would Google or Alphabet be significantly poorer if their employees had been suddenly unburdened of the confidentiality clauses back in 2016?

deltaburnt 3y ago
Put another way, is it possible these actions led to a >$27m increase in profits? That's a 0.1% increase for that quarter, so maybe not so far fetched. If so then it was financially advantageous to break the law.

ur-whale 3y ago

The real cost to Google is not the payout, but the lawyer fees over 7 years.

jusssi 3y ago

20$, and more freedom? Unless they settled for keeping the illegal contracts for a free lunch.