I further suspect that that story didn't get very much attention in the last submission because there isn't much of a story here:
> Just over a dozen people gathered outside Google’s offices in New York and Sunnyvale on Tuesday. Among those in New York was Google cloud software engineer Eddie Hatfield, who was fired days after disrupting Google Israel’s managing director at March’s Mind The Tech, a company-sponsored conference focused on the Israeli tech industry, in early March.
The most interesting thing about this is that someone who was recently fired was able to get into the Google Cloud CEO's office. I've been in much lower-profile buildings where security checked everyone in in the lobby and even with an escort you wouldn't be able to just go into the CEO's office.
The Google Cloud CEO's office is in SVL, not NYC (just fyi), so he wasn't there. Additionally, in Google's SVL offices, you can't operate the elevators without a badge (or even get into the elevator lobby without first badging in [or being escorted].
That said, unlike in a lot of companies, the executive office area (for Cloud) is not separated in any way from the offices in the rest of the building. This is not exactly the same as for Alphabet execs (dating back to when Larry & Sergey were running things), with separate private parking, private elevator and partly inaccessible office spaces.
It said that he was one of the protestors that gathered outside the offices. It said that there are groups protesting outside and inside the offices. I imagine the latter group are all current employees.
It depends. If everyone leaves whenever there's a problem, then problems will never get fixed. Or if Google is a good employer except for this, leaving over this one thing instead of trying to fix it is like leaving a house instead of fixing that broken window.
Except... the problem is: this is not a problem that needs fixing. If Google was doing something illegal, then the employees would have every moral (and legal) right to protest and demand a change of policy.
Google has protocols for appeals and complaints that employees can use. Even if those are just for show, the right course of action would be to use the advertised protocols, then, if they don't work, the employees would have a legitimate claim against the company.
It's labor-intensive, time-consuming and expensive to follow such protocols. And, I can "understand" the protesters in the sense that I would, too, be discouraged by the prospects of doing things the right way... But, realistically... all these protests are going to accomplish is the workplace ethics violation on the part of the protesters, and, probably a boot.
----
As an aside: for someone living the events it feels surreal that people who are completely out of touch with the reality of the events become so enthused about the subject. Often times it's actually nice / conscientious people who get trapped by the most brazen lies about political / humanitarian issues far, far away...
Because the sensation of being part of a subversive mission fulfills the need of purpose for the revolutionary mind. Good follow up questions are how long did that mindset took to become so influential and from who and where did it came from?
For them, this will be like a trophy among their revolutionary peers.
For the same reason this post was flagged. Israel. Did you really have to ask? Hard to imagine google workers protesting russia, china or saudi arabia being flagged.
I really feel like, regardless of where you fall on the particular war, we really should not like the idea of supplying resources like this to an active war.
It also concerns me that given the nature of this war, that the idea of protesting this is not ok.
Is this a principle you apply universally? For example, do you oppose U.S. companies providing technical support for Ukraine's justified war aims, such as Starlink?
I've seen no indication that simply protesting is seen as "not ok". But trespassing on private property, or worse blocking bridges, goes quite beyond "protest" and freedom of speech.
It's called civil disobedience, and you opt into the inconvenience when your government acts truly in a truly odious manner to the sensibilities of the governed.
I do think there is a big difference between an invasion and the war that is happening here. Yes I realize both are a war, but there is a big distinction.
That being said, if we need to apply it universally and avoid situations like this that may be the better situation. Once we start making special cases we open it up to this exact situation.
It's also interesting that this is where they draw the line for some reason. While I agree that the entire situation in Gaza is a catastrophe, some people seem to react "violently" (Not with violence, they just have a lot of feeling tied up in the conflict). I know of companies where people got professional help and had to take time off work due to the war, but most of them don't know anyone in the area, nor are they themselves neither Jewish nor Palestinian.
Anyway, I think it's weird that Google employees will react like this over the sale of a service. In it self GCP is pretty harmless and its sold to a democratic government. It's also the Israel government, not just the IDF, so most of the services would presumably be used for peaceful purposes. At the same time these employees are apparently completely fine with Googles invasion of peoples privacy, manipulation, sale of data to shady advertisers with little oversight, collaboration with the US military, collaboration with China and a number of other issues... But no, this is apparently where Google crosses the line.
If Google employees where constantly applying internal pressure to management and shareholders to do better it would make more sense, but right now it seems pretty random.
Readit News
Google Workers Protest Cloud Contract with Israel's Government 16 hours ago https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40056994
I further suspect that that story didn't get very much attention in the last submission because there isn't much of a story here:
> Just over a dozen people gathered outside Google’s offices in New York and Sunnyvale on Tuesday. Among those in New York was Google cloud software engineer Eddie Hatfield, who was fired days after disrupting Google Israel’s managing director at March’s Mind The Tech, a company-sponsored conference focused on the Israeli tech industry, in early March.
That said, unlike in a lot of companies, the executive office area (for Cloud) is not separated in any way from the offices in the rest of the building. This is not exactly the same as for Alphabet execs (dating back to when Larry & Sergey were running things), with separate private parking, private elevator and partly inaccessible office spaces.
Google has protocols for appeals and complaints that employees can use. Even if those are just for show, the right course of action would be to use the advertised protocols, then, if they don't work, the employees would have a legitimate claim against the company.
It's labor-intensive, time-consuming and expensive to follow such protocols. And, I can "understand" the protesters in the sense that I would, too, be discouraged by the prospects of doing things the right way... But, realistically... all these protests are going to accomplish is the workplace ethics violation on the part of the protesters, and, probably a boot.
----
As an aside: for someone living the events it feels surreal that people who are completely out of touch with the reality of the events become so enthused about the subject. Often times it's actually nice / conscientious people who get trapped by the most brazen lies about political / humanitarian issues far, far away...
Dead Comment
I think we're seeing how that mentality forms, today.
For them, this will be like a trophy among their revolutionary peers.
Deleted Comment
https://twitter.com/NoTechApartheid/status/17804222178780817...
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40056994
And lots more discussion here:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40060532
It also concerns me that given the nature of this war, that the idea of protesting this is not ok.
I've seen no indication that simply protesting is seen as "not ok". But trespassing on private property, or worse blocking bridges, goes quite beyond "protest" and freedom of speech.
That being said, if we need to apply it universally and avoid situations like this that may be the better situation. Once we start making special cases we open it up to this exact situation.
Anyway, I think it's weird that Google employees will react like this over the sale of a service. In it self GCP is pretty harmless and its sold to a democratic government. It's also the Israel government, not just the IDF, so most of the services would presumably be used for peaceful purposes. At the same time these employees are apparently completely fine with Googles invasion of peoples privacy, manipulation, sale of data to shady advertisers with little oversight, collaboration with the US military, collaboration with China and a number of other issues... But no, this is apparently where Google crosses the line.
If Google employees where constantly applying internal pressure to management and shareholders to do better it would make more sense, but right now it seems pretty random.
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Dead Comment
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