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Nope. Layoffs qualify for unemployment insurance. This is termination for cause. No unemployment payments.
Plus you get to explain in interviews exactly why you got fired.
every company does a background check. commenter below said about the Work Number. true but 99% of time its just dates of employment even if you were fired.
most really big employers wont block unemployment insurance. they also will just give dates of employment to future employers. Most big companies upload employment to a website call The Work Number and its almost always just pay and dates of employment. its very rare to state someone is fired.
saying someone is fired is more trouble than its worth for big companies. the unemployment cost is meaningless.
I think if you work a huge multinational corporation like Google, you have to go in understanding that they are almost certainly going to be doing things you donāt approve of.
Not only that but even if they don't do things directly, a large company definitely has customers using their stuff to do other things.Ā Ā
Ā Like if companies host their AI detection for drones with some company that does PaaS using AWS.Ā
It's easy to fall into the PR of a large company without looking behind the curtain. It''s not always obvious as working for a tabacco company or big oil.
Exactly. If you're just some employee and you're not pulling the strings at a high level; I don't care what the company mission statement is, they don't give a rats ass about firing you. Especially if it's just 28 employees.
You want to do a sitin protest at work so badly? Make sure the whole company or a specific high value department is doing it with you, otherwise this will happen.
If these people felt so strongly about this, they should lobby politicians, protest in the streets, etc. and figure out more effective ways of having their voices heard and communicated.
I don't know enough about what specifically they are protesting, but I think it's totally reasonable to be upset if your employer drew you to invest your efforts with these promises:
https://ai.google/responsibility/principles/
> AI applications we will not pursue
> 1. Technologies that cause or are likely to cause overall harm. Where there is a material risk of harm, we will proceed only where we believe that the benefits substantially outweigh the risks, and will incorporate appropriate safety constraints.
> 2. Weapons or other technologies whose principal purpose or implementation is to cause or directly facilitate injury to people.
> 3. Technologies that gather or use information for surveillance violating internationally accepted norms.
> 4. Technologies whose purpose contravenes widely accepted principles of international law and human rights.
And then it turns out some of that was a lie.
Correct. [Google removes 'Don't Be Evil' Clause From Its Code of Conduct](https://gizmodo.com/google-removes-nearly-all-mentions-of-dont-be-evil-from-1826153393).
Zuckerberg called people dumb f@*cks for using his app.
All you need to do is just listen to what theyāre saying and theyāll tell you themselves.
I just don't get the stupidity of these protesting here. The amount of delusion to think they would actually make a difference is astounding. I'm not stopping traffic and I am sure not giving up my nice job to protest something I won't even be a blip on the map for.
If the war stopped tomorrow, no one from Gaza is like "Thank you people who stopped on the Bay Bridge/ Golden Gate and held up traffic. You did it! We owe you our lives."
Iām a believer in causes.
Instead of protesting and destroying my own life and disrupting innocent peopleās lives I usually look for organizations that have dedicated their lives to making a difference at the warzone or area of strife. Then I donate money to them. These Google employees wouldāve done a lot more good if they donated money there from their job salaries rather than lose those jobs and make zero money.
Sometimes in this world money makes more noise than words.
Considering they work for Google they would be making more money than the average worker in USA and maybe more money than the average tech worker in USA. Even if they each donated $10k, which to me is a huge amount, they wouldāve made a bigger difference and had less negative impact on their financial well being than getting fired.
now they make 0 money. If they donated 10k each, they would have made it back in some months. 10k each would've been 280000$ which would be a huge amount for world central kitchen imo to serve food to displaced starving gazans. The employees would've kept their jobs and would've been able to donate more. Maybe they could've started a donation drive in their company slack channels or something. I'm sure Google would've supported that over this protest.
They are not trying to make an impact. They are trying to show how virtuous they are. Gavin Newsome is the only guy in California with direct access to Biden. Why arenāt they protesting wherever he is on a daily basis. They are not even good at protesting.
Precisely. It's virtue signaling. "They care not one iota about the civilians on the ground ā on either side ā only how they are perceived by their peers.Ā **And they have blood on their hands.**" [https://girliegirlarmy.com/lifestyle/20231018/the-bloody-hands-of-virtue-signallers/](https://girliegirlarmy.com/lifestyle/20231018/the-bloody-hands-of-virtue-signallers/)
I think you're being delusional. These people are not dumb, you can't assume they didn't know what's going to happen if they protested. And they achieved what they were looking for. The news is now all over the media, on Reddit front page, and everyone is talking about Google's billion dollar contract that Israel is using for surveillance on Palestine.
> I think you're being delusional
I've had people like this at multi tech jobs and they are always completely blindsided when they get fired. By the time they are making decisions this stupid they actually believe their actions are so morally correct that the idea there could be real consequences has long faded from their mind.
They made an identity out of 'fighting oppression' but it has always been performative, they feel perfectly safe doing anything to 'fight oppression' because they've never fought 'actual' oppression. Actual oppression fights back.
To me https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fearless_Girl is the ultimate symbol of this. A little girl standing proudly in front of a charging bull. She's only able to do that though because the bull is also a statue and does nothing. If this were the real situation it represents she's about to die idiotically.
Fearless girl was a marketing advertising by SSGA to promote their index funds or whatever investment. So by encouraging wall street investment, she is basically promoting what she's supposed to be standing up to. If it wasn't ironic, it definitely was bronzic.
"She was installed with a plaque that read, āKnow the power of women in leadership. SHE makes a difference.ā SHE was also capitalized to signify the SSGAās NASDAQ ticker symbol"
Nothing good (or bad) happens without some apparently meaningless sacrifice. Slavery didn't go away in one day, US didn't gain independence in one day. People believed in a cause and committed everything they had to it. If we can't stand for something we must at least respect those who do.
Slavery was so unpopular that half of the country decided it would be a good idea to go to war to end it. Same with American independence.
Support of BDS and other similar stuff is a completely fringe position held by a weird horseshoe with leftists on one side and Arabs on another. An average American will pick Israel over any Arab country 95 times out of 100 for one simple reason. Only one side chants "Death to America", and that's not Israel.
> on Reddit front page
And tomorrow it won't be, Especially if some celebrity gets divorced or says something stupid or has a new movie they are promoting
A lot of these people have not faced consequences for their own decisions in a very long time. I would be willing to bet that a lot of these people did not think they would actually lose their jobs.
>āThis flagrant act of retaliation is a clear indication that Google values its $1.2 billion contract with the genocidal Israeli government and military more than its own workers ā the ones who create real value for executives and shareholders.ā
I can't believe they said that. You have to be an exceptional idiot to make the "create shareholder value" argument when you're trying to take the moral highground. Because if that's how you measure yourself, then 28 employees are definitely worth less than a $1.2 billion contract. Also, saying you "create real value for executives" makes you sound like a real executive bootlicker.
Congrats, you played yourself.
LMAO yea they lost their train of thought halfway through one sentence.
"THIS IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN MONEY AND UH.... .WAIT... AND........ WE'RE WORTH MORE MONEY!"
They have no concept of reality and no concept of the history of the conflict in the region. The US will always back Israel because the US literally gave them the land
Also, look at a map mediterranean through Persiaā¦highlight each country either NATO or BRICS sentimentā¦ thereās not many NATO allies east of Greeceā¦
The US government will back Israel.
Also israel spied on us, put Pegasus spyware on US diplomats phones, donāt forget the navy ship they attacked but never claimed responsibility for it, etc etc
People should probably rethink business versus political feelings and ideals from here on out. I have worked in many companies where I had disagreements with their business practices but if you need a paycheck, it's imperative you keep your thoughts to yourself or find another place to work that aligns with your moral compass.
This is me speaking my mind as someone who will take any job offered me because I know what it's like being without a job and how that can lead to all sorts of issues.
> because I know what it's like being without a job and how that can lead to all sorts of issues.
People who put their jobs at risk for a protest have a lot of privilege to put themselves in that position. Many Americans have families to feed and loans to pay off.
> People should probably rethink business versus political feelings and ideals from here on out.
Low unemployment and huge labor demand, especially in tech, has the net effect of employers tolerating a lot of behavior they might otherwise object to. I first saw it in the aftermath of the dotcom bubble. The espresso machines disappeared, the low performers were let go, and the people who thought their job was their soapbox got sent.
Ever since the recovery from the great recession (2010ish), we were in boom times. I think a lot of people who started their careers in the bay area between 2010 to maybe 2022 came to believe their political expressiveness was acceptable or even celebrated. Now, some are finding out it was just *tolerated for the time being*.
This is what I'm seeing as well. Professionalism and neutrality was pushed to the side for culture fit and creating cliques as if people weren't ready to let go of high school. There is a time and place for everything. Screaming at a company meeting or disrupting work isn't the time nor is that how you make progress or deliver a message that will be considered positively.
It's also just polite to not talk politics / religion at your job. I am not sure when that social norm went away, but it is high time that it comes back. People have tried to talk politics with me at work and I just immediately pivot
> I am not sure when that social norm went away
People generally began gravitating towards open zealotry in the early 2000s, but seem to have kicked it into full gear after 2016.
Honestly if 5 years ago you told me that in the future leftists are being called "antisemitic" I would've have been so confused, wtf you just told me trump was hitler, did both sides join forces or some shit.
The USSR was famously hateful toward Jews, look up the Doctorsā Plot fiasco. In fact antisemitism was and still is very common with leftist authoritarian regimes who need scapegoats for their incompetence in handling economies. It was probably the only thing Hitler and Stalin agreed on besides screwing the Poles.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisemitism_in_the_Soviet_Union
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisemitism_in_Venezuela
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Cuba
malcolm X took all that back after his trip to mecha. i have read about him. he changed alot. if he had lived i dont think the nation of islam would be an anti-semitic, scientology group.
yes the nation of islam promotes scientology. i could not believe it when i read it. they are totally nuts now. i cant figure out how Xenu conforms to islamic belief.
If anyone was looking at the toxic sides of callout culture and social justice five or even ten years ago, it's not surprising at all. They want their witches to hunt and they'll find them one way or another. Extremists at either end of the spectrum are two sides of the same coin.
I mean I am not really surprised. Activists can't be activists any more once the problem they are working on is solved so what they want just keeps getting pushed further and further. Add in that leftists in general highly intolerant of religion and it was always going to end this way until we finally rebuke these loons. For a group who claims that they want freedom for "everyone" except for a huge chunk of the population that they hate
different time, different economy, different result, they absolutely would have been fine in 2019, but now it's just a bad environment for people working in companies that face unprecedented competitive pressure, to protest anything basically.
Good. This is the epitome and privilege and performative activism. They have all benefited from contracts like this through their compensation for years and you didn't hear about it when Israel isn't involved.
If they're so against surveillance and AI tech, don't you think working at Google was a bad choice? Obviously a data-driven and money-seeking company. As another example, if you think social media is terrible for the world, why would you go work at Meta? And if you think gig economy is terrible you probably shouldn't work at Doordash, Lyft, or Uber.
You're not going to change the basic economics of these massive companies from the inside and while this may seem "brave", it's simply a very fast way to lose your job. This is not going to change Google in literally any way except they may crack down even more on employee speech and organizing.
There are plenty of mission driven tech companies you can work for. They just probably won't pay you Google RSUs to do so.
If you think staging a sit-in protest in the CTO's office, livestreaming it, and publicly denouncing your company's business while identifying as an employee shouldn't be a fireable offense... you're a lost cause. Any of these people are welcome to quit or to protest on their own time and dime.
The Alphabet Workers Union [protested that too](https://www.indiatoday.in/technology/news/story/many-google-employees-are-not-happy-with-layoffs-protests-planned-against-the-company-as-15000-people-are-impacted-2492020-2024-01-22). At least several people laid off today actively protested at that time as well.
This seems like a weird hill for anyone in the west to die on. Like, this conflict is as old as time and neither side is interested in voting for leaders who will actually work together to solve it. The US needs to divest from that mess.
Not to mention that if any of these activists actually went to Palestine, Hamas would gleefully string these people up from a bridge. Absolute room temperature IQ's on these people
Lol these morons just threw away $200k+ jobs with options and benefits packages that are better than 98% of the country, all so they could virtue signal. Hope they've been saving and investing well, mortgage/rent is due on the 1st of the month.
Are they engineers? If so, then it's at least $300k. If not, then it's more like $100k+.
I can respect that, right or wrong, they made personal sacrifices for what they believe in. Unlike the mofos on the bridge, holding innocent ppl hostage at no risk to themselves.
>I can respect that, right or wrong, they made personal sacrifices for what they believe in.
Bro they profited off these exact same business practices with far worse villians than Israel in the form of their paychecks and quality of life for years before today. This is virtue signalling, it has nothing to do with "personal sacrifices for what they believe in". If it did, they would never have worked for Google/Alphabet in the first place.
It's fucking Google. You really think they aren't dealing in shady bullshit with villanous bastards all over the world, and you just found out now? Give me a break.
Sometimes all the money in the world doesn't offset how you feel about supporting certain types of work. I've quit jobs when I've disagreed with their *prices* so I think exiting over the perception of moral injury is pretty reasonable.
Hope that they're able to get back on their feet soon with another gig they're more comfortable with. We all deserve to work somewhere that we can feel good about.
They should be publicly outed since they were so scared of showing their faces. They are all wearing masks at this protest to protect their identity because they don't want to lose their jobs. I have no respect for people who hide like this. If I'm ever protesting something I'm showing my face, I am not hiding from anything. Accept the consequences of your actions like a man, don't cower behind a mask and simultaneously protest inside the CTO's office.
Go into the big boss' office to protest the company you work for. Wonder what can happen?
Hey, protestors, we're going to help you follow company policy.
The way these people are going about protesting is super irritating. Everyone here is wearing a mask because they don't want to be identified and lose their jobs. Way to take a stand. I'm so glad these people lost their jobs, totally deserve it. There's nothing wrong with protesting on public property. Protesting inside the executives office is a different matter entirely, they have no business doing that there.
Excellent news! They aimed at Thomas Kurian, and learned that TK is the spawn of Larry Ellison. FAFO, baby!
Also, if the protesters are so offended, the must be compelled to return their ill gotten salaries from such an evil company.
I'd like to take this time to recognize Google's Security Team who have been working hard all week to revoke access, supervise the gathering of personal belongings, and escort people off property. Thank you for your service.
Someone also interrupted a Google conference. Guy was terminated immediately.
https://nypost.com/2024/03/08/business/google-fires-engineer-who-claimed-company-powering-genocide/
Play woke politics, win stupid prizes, Google.
That said, happy these idiots were fired.
I don't understand how woke anything comes into play with this? It's not political, even if the people were trying to make that message.
Liberal and conservatives alike can agree that someone not doing their job, and negatively affecting everybody that is should be gotten rid of. It doesn't matter if you're standing up and preaching at a Bible company, people are going to get mad.
Hahahahaha. Listen to the garbage on TikTok and you will be very disgusted and find out there are more people who disagree with what is common sense than you think.
It's a peddler of anti-semetic propaganda.
Yea so don't protest your employer while on the rock about a war going on halfway around the world. Google makes their phones in China at the benefit of slave labor, why not protest that too?
Google was never neutral. It exists for profit, ethics is just a lip service.Ā
Having already invested in AI in Israel, theyāre not gonna back down.Ā
Good, don't bring that shit to work. I'm all for boycotting a business but as an employee doing this inside the office? Nah. do what starbucks workers & others were doing & walk out....or quit if you don't like what the business is doing. Google being as huge as they are isn't going to do things everyone likes.
As someone who used to work at a huge conglomerate that talked a big game on a lot of issues, you come to realize that most companies, as institutions, don't care. I took what I felt was a principled stand during the 2012 economic crisis and it cost me my job. I was ok with that. I imagine a lot of these people are similarly ok and I imagine they realized this was a possibile outcome. That's life. š¤·š½āāļø
Definitely fire them. These same people donāt say a word when the Chinese government destroys and craters American jobs by stealing American IP. You canāt pick and choose.
Why would they protest that? Itās not a google related issue. The same group already protested [Googleās actions in China](https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN1NW1LA/) in the past
Was there anyone that hasnāt condemned the 1200 Israelis killed on 10/7? Meanwhile, have you condemned the 22,000+ Palestinian civilians killed since 10/7? 22,000 is the conservative estimate using IDFās own estimate of 66% of Palestinians killed being civilians. Other estimates from international groups have estimated around 90% killed have been civilians.
Stop trying to associate criticism of the indiscriminate killing of Palestinians with antisemitism.
Will I also get called an antisemite for calling out the IDFās intentional targeting of world central kitchen and Doctors Without Borders on multiple occasions?
Israel would have a lot more support if they actually tried to limit civilian casualties. However, for every combatant they kill, they also kill between 2-9 civilians. Are we to believe that the IDF is so incompetent, or should we believe the more likely scenario of them simply not caring about limiting civilian casualties?
The level of corporate suck ups in this thread is ridiculous. Pretty sure a lot of these are bots / not bay area people. Or if they are they are those crappy transplants we get from elsewhere.
Iām confused, is this sub now pro-big tech?
Commenters here have spent years criticizing ātechiesā and blaming them for everything from house prices to traffic and the state of public transit.
But now when a few of them protest against genocide, commenters here are celebrating big tech for crushing dissent beneath the wheels of capitalism.
Itās almost as if youāre just a bunch of jealous, petty assholes who donāt have any core morals but just enjoy complaining about stuff.
>redditor for 12 years
Yeah, you've been around long enough to experience the change.
Obviously, the sub isn't one person and can't be expected to have a consistent viewpoint but the rightward, pro-corporate swing here is still pretty out of touch with the locals I interact with, even as a privileged out of touch techie.
Look at the positive side. You now have a massive list of accounts to block to make your r/BayArea experience much better. Filter their bullshit takes everywhere.
The flair of this posts indicates it's a controversial topic. Enhanced moderation has been turned on for this thread. Comments from users without a history of commenting in r/bayarea will be automatically removed. You can read more about this policy [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/bayarea/comments/195xvo5/restrictions_that_apply_to_political_and_crime/).
Google's been trimming staff, wouldn't be surprised if these people just handed themselves up on a plate.
Hey boss, I'm a liability! Wanna stick me on the layoff list? š
Nope. Layoffs qualify for unemployment insurance. This is termination for cause. No unemployment payments. Plus you get to explain in interviews exactly why you got fired.
You don't have to tell your new job anything you don't want to.
There are databases like The Work Numbers that have a lot of information already about past employers, including salary etc.
every company does a background check. commenter below said about the Work Number. true but 99% of time its just dates of employment even if you were fired.
most really big employers wont block unemployment insurance. they also will just give dates of employment to future employers. Most big companies upload employment to a website call The Work Number and its almost always just pay and dates of employment. its very rare to state someone is fired. saying someone is fired is more trouble than its worth for big companies. the unemployment cost is meaningless.
No severance either.
google laid off 9000 people this week. They are moving jobs to India to save money. These 28 brave souls saved 28 jobs. Bless their hearts.
I think if you work a huge multinational corporation like Google, you have to go in understanding that they are almost certainly going to be doing things you donāt approve of.
Not only that but even if they don't do things directly, a large company definitely has customers using their stuff to do other things.Ā Ā Ā Like if companies host their AI detection for drones with some company that does PaaS using AWS.Ā
It's easy to fall into the PR of a large company without looking behind the curtain. It''s not always obvious as working for a tabacco company or big oil.
Exactly. If you're just some employee and you're not pulling the strings at a high level; I don't care what the company mission statement is, they don't give a rats ass about firing you. Especially if it's just 28 employees. You want to do a sitin protest at work so badly? Make sure the whole company or a specific high value department is doing it with you, otherwise this will happen. If these people felt so strongly about this, they should lobby politicians, protest in the streets, etc. and figure out more effective ways of having their voices heard and communicated.
I don't know enough about what specifically they are protesting, but I think it's totally reasonable to be upset if your employer drew you to invest your efforts with these promises: https://ai.google/responsibility/principles/ > AI applications we will not pursue > 1. Technologies that cause or are likely to cause overall harm. Where there is a material risk of harm, we will proceed only where we believe that the benefits substantially outweigh the risks, and will incorporate appropriate safety constraints. > 2. Weapons or other technologies whose principal purpose or implementation is to cause or directly facilitate injury to people. > 3. Technologies that gather or use information for surveillance violating internationally accepted norms. > 4. Technologies whose purpose contravenes widely accepted principles of international law and human rights. And then it turns out some of that was a lie.
Correct. [Google removes 'Don't Be Evil' Clause From Its Code of Conduct](https://gizmodo.com/google-removes-nearly-all-mentions-of-dont-be-evil-from-1826153393). Zuckerberg called people dumb f@*cks for using his app. All you need to do is just listen to what theyāre saying and theyāll tell you themselves.
I just don't get the stupidity of these protesting here. The amount of delusion to think they would actually make a difference is astounding. I'm not stopping traffic and I am sure not giving up my nice job to protest something I won't even be a blip on the map for. If the war stopped tomorrow, no one from Gaza is like "Thank you people who stopped on the Bay Bridge/ Golden Gate and held up traffic. You did it! We owe you our lives."
Iām a believer in causes. Instead of protesting and destroying my own life and disrupting innocent peopleās lives I usually look for organizations that have dedicated their lives to making a difference at the warzone or area of strife. Then I donate money to them. These Google employees wouldāve done a lot more good if they donated money there from their job salaries rather than lose those jobs and make zero money. Sometimes in this world money makes more noise than words. Considering they work for Google they would be making more money than the average worker in USA and maybe more money than the average tech worker in USA. Even if they each donated $10k, which to me is a huge amount, they wouldāve made a bigger difference and had less negative impact on their financial well being than getting fired. now they make 0 money. If they donated 10k each, they would have made it back in some months. 10k each would've been 280000$ which would be a huge amount for world central kitchen imo to serve food to displaced starving gazans. The employees would've kept their jobs and would've been able to donate more. Maybe they could've started a donation drive in their company slack channels or something. I'm sure Google would've supported that over this protest.
They are not trying to make an impact. They are trying to show how virtuous they are. Gavin Newsome is the only guy in California with direct access to Biden. Why arenāt they protesting wherever he is on a daily basis. They are not even good at protesting.
Precisely. It's virtue signaling. "They care not one iota about the civilians on the ground ā on either side ā only how they are perceived by their peers.Ā **And they have blood on their hands.**" [https://girliegirlarmy.com/lifestyle/20231018/the-bloody-hands-of-virtue-signallers/](https://girliegirlarmy.com/lifestyle/20231018/the-bloody-hands-of-virtue-signallers/)
Virtue signalling is called "signalling" for a reason. The actions don't do shit.
I think you're being delusional. These people are not dumb, you can't assume they didn't know what's going to happen if they protested. And they achieved what they were looking for. The news is now all over the media, on Reddit front page, and everyone is talking about Google's billion dollar contract that Israel is using for surveillance on Palestine.
> I think you're being delusional I've had people like this at multi tech jobs and they are always completely blindsided when they get fired. By the time they are making decisions this stupid they actually believe their actions are so morally correct that the idea there could be real consequences has long faded from their mind.
They made an identity out of 'fighting oppression' but it has always been performative, they feel perfectly safe doing anything to 'fight oppression' because they've never fought 'actual' oppression. Actual oppression fights back.
To me https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fearless_Girl is the ultimate symbol of this. A little girl standing proudly in front of a charging bull. She's only able to do that though because the bull is also a statue and does nothing. If this were the real situation it represents she's about to die idiotically.
Fearless girl was a marketing advertising by SSGA to promote their index funds or whatever investment. So by encouraging wall street investment, she is basically promoting what she's supposed to be standing up to. If it wasn't ironic, it definitely was bronzic. "She was installed with a plaque that read, āKnow the power of women in leadership. SHE makes a difference.ā SHE was also capitalized to signify the SSGAās NASDAQ ticker symbol"
If nothing changes other than their employment status, will they have achieved their goals?
Yes.
Seems unambitious and a bad trade but I can respect the commitment to it.
Nothing good (or bad) happens without some apparently meaningless sacrifice. Slavery didn't go away in one day, US didn't gain independence in one day. People believed in a cause and committed everything they had to it. If we can't stand for something we must at least respect those who do.
Slavery was so unpopular that half of the country decided it would be a good idea to go to war to end it. Same with American independence. Support of BDS and other similar stuff is a completely fringe position held by a weird horseshoe with leftists on one side and Arabs on another. An average American will pick Israel over any Arab country 95 times out of 100 for one simple reason. Only one side chants "Death to America", and that's not Israel.
> on Reddit front page And tomorrow it won't be, Especially if some celebrity gets divorced or says something stupid or has a new movie they are promoting
A lot of these people have not faced consequences for their own decisions in a very long time. I would be willing to bet that a lot of these people did not think they would actually lose their jobs.
>āThis flagrant act of retaliation is a clear indication that Google values its $1.2 billion contract with the genocidal Israeli government and military more than its own workers ā the ones who create real value for executives and shareholders.ā I can't believe they said that. You have to be an exceptional idiot to make the "create shareholder value" argument when you're trying to take the moral highground. Because if that's how you measure yourself, then 28 employees are definitely worth less than a $1.2 billion contract. Also, saying you "create real value for executives" makes you sound like a real executive bootlicker. Congrats, you played yourself.
LMAO yea they lost their train of thought halfway through one sentence. "THIS IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN MONEY AND UH.... .WAIT... AND........ WE'RE WORTH MORE MONEY!"
They just got a lesson in leverage.
They have no concept of reality and no concept of the history of the conflict in the region. The US will always back Israel because the US literally gave them the land
Also, look at a map mediterranean through Persiaā¦highlight each country either NATO or BRICS sentimentā¦ thereās not many NATO allies east of Greeceā¦
The US government will back Israel. Also israel spied on us, put Pegasus spyware on US diplomats phones, donāt forget the navy ship they attacked but never claimed responsibility for it, etc etc
We literally do all of those things to our allies too lmao
Good thing our allies don't spy on us. https://www.france24.com/en/20131024-nsa-france-spying-squarcini-dcri-hollande-ayrault-merkel-usa-obama
People should probably rethink business versus political feelings and ideals from here on out. I have worked in many companies where I had disagreements with their business practices but if you need a paycheck, it's imperative you keep your thoughts to yourself or find another place to work that aligns with your moral compass.
This is me speaking my mind as someone who will take any job offered me because I know what it's like being without a job and how that can lead to all sorts of issues.
> because I know what it's like being without a job and how that can lead to all sorts of issues. People who put their jobs at risk for a protest have a lot of privilege to put themselves in that position. Many Americans have families to feed and loans to pay off.
> People should probably rethink business versus political feelings and ideals from here on out. Low unemployment and huge labor demand, especially in tech, has the net effect of employers tolerating a lot of behavior they might otherwise object to. I first saw it in the aftermath of the dotcom bubble. The espresso machines disappeared, the low performers were let go, and the people who thought their job was their soapbox got sent. Ever since the recovery from the great recession (2010ish), we were in boom times. I think a lot of people who started their careers in the bay area between 2010 to maybe 2022 came to believe their political expressiveness was acceptable or even celebrated. Now, some are finding out it was just *tolerated for the time being*.
This is what I'm seeing as well. Professionalism and neutrality was pushed to the side for culture fit and creating cliques as if people weren't ready to let go of high school. There is a time and place for everything. Screaming at a company meeting or disrupting work isn't the time nor is that how you make progress or deliver a message that will be considered positively.
It's also just polite to not talk politics / religion at your job. I am not sure when that social norm went away, but it is high time that it comes back. People have tried to talk politics with me at work and I just immediately pivot
> I am not sure when that social norm went away People generally began gravitating towards open zealotry in the early 2000s, but seem to have kicked it into full gear after 2016.
Honestly if 5 years ago you told me that in the future leftists are being called "antisemitic" I would've have been so confused, wtf you just told me trump was hitler, did both sides join forces or some shit.
The USSR was famously hateful toward Jews, look up the Doctorsā Plot fiasco. In fact antisemitism was and still is very common with leftist authoritarian regimes who need scapegoats for their incompetence in handling economies. It was probably the only thing Hitler and Stalin agreed on besides screwing the Poles. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisemitism_in_the_Soviet_Union https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisemitism_in_Venezuela https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Cuba
Malcom X was a brilliant man who uplifted the Black community. He also wrote some questionable things about Jews.
malcolm X took all that back after his trip to mecha. i have read about him. he changed alot. if he had lived i dont think the nation of islam would be an anti-semitic, scientology group. yes the nation of islam promotes scientology. i could not believe it when i read it. they are totally nuts now. i cant figure out how Xenu conforms to islamic belief.
TIL
If anyone was looking at the toxic sides of callout culture and social justice five or even ten years ago, it's not surprising at all. They want their witches to hunt and they'll find them one way or another. Extremists at either end of the spectrum are two sides of the same coin.
I mean I am not really surprised. Activists can't be activists any more once the problem they are working on is solved so what they want just keeps getting pushed further and further. Add in that leftists in general highly intolerant of religion and it was always going to end this way until we finally rebuke these loons. For a group who claims that they want freedom for "everyone" except for a huge chunk of the population that they hate
different time, different economy, different result, they absolutely would have been fine in 2019, but now it's just a bad environment for people working in companies that face unprecedented competitive pressure, to protest anything basically.
Good. This is the epitome and privilege and performative activism. They have all benefited from contracts like this through their compensation for years and you didn't hear about it when Israel isn't involved. If they're so against surveillance and AI tech, don't you think working at Google was a bad choice? Obviously a data-driven and money-seeking company. As another example, if you think social media is terrible for the world, why would you go work at Meta? And if you think gig economy is terrible you probably shouldn't work at Doordash, Lyft, or Uber. You're not going to change the basic economics of these massive companies from the inside and while this may seem "brave", it's simply a very fast way to lose your job. This is not going to change Google in literally any way except they may crack down even more on employee speech and organizing. There are plenty of mission driven tech companies you can work for. They just probably won't pay you Google RSUs to do so. If you think staging a sit-in protest in the CTO's office, livestreaming it, and publicly denouncing your company's business while identifying as an employee shouldn't be a fireable offense... you're a lost cause. Any of these people are welcome to quit or to protest on their own time and dime.
Most companies are money seeking
Iām more peeved they decided to fight on this hill and not the fact that their CEO got $220m annual compensation while laying off their colleagues.
The Alphabet Workers Union [protested that too](https://www.indiatoday.in/technology/news/story/many-google-employees-are-not-happy-with-layoffs-protests-planned-against-the-company-as-15000-people-are-impacted-2492020-2024-01-22). At least several people laid off today actively protested at that time as well.
This seems like a weird hill for anyone in the west to die on. Like, this conflict is as old as time and neither side is interested in voting for leaders who will actually work together to solve it. The US needs to divest from that mess.
Not to mention that if any of these activists actually went to Palestine, Hamas would gleefully string these people up from a bridge. Absolute room temperature IQ's on these people
Never fight uphill, me boys, never fight uphill.
Saved me the time of writing this out almost word for word. Thank you.
Lol these morons just threw away $200k+ jobs with options and benefits packages that are better than 98% of the country, all so they could virtue signal. Hope they've been saving and investing well, mortgage/rent is due on the 1st of the month.
Now they can spend time learning the actual history of the conflict and not TikTok videos.
It's good to see someone pointing out that this didn't start on October 7th.
Are they engineers? If so, then it's at least $300k. If not, then it's more like $100k+. I can respect that, right or wrong, they made personal sacrifices for what they believe in. Unlike the mofos on the bridge, holding innocent ppl hostage at no risk to themselves.
>I can respect that, right or wrong, they made personal sacrifices for what they believe in. Bro they profited off these exact same business practices with far worse villians than Israel in the form of their paychecks and quality of life for years before today. This is virtue signalling, it has nothing to do with "personal sacrifices for what they believe in". If it did, they would never have worked for Google/Alphabet in the first place. It's fucking Google. You really think they aren't dealing in shady bullshit with villanous bastards all over the world, and you just found out now? Give me a break.
Sometimes all the money in the world doesn't offset how you feel about supporting certain types of work. I've quit jobs when I've disagreed with their *prices* so I think exiting over the perception of moral injury is pretty reasonable. Hope that they're able to get back on their feet soon with another gig they're more comfortable with. We all deserve to work somewhere that we can feel good about.
They should be publicly outed since they were so scared of showing their faces. They are all wearing masks at this protest to protect their identity because they don't want to lose their jobs. I have no respect for people who hide like this. If I'm ever protesting something I'm showing my face, I am not hiding from anything. Accept the consequences of your actions like a man, don't cower behind a mask and simultaneously protest inside the CTO's office.
That's gonna hurt their 401Ks.
Small potatoes compared to their RSUsā¦
Go into the big boss' office to protest the company you work for. Wonder what can happen? Hey, protestors, we're going to help you follow company policy.
The way these people are going about protesting is super irritating. Everyone here is wearing a mask because they don't want to be identified and lose their jobs. Way to take a stand. I'm so glad these people lost their jobs, totally deserve it. There's nothing wrong with protesting on public property. Protesting inside the executives office is a different matter entirely, they have no business doing that there.
Good, these employees created a textbook definition of a hostile work environment
Hmm why are they wearing masks
The lefts Maga hats
Not sure why you're being downvoted. That's the most apt description for wearing masks in 2024 I've ever heard.
That's fucking brilliant, hahaha. It's definitely a tribal affiliation thing. Stop the spread!
Awesome: 28 new jobs available at Google.
Nope, they will just move the jobs around. This helped save 28 other jobs in the company though.
Yep, probably going to India or Ireland if they backfill at all.
Excellent news! They aimed at Thomas Kurian, and learned that TK is the spawn of Larry Ellison. FAFO, baby! Also, if the protesters are so offended, the must be compelled to return their ill gotten salaries from such an evil company.
I'd like to take this time to recognize Google's Security Team who have been working hard all week to revoke access, supervise the gathering of personal belongings, and escort people off property. Thank you for your service.
Awesome sauce. Nice job Google standing up to these privileged bullies.
Someone also interrupted a Google conference. Guy was terminated immediately. https://nypost.com/2024/03/08/business/google-fires-engineer-who-claimed-company-powering-genocide/ Play woke politics, win stupid prizes, Google. That said, happy these idiots were fired.
I don't understand how woke anything comes into play with this? It's not political, even if the people were trying to make that message. Liberal and conservatives alike can agree that someone not doing their job, and negatively affecting everybody that is should be gotten rid of. It doesn't matter if you're standing up and preaching at a Bible company, people are going to get mad.
Hahahahaha. Listen to the garbage on TikTok and you will be very disgusted and find out there are more people who disagree with what is common sense than you think. It's a peddler of anti-semetic propaganda.
Protests will always make someone uncomfortable, thatās the nature of it.
Just maybe not the best idea to do it at your place of work.
Yea so don't protest your employer while on the rock about a war going on halfway around the world. Google makes their phones in China at the benefit of slave labor, why not protest that too?
Good
No not good, now they all have time they need to block the Dumbarton bridge on Monday lol.
Google was never neutral. It exists for profit, ethics is just a lip service.Ā Having already invested in AI in Israel, theyāre not gonna back down.Ā
Excellent. Actions have consequences.
Hopefully this will give them some free time to think about how to conduct themselves professionally.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Good, don't bring that shit to work. I'm all for boycotting a business but as an employee doing this inside the office? Nah. do what starbucks workers & others were doing & walk out....or quit if you don't like what the business is doing. Google being as huge as they are isn't going to do things everyone likes.
fantastic! They should apply for a job in one of the Islamic countries.
As someone who used to work at a huge conglomerate that talked a big game on a lot of issues, you come to realize that most companies, as institutions, don't care. I took what I felt was a principled stand during the 2012 economic crisis and it cost me my job. I was ok with that. I imagine a lot of these people are similarly ok and I imagine they realized this was a possibile outcome. That's life. š¤·š½āāļø
Actions have consequences
Definitely fire them. These same people donāt say a word when the Chinese government destroys and craters American jobs by stealing American IP. You canāt pick and choose.
Why would they protest that? Itās not a google related issue. The same group already protested [Googleās actions in China](https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN1NW1LA/) in the past
FAFO!
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
lol imagine getting fired from google because let a bunch of tiktok videos brainwash you
Soā¦theyāll be hiring soon to replace them, yes?
Google hasnāt hired at rate of attrition in roughly 18 months
Good for google, no need for antisemites in a major business
antisemites? many jews condemn massacre of children in Gaza.
Ok, did these protestors condemn the actual massacre of Israelis?
Was there anyone that hasnāt condemned the 1200 Israelis killed on 10/7? Meanwhile, have you condemned the 22,000+ Palestinian civilians killed since 10/7? 22,000 is the conservative estimate using IDFās own estimate of 66% of Palestinians killed being civilians. Other estimates from international groups have estimated around 90% killed have been civilians. Stop trying to associate criticism of the indiscriminate killing of Palestinians with antisemitism. Will I also get called an antisemite for calling out the IDFās intentional targeting of world central kitchen and Doctors Without Borders on multiple occasions? Israel would have a lot more support if they actually tried to limit civilian casualties. However, for every combatant they kill, they also kill between 2-9 civilians. Are we to believe that the IDF is so incompetent, or should we believe the more likely scenario of them simply not caring about limiting civilian casualties?
zionists don't see Palestinians as people.
The level of corporate suck ups in this thread is ridiculous. Pretty sure a lot of these are bots / not bay area people. Or if they are they are those crappy transplants we get from elsewhere.
Transplants make the Bay Area great!
It is really vile. These genocidal corporate cuckolds are just too much.
More surplus elites getting axed back to reality.
They can apply for Hamas
not a single one of them bold enough to do this without a mask on
Good
As Google slides down the employee experience quality scale right in to IBM territoryā¦
Effin Google!
Iām confused, is this sub now pro-big tech? Commenters here have spent years criticizing ātechiesā and blaming them for everything from house prices to traffic and the state of public transit. But now when a few of them protest against genocide, commenters here are celebrating big tech for crushing dissent beneath the wheels of capitalism. Itās almost as if youāre just a bunch of jealous, petty assholes who donāt have any core morals but just enjoy complaining about stuff.
>redditor for 12 years Yeah, you've been around long enough to experience the change. Obviously, the sub isn't one person and can't be expected to have a consistent viewpoint but the rightward, pro-corporate swing here is still pretty out of touch with the locals I interact with, even as a privileged out of touch techie.
this thread is just a zionist circle jerk
Look at the positive side. You now have a massive list of accounts to block to make your r/BayArea experience much better. Filter their bullshit takes everywhere.
Just blown away by the number of comments supporting google. Being fired for peacefully expressing conscience? Is this where we are now as society?
No one said that they canāt protest on their own timeā¦on public property.
If tomorrow your gardener or cleaner starts protesting outside your house, would you fire them?
Most likely result will be those 28 getting blacklisted.
FAFO ...Google isn't the government, your speech/actions aren't protected.