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Read Google's memo warning employees to 'think again'

by cyclecount on 4/19/24, 4:07 PM with 78 comments

• by dbrueck on 4/19/24, 4:36 PM

  Personally, I like Google's response to this, and the whole idea of publicly campaigning against your employer (especially during normal business hours) is completely foreign to me. Maybe I'm just an old fogey, but "back in my day" you'd earn lots of money and then go use that money to advance your social causes on your own time and in your own way.

  If you disagree with the company's direction, then do what you can through normal channels to change it. If you don't have that kind of power, then vote with your feet and leave. Go work somewhere else. Go start your own company and run it how you want.

  And BTW, if your protest can't have any meaningful consequences to you - if there's no real potential "cost" to you - then it's not a protest but a performance.

• by wunderland on 4/19/24, 4:31 PM

  This happened two days ago, but I didn't hear anything about it until today. I am a heavy HN user. Why wasn't this on the front page?

  Edit: it appears that every post about Israel is getting flagged (often after receiving tons of upvotes and often hundreds of comments): https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=pastMonth&page=0&prefix=fa...

  where is this censorship coming from? @dang?

• by endtime on 4/19/24, 4:34 PM

  I have a strong preference for non-activist workplaces. If I'm not values-aligned with an employer I can always leave. So I'm glad to see Google take a firm stance here. I'd expect the same reaction if the protesters were chanting about the Israeli hostages held by Hamas rather than in support of the other side.

  Meta: this thread is much more useful and relevant to HN as a discussion of workplace culture than a flamewar about Israel.

• by BitwiseFool on 4/19/24, 4:47 PM

  >"If you're one of the few who are tempted to think we're going to overlook conduct that violates our policies, think again," Google said in the memo. "The company takes this extremely seriously."

  Sounds like past protests and symbolic gestures on other topics were tolerated because those views had no effect on Google's bottom line, or because management agreed with those views. Not on this one, though. When it really counts dissent will not be tolerated.

• by jolj on 4/19/24, 4:46 PM

  Probably 6 (?) years too late but it's about time Google handles their vast amount of employees who feel like they own the company.

  Shame it happened after they lost LLMs to OpenAI through misguided AI "ethics" groups who are really the same people as above

• by hsp6 on 4/19/24, 4:42 PM

  Problem is the "leaders" who survive longest within corporate wonderland, dont really stand for anything, beyond their own survival. Its like dealing with a race of machines.

• by js8 on 4/19/24, 4:28 PM

  That's the banality of evil.

• by javier123454321 on 4/19/24, 4:35 PM

  I mean, regardless of the opinion on the issue at hand, the 'protesters' did what they set out to do. They brought attention to google's polices that are in relation to the war. At any rate, if you are taking over your employers' campus, preventing others from working, your expectation should be that you will not be working there anymore. The thing that confuses me is the narrative that them being fired is a kind of unexpected move.

• by drewrv on 4/19/24, 4:43 PM

  Is there any deeper reporting on this?

  There seems like a big disconnect between Google's claims: "defaced our property, physically impeded the work of other Googlers... and made co-workers feel threatened" and the claims of the arrested employee: "The group of employees sat in the office and gave chants and speeches every 15 to 20 minutes until about 6 p.m."

• by justinsaccount on 4/19/24, 4:32 PM

  > The overwhelming majority of our employees do the right thing.

  Do they?

• by ChrisArchitect on 4/19/24, 4:54 PM

  Related:

  Google CEO: Building for our AI future

  https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40085758

• by swat535 on 4/19/24, 11:36 PM

  I wonder if the reaction from Google would the reaction be the same if they were protesting for LGBTQ? or BLM? or would they be happily cheered on here.

  And should those employees had been fired, would HN have a melt down about free speech and expression? I could absolutely imagine a full investigation into Google's leadership in that case.

  Let's not pretend that certain causes gets a free pass while others don't. Will there no longer be politics at Google now? I guess we will have to wait until the BLM outbreak to determine but I doubt it.

  For the record I don't have any specific comments on this war and I think what Google thing was right and politics don't have a place in the workforce but I feel obliged to point out the hypocrisy.

  Either you are a company full of activist and embrace it or you shut it down entirely. You don't get to pick and choose your favorite cause; it just makes you look spineless.

• by myself248 on 4/19/24, 4:35 PM

  > The overwhelming majority of our employees do the right thing.

  Who's defining "right", here?

• by altairprime on 4/19/24, 4:34 PM

  > Google fired 28 employees involved in protests

  This is incorrect; every uninvolved worker who spoke to them was also terminated.

  https://www.thehandbasket.co/p/google-worker-fired-protest-i...

• by 1vuio0pswjnm7 on 4/20/24, 12:44 AM

  Sounds like one of America's "Best Places to Work".

• by Balvarez on 4/19/24, 4:37 PM

  While it is within Google's rights to do what they did. I find myself less and less inclined to use Google's products.

• by zac23or on 4/19/24, 6:59 PM

  Flagged again. Is HN like this now?

• by SamSkjord on 4/19/24, 4:27 PM

  'Don't be evil'

• by JohnMakin on 4/19/24, 4:40 PM

  Pretty disappointing to see this site censoring this story

• by CommanderData on 4/19/24, 4:29 PM

  Did Nazi Germany's media brandished people protesting Germany's extinction of Jews as a fringe group and a bit wacky?

  I think people lost their jobs and sometimes killed for protesting extermination of a population.

  Today we remember them as brave heroes.

• by zypher99 on 4/19/24, 4:35 PM

  I've seen a lot prominent folks deriding the employees. It's well known that IBM played a key role in the Holocaust [1]. It's also clear at this point that Israel's offensive has reached or is close to 'Genocide' status [2]. It's incredibly poor taste to deride these employees for doing whatever means are in their disposal to prevent what happened with IBM. What would you do if you worked at IBM during the Holocaust?

  [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_and_the_Holocaust [2] https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/02/26/israel-not-complying-wor...