I think then the responsibility is on the manager?

Or maybe all of them. These are highly paid employees. They bear a personal responsibility and can’t shove all consequences onto a manager.

Since you can’t spend 53000 dollars on a Mac laptop last I checked, yes! However the whole purpose of a managerial hierarchy is to establish a responsibility chain so at very least I would expect the manager to also get fired.

Google doesn’t care about these antics. They, like all employers, don’t want their employees to have meaningful bargaining power.

They did say Mac Pro:

https://www.hardwarezone.com.sg/tech-news-fully-spec-apple-m...

Taking into account the exchange rate that works out to about 55K USD.

Whoops you're right. I misread.

Well, there have been plenty of stories about toxic managers in tech companies. If your manager said it was okay to hit on your coworker does that absolve your responsibility to have good judgement?

And as far as having “bargaining power” they are tech workers at Google. If they have even a modicum of skills they have the ultimate power - they can walk away and get another job.

Heck, I’ve worked at a bunch of no name companies over 20 years and even I can walk out of the office and have another job in two weeks and this is nowhere near the west coast.

A single employee walking away has no power to change the status quo at google. A lot of them, however, do. That's what google and all employers wants to crush before it has a chance to coalesce.

Or maybe they just don’t want to give up their salary and RSUs.....