News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Why I Quit Google’s WebAssembly Team, and How It Made Me Sick. Parent comment

Re:Why I Quit Google’s WebAssembly Team, and How It Made Me ... by question_away on Wednesday May 11, 2022 @01:09PM (#31342854)
If OP's description is what constitutes a "toxic workplace" then any service job/Amazon warehouse/construction job is also toxic. From what I read, I would describe OP's team as severely dysfunctional and the bar for "toxic" should be higher (generally, indicating some level of malice).

I think it's damaging to dilute terms like "toxic" by using them to describe a situation that is generally stressful and widely experienced.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Why I Quit Google’s WebAssembly Team, and How It Made Me ... by eropple on Wednesday May 11, 2022 @03:06PM (#31344357)
> If OP's description is what constitutes a "toxic workplace" then any service job/Amazon warehouse/construction job is also toxic.

> I think it's damaging to dilute terms like "toxic" by using them to describe a situation that is generally stressful and widely experienced.

This characterization is inches away from an epiphany.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Why I Quit Google’s WebAssembly Team, and How It Made Me ... by question_away on Wednesday May 11, 2022 @03:26PM (#31344607)
I think every nihilist has the "epiphany" you're implying.

My point is that any service job/Amazon warehouse/construction job is generally stressful, has unproductive meetings, and callous bosses but this is not my bar for "toxic". I'd raise that a bit higher to apply to Activision, Goldman, etc. where there's a level of malice.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Why I Quit Google’s WebAssembly Team, and How It Made Me ... by eropple on Wednesday May 11, 2022 @03:48PM (#31344849)
What you are suggesting is "nihilism" would, by people who have not decided to norm bad things, perhaps look a lot more like communalism.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Why I Quit Google’s WebAssembly Team, and How It Made Me ... by kibwen on Wednesday May 11, 2022 @01:13PM (#31342914)
Just because something is widely experienced doesn't mean we must dismiss criticisms of it.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Why I Quit Google’s WebAssembly Team, and How It Made Me ... by question_away on Wednesday May 11, 2022 @01:18PM (#31343006)
No, but if we're lowering the bar for what constitutes "toxic" to something that is widely experienced then that is inherently dismissive of actually toxic work environments that are not widely experienced.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Why I Quit Google’s WebAssembly Team, and How It Made Me ... by joepie91_ on Friday May 13, 2022 @09:10AM (#31367106)
Toxic work environments are widespread. Their widespread nature doesn't somehow magically make them not qualify as 'toxic'. And if anything, it should prompt wider changes in industry, because clearly it is not an isolated incident.
[ Parent | on HN ]