"Google is the talk of the valley because we are driving salaries up across the board." "I would prefer Omid do it verbally since I don't want to create a paper

"Google is the talk of the valley because we are driving salaries up across the board." "I would prefer Omid do it verbally since I don't want to create a paper trail over which we can be sued later" It's evil collusion to keep salaries down. Not discussing your compensation is another example of something we've been sold on as "common sense and civility" though it's illegal to restrict it.