6 ms·
Good! Check your political beliefs at the gate when you walk in. If you don't like what your employer is doing, you are free to quit. It's a 2-way street. Ever
by 1024core 2y ago
Good! Check your political beliefs at the gate when you walk in. If you don't like what your employer is doing, you are free to quit. It's a 2-way street.
Every 2 weeks your employer settles their debt to you. This is a transactional relationship. If you choose to accept a paycheck, you have to accept the rules and regulations that come with working at that place.
If the company is doing something illegal, you are welcome to file a whistleblower complaint and take it up with the authorities.
- testfrequency 2y ago37signals HR?
- jncfhnb 2y agoAlternatively, you could listen to, and value, your employee’s opinions
- xcv123 2y agoThey listened, and they valued the employee's opinions as not worth paying a salary for.
- jimbokun 2y agoThat doesn’t mean every employee gets a veto on any company decision.
- scrapcode 2y agoThey stormed an exec's office building and held it hostage for 10 hours. Is it that surprising that they're getting terminated?
- jncfhnb 2y agoNo not really. I just find the OP here to be a cringey radical free market sociopath
- fasthands9 2y agoI'm skeptical that the consensus among employees is that Google should abandon this project and make less money. I am part of a union where a few people showed up to a meeting to endorse a resolution on IP. The resolution passed at the meeting, and they then set an email message to the rest of the union (thousands of people) saying they wanted to hear from more people than just those that could show up on the weeknight meeting. Presumably the resolution failed because I never heard about it again. The union made no message of any kind on the issue, which is good by me since I do not work for a company that has any business making international political endorsements. I have no idea what the polling would be if you asked all Google employees, but it doesn't mean much to me that 28 people out of 25,000 in SF have this opinion.
- saagarjha 2y ago“Doing what is legal” doesn’t seem to be Google’s slogan, does it?
- negativelambda 2y ago> If you choose to accept a paycheck, you have to accept the rules and regulations... The basic argument that you are presenting here would also oppose unions fighting for better pay and conditions for workers.
- TOMDM 2y agoUnions work on the other end of that balance. By enforcing a policy you have to accept that you can't hire from the unions that disqualify you as an employer based on it.
- philistine 2y agoHopefully you never have any responsibility of setting up law outside the United States.
- TOMDM 2y agoI don't even live in the states, but sure okay buddy.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- abeisgreat 2y agoTo the same end, when you hire human beings anticipate them standing up for what they believe in and occasionally inconveniencing your immoral business practices. Humans on both sides, opinions and your right to voice them on both sides.
- delichon 2y ago> ... you are free to quit. If I went to my boss's office, refused to leave ... for ten minutes let alone ten hours ... and harangued him with my opinions of how he is completely unethical in choosing to do business with some very lucrative customers, it couldn't be confused with anything other than quitting. I wonder if there was a different expectation among the Googlers sitting in.
- ddalex 2y agoThey managed to successfully do this thing - change company policies - in the past, they didn't perceive the change in tone and morals of the company in the last 10 years.
- TheDong 2y agoWhat a soulless perspective. Most people are not fully free to quit, having rent to pay, a work visa to maintain, or other circumstances. Most software jobs are not paying their workers a salary for them to become soulless robots. They are paying you to produce code, and to have expertise on the matters at hand. In a sense, you're getting paid so that you can tell your employer "No, this feature isn't quite right, it's easier to code this way". This black-and-white "if you accept a salary to code, you also must turn off your brain and become a mindless automaton for your owners, or else quit" is ridiculous, and reality will always have more complexity. You're of course welcome to willingly turn yourself into a robot slave in exchange for money, but I will remain a free opinionated human, regardless of whether I am taking a paycheck or not, and if the company does not want a human, they can fire me and try to replace me with someone like you, or with an AI.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- jltsiren 2y agoCivil disobedience is a legitimate tactic. If you oppose something, you can protest against it. Openly, under your own name. And accept the consequences. Getting fired in this case.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- klyrs 2y ago> Check your political beliefs at the gate when you walk in. Did you know, that's actually a political belief. I'm happiest when my coworkers who agree with you practice what you're preaching. That is, I'm glad if you're able to keep that drek to yourself on the job.
- amingilani 2y ago> Check your political beliefs at the gate when you walk in Why? How? It’s unreasonable to suddenly flip a switch and turn off your beliefs when you walk through a gate. > Every 2 weeks your employer settles their debt to you. This is a transactional relationship. Agreed but this doesn’t mean… > If you choose to accept a paycheck, you have to accept the rules and regulations that come with working at that place. …that you don’t have a say in your company. A company is the sum of the individuals that contribute to it. Some have more sway, especially in leadership, but that doesn’t mean folks can’t band together and influence their work place. > If the company is doing something illegal, you are welcome to file a whistleblower complaint and take it up with the authorities. Individual contributors have moral obligation that they are conscious of their contributions. Some groups drill this in: Doctors enforce this through the Hippocratic oath, Canadian engineers have the Ritual of the Calling of an Engineer. However, I believe the obligation applies to everyone. Otherwise, imagine all the atrocities individuals can contribute to by just following orders[0]. [0]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superior_orders https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superior_orders
- pixxel 2y ago> It’s unreasonable to suddenly flip a switch and turn off your beliefs when you walk through a gate. Don’t walk through the gate if you’re unable. Welcome to adulthood.
- amingilani 2y agoThat’s not adulthood. What you’re describing is impossible. You can’t suddenly change your beliefs as you enter or exit a gate. You can choose to suppress your opinions, and you may be okay with that. But that’s the same thing.
- AmalgatedAmoeba 2y agoFrom my experience, the best performing companies foster a culture of ownership. Owning the features/products you work on, the team you work with, and, to some extent, the company as a whole. The other limit is a completely detached and mercenary workforce. This is also a part of the reasoning behind ESOPs. The fact that those people didn’t feel like they had any other way of voicing their disagreements with the company’s direction (and having them heard), does not bode well for the long term future of Google. Loosing passionate people that care deeply enough about your company to criticize it is seldom a good thing.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- richrichie 2y agoI quite prefer the transactional approach. Precisely why i detest these “team building”, “we are a family”, CSR etc moves. Lets just be pro?
- megous 2y agoSome corporates in sillicon valley have (had? wanted to have?) an aura of being more than just money making corporations. Mission, values, we're diffferent, we're the familly, don't be evil, all that crap. I guess some employees took the company bullshit seriously? You can easily blame the company for bullshitting the employees, too. :)
- jpambrun 2y agoIn truth you need to check political beliefs that aren't in line with the company's. My previous job, many were very vocal supporters of Israel and that tolerated, support for suffering Palestinians was not. It needs to wholesale. Accept all political discourse or none.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]