Sure "it's a business" but does that give it a green card to act how it pleases?
We're getting into the philosophy of what we want businesses to be in our society. More and more people are realizing that the inhumane structure a business operates in isn't acceptable to them, and would like to have a say in what they're doing.
This person left Google because Google was getting into the business of killing people - sure you might be comfortable with that. But your opinion isn't any more valid than someone who doesn't work in Google.
So please, stop telling people how to behave and act and protest. We're not putting in 100 hour weeks because someone before you had the audacity to go say the current system is inhumane.
You don't have to be that person, but you also don't have to be the person who stands in their way.
of course, yes! As long as it stays within the boundaries set by the law. Do you not act as you please? Do you not eat a $40 meal while a homeless person is lying outside in the cold? DO you not send your kid to a private school at $100k/year while the kid down the street (down the highway) struggles for school supplies?
> So please, stop telling people how to behave and act and protest. We're not putting in 100 hour weeks because someone before you had the audacity to go say the current system is inhumane.
I am not tell you how to behave, I am tell you to not tell the company how to behave. You are free to leave and go do what you think is right.
This comment posits that companies act in a closed system. Companies don't just act within the boundaries set by the law, they actively seek to directly change laws by lobbying and to change the interpretation of laws through litigation in order to best suit their interests. They are political agents as are their workers.
It might bring more gray area into your life but like it or not what you do for your day job can have moral implications. You may have taken this post as a personal attack because you work at Google, which may be why you are so vociferously arguing against it. But even if one disagrees with where this person drew the line I think it behooves everybody to at least occasionally reflect on the ethical implications of how they spend their time, especially in tech where what you work on can easily affect millions or billions of people.
I'd hope this discussion would be more about the merit of where this line was drawn in this case rather than whether or not one is even justified in taking a moral stance instead of just putting their head down and shutting up or quitting.
That's telling me how to behave. The company is just an entity that needs to follow the set of guidelines set by people living in that society.
But your lectures while driving past the homeless in a $100K tesla on your way to swank vacations are tiresome - particularly as you build that money off the status quo you are so eager to say is terrible.
False dichotomy. You don't need to quit your job to work to change the status quo. Indeed, you can often effect change much better from inside an important organization than from outside it.
You don't need to change your job - but if you are getting paid very well to do a job, then posting long internet postings about how terrible it is to work at an "important organization" risks getting you some eye-rolls.
1. Work in the current system and try to slowly impact it and change how it behaves.
2. Start a violent revolution and start a civil war which will end in millions dead.
Which one do you prefer I do?
I also HAVE to participate in this system if I want to live. That's one of the reasons I want to change the system.
My participation in this system isn't consensual.
Go change the guidelines. No need to tell anyone anything at that point.
Those guidelines are the laws. We elect congress and a president who passes laws, and what those are comes back to us.
Within those laws, we have capitalism. If company A goes beyond that, and company B doesn't, guess who survives?
Pressuring an employer to act outside of those bounds isn't helpful. What is helpful is realigning incentive structures at a system level. Radical proposals -- like eliminating NDAs, mandating open source for firmware, right-to-repair, and so on -- feel oppressive when one looks through the lens of private right to contract. When one looks at a systemic level, they result in much greater freedom for everyone.
Most executives would like to be good, but they're between a rock and a hard place, and walk a thin line. Laws are what determine where that line is.
Go change the guidelines. No need to tell anyone anything at that point.
This, it's even mandated by law to appease shareholders by making as much money as possible. Google changing their ways might just increase the number of shareholder x company lawsuits their legal team has to sort out.
https://www.litigationandtrial.com/2010/09/articles/series/s...
"modern corporate law does not require for-profit corporations to pursue profit at the expense of everything else, and many do not do so." --Burwell vs. Hobby Lobby (US Supreme Court, 2014) [0]
Overall, the author is right in trying to promote people to leave Google, as remaining quiet weakens the whole point of them leaving.
This is true for the author as well. He worked at google for 15 years, he is probably a multi-millionaire. It's easy to take a stance once they money has been raked in.
All employees, contractors and business partners who are working with or for Google have had those or similar pitches thrown at them. They are hopefully part of the reasons why they chose Google and each has a right to complain when they don't get what they signed up for.
If people apply their conscience anywhere then great, but surely one step at a time, maybe the author will run for president one day, fix homelessness and buy everyone SUVs, but we can only do one battle at a time and it seems like he's got some good domain knowledge about Google to tackle this one.
Basically, Google paid them enough to retire early, and they cashed all those checks and now want to bite the hand that fed them. Must be nice.
I mean, I think you have...on literally every post I make...saying people like me aren't smart so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
> If you don't like your current job
I like it fine, I just don't like people implying I'm lesser.
I frequently run in to people who are: 1) always been at Google and enjoyed the fruits of its rise or at another similar environment 2) never had to deal with frugality or lack of funding for anything 3) see themselves are superior to everyone else - in terms of how enlightened they are, how they know whats best for everyone 4) feel that they have an absolute say in anything Google does
These people do not know the realities of the world. Plain and simple. They had a good life and think that is it.
One thing they dont seem to realize is that almost everyone else has had to deal with growth challenges, lack of capital and access to resources. No one exists to only make the world better. Contrary to their disbelief, most people and organizations, including themselves and Google, have the first priority to survive, to grow, to flourish and to abide by all applicable laws. Once this is satisfied, they move on to grander things like charity, investing in the well being of others etc.
The very reason these people have the capability to leave their jobs for whatever reason is that they already took care of the first priority - to survive and thrive, courtesy Google.
Google is a business, and as a business it has the fiduciary duty to serve itself and its interests first.
If these people have any conscience that they claim to have, they need to stop pointing at Google, stop riding in their luxury SUVs, stop eating in insanely expensive restaurants, stop vacationing in luxury resorts, stop purchasing multi million dollar homes, and first go try to serve in the government to change the laws and society in which we all live and abide by.
Stop trying to tell a large corporation to stop doing business and make profits, go change the society in which it operates. Then we will talk.
Enough of the BS.
You dont like working here, move on. Let us have the opportunity to contribute and grow and be successful.