How much does a couple of hours of people standing in the parking lot waving signs really cost them? It's not like Google is a manufacturer where the assembly line comes to a stop if nobody is on the line; everything should be automated so that a handful of people can keep the servers humming along in the data centers. Maybe a few status meetings of dubious worth don't happen, or a little less email gets shuffled around.

Most people aren't actually doing anything that really affects the bottom line in a typical software company. Maybe if a few people performed acts of sabotage as a statement, that would make a dent, but that would effectively be suicidal.

> Having a bunch of employees standing around being unproductive hits them right in the wallet

But this is already true, whether there is a walk out or not.

Even if they are sitting at their desks, if the employees are all frustrated and have other matters on their mind, are they producing good work? I would say no

Execs see the battle has already been lost, because it has been. The company morale has been hit, doesn't matter if walking or sitting at your desk or whatever.

The thing is that my whole management chain is going to the protests and have said they are for it (and they also have been changing sexual harassment policies the last few years anyway). The protest has lost a lot of value because the people we ostensibly protest against are already there agreeing with us.

That's only true if you were protesting against people and not bad behavior. Getting management to be visibly on your side should give your demands a lot more power.

Yeah but the main complaint (i.e. the large exit package) was already changed a few years before this. To be clear I'm walking out for the protest but I don't really see this as a big fight against management, if I think that my managers are lying to me at every level and they don't take sexual assault them I should just leave the company. The thing is that while I don't agree with a lot of what they say they've generally been sincere with me in the past.