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the american at will system at work. I dont judge the content of the protest itself, but that you can be fired for political beliefes is crazy to me as a europe
by pwb25 3y ago
the american at will system at work. I dont judge the content of the protest itself, but that you can be fired for political beliefes is crazy to me as a european
- rzimmerman 3y agoHe wasn’t fired for his beliefs. He was fired for screaming and interrupting a coworker’s presentation in a public setting.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- willmadden 3y agoPeople are jailed for their political beliefs throughout most of Europe.
- HL33tibCe7 3y agoNot just political beliefs. In many countries in Europe you can be jailed merely for sending an “offensive” message.
- pwb25 3y agoNot if they are following the law no
- willmadden 3y agoSee, you've got that backwards. If your government makes specific political beliefs illegal, and sends you to jail for expressing them, then you are not free.
- sgift 3y ago> You can be jailed for your political beliefs throughout most of Europe. Uh ... since when?
- int_19h 3y agoHolocaust denial (which is definitely politics, even though it's the despicable kind) is criminal in most of Europe: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legality_of_Holocaust_denial#By_Country https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legality_of_Holocaust_denial#B... Some European states also ban left-wing political symbols: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bans_on_communist_symbols https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bans_on_communist_symbols
- sgift 3y agoNone of that is jailing for a political belief. You mix beliefs and actions.
- int_19h 3y agoIt is an expression of political belief, which is what is normally meant in such contexts. I don't see much point in detangling the two, as belief that is not expressed is by definition something that you cannot act against since you don't know about it.
- tyleo 3y agoIdt it’s political beliefs. The protestor was sorta heckling a presentation to my eye. Edit: This is even brought up in the second bullet of the linked page. > The worker stood and shouted during a presentation by Google Israel's managing director.
- pwb25 3y agook, still way to much to get fired over. one small thing ? lol americans are so sensitive
- brigadier132 3y agoThis kind of behavior doesn't scale. Eventually you have people that just give in to the hysterics because they just want to do their job and not fight ideological battles and the ideologues take over the company. See: how dei took over google and we got gemini.
- hhh 3y agoKeep politics out of the workplace and you won’t have a problem.
- mandmandam 3y agoIf speaking up against supplying surveillance and AI systems (to a state under investigation for genocide) is political, then so is supplying the systems in the first place. If you have an issue with being protested, maybe don't directly assist the world's most live-streamed set of daily atrocities.
- lettergram 3y agolol what? Standing up and yelling during a meeting is probably the tip of the iceberg. They’re also trying to stage protests, etc. Nah this person wasn’t working productively any more, as far as I can tell. Worse, they were reducing productivity of others. Possibly making an unsafe work environment. It’s not about being sensitive or even agreeing. It’s about making product. If we were chopping wood and someone stopped chopping to complain about inner city transit systems. You’d fire them.
- XorNot 3y agoPretty sure you'll be fired for disrupting company events for your political beliefs in the EU as well, which is what this employee did. It would be a different matter if they were simply attending pro-Palestine protests on their own time.
- HL33tibCe7 3y agoI agree with the substance of the protest and frankly I respect the bravery of the person who conducted it. But let’s be realistic here: they were not fired for their views, they were fired for the manner in which they displayed them, which was clearly not appropriate for the workplace, and really left Google no choice but to fire them.
- yunesj 3y ago"an employee disrupted a coworker who was giving a presentation — interfering with an official company-sponsored event"
- djakaitis 3y agoIsn’t it illegal to publicly display any nazi symbols in Germany?
- CapitalistCartr 3y ago"that you can be fired for political beliefes is crazy to me as a european" Many of us Americans do as well, but America's rich love it.
- brink 3y agoCan't you go to jail for saying the wrong thing in Europe?
- fifteen1506 3y agoOnly if you insist on saying Heil Hitler non-stop. Besides that, no. Even then, Nazi salute is being used on my country's parties and everyone shrugs.
- junon 3y agoDepends on the thing and the place. In Germany you cannot do a Sieg Heil salute in public, for obvious reasons - and even that is loosely enforced. But you're absolutely allowed to protest.
- Nexxxeh 3y agoRight to protest is under threat in the UK, but it's a difficult situation. You have XE protestors shutting down infrastructure. You have Pro-Palestinian/Pro-Hamas marchers chanting extremist stuff like "From London to Gaza, Victory to the intifada", "We will honour all our martyrs", "Praise the martyrs" and "From the river to the sea". The whole hate speech/free speech thing, and at what point is calling for and glorifying terrorism, and do we as a society allow that? It's not helped by our incompetent and corrupt government whose primary base is the worst stereotype little Englander. Our police whose handling of protestors ranges from ineffective to Orwellian. I'm generally pro-Civ-Lib and hands-off, but at this point, it's difficult. We need to have an adult conversation as a country about where we draw lines, lest we allow extremism to fester or allow authoritarianism to raise its ugly head. But we're utterly incapable of having an adult conversation about anything. This may change after the general election later in the year, but... It's a hope rather than a certainty.
- FirmwareBurner 3y agoPlease stop generalizing. As a an european you definitely CAN be fired here for political beliefs if they impact work. Actually you can be fired for anything. Come to Austria and see. You're not allowed to bring your political beliefs at work, which IMHO is best for everyone. Keep them at home/your private time. Same for religion, sexuality, etc. Your workplace is not your market square for your personal beliefs and activism.
- truckerbill 3y agoThis behaviour is itself inherently good for authoritarian regimes though. You can’t escape politics
- FirmwareBurner 3y agoYes you can. Nobody's stopping you from engaging in politics outsider of work(go vote, write to your congressman, go protest, etc), and nobody'd forcing you to work at a company that does things you disagree with. But at work, you go to do work in exchange for money. The publicly listed company must do what its shareholders want, it has no obligation to do what its employees want, and as long as the company doesn't break any local government laws and employment laws, then it's in the green. You disagreeing with the company's direction is your own matter to deal with, as in, you are free to walk since the company isn't forcing you to work there against your will. You have no idea what authoritarianism actually means.
- ParetoOptimal 3y agoThey mean that politics and ideology are what your boss is going by to determine whether to give you or your coworker a raise. Or at the least it plays a large part. Even if you dont talk about politics you are subject to the forces of it.
- FirmwareBurner 3y agoBut politics is changed at the voting booths or via engagement with your lawmakers, not wit your employer. Your employer will only follow the laws set by the state, not by the employees (unless we're talking about a cooperative which Google isn't)
- aaron695 3y ago[dead]
- gnfargbl 3y agoHe wasn't fired for his political beliefs. He was fired for persistently heckling a senior leader during a public presentation, which meets anyone's definition of gross insubordination. He could have gone on a tirade about how Google supports putting ketchup on hot dogs and the result would have been the same, in Europe or the US.
- throwaway74432 3y agoDepends. Do we have any examples of Google allowing obnoxious heckling when it is coming from another political belief? Consistency is key.