
Google VP told employees to stop using the word “family” after staff complaints - mbgaxyz
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6605539/Google-staff-complained-word-FAMILY-offensive-homophobic-referring-children.html
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low_tech_love
No, Google employees are not forbidden to use the word "family". I'm sorry but
this is not HN-quality content. The whole thing is nothing but a
sensationalist waste of time, starting from the clickbait headline down to the
fact that the entire article is based off of a claimed leak from another (so-
called) far-right website. Seriously?

~~~
yzb
It doesn't say anywhere, not even in the title, that Google employees are
forbidden to use the word "family". According to TFA:

>The tech giant experienced a backlash from its own employees in March 2017
after a presentation about a product aimed at young people seemed to replace
the term with the word 'family', leaving out various groups.

~~~
low_tech_love
It's clickbait; they don't say it, they imply it. It is said that Google
employees were "told" to "stop" using the word after complaints. No context;
it conjures up the image of people being censored and oppressed in their
everyday activities. In reality, "VP Pavni Diwanji ... told staff to be more
conscientious about referring to family" in the context of product
advertisement for children, which is absolutely reasonable since the word
"family" means different things to different people. And, well, the article is
garbage in many more ways than I'm willing to discuss further.

~~~
repolfx
This is dissembling. How can you be "more conscientious" about using a word
like family other than not using it? There isn't any other word to refer to a
man, a woman and their children as a group, as far as I'm aware.

So if a VP says "be more careful using word X due to outraged employees" and
the word for X is ordinary, every day and refers to an important thing, that
is absolutely material that should surface in a newspaper.

Especially given the ludicrous employee quotes that accompany it, like:

 _' It smacks of the 'family values' agenda by the right wing which is
absolutely homophobic by its very definition.'_

What the heck? Families, _those things required for the human race to continue
existing_ , are now considered homophobic? This has got to be a new low in the
identity politics endurance race to the bottom. As phrased I can't even tell
if they think families are homophobic or just everyone who isn't left wing -
both concepts are derisory.

Oh, and:

 _The person commented: 'My family consists of me and several other trans
feminine folks, some of whom I'm dating. We're all supportive of each other
and eventually aspire to live together.'_

Whatever that living arrangement is, it is definitely not a family according
to any dictionary I've ever seen.

But I honestly can't say I'm surprised by this. I used to work for Google and
knew Pavni Diwanji quite well. She probably knows this is bizarre but is far,
far too weak to do anything other than go along with the loudest crowd in the
moment.

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writepub
Disagreeing with something doesn't entitle employees to storm out of meetings,
unless there was intentional malice. While family doesn't necessitate children
to be a part of it, neither is the implication that a "high probability exists
that families have children", offensive enough to storm out, act out, throw a
fit, etc.

At what point will Google realize that every tantrum doesn't deserve a
corporate change, some just necessitate the employees to "grow-up" enough to
live in a world that's not a 100% ideal.

FYI googling "family definition" returns "a group consisting of parents and
children living together in a household". How genuine can this outage really
be?

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lern_too_spel
The article made it sound like the complaint was about the use of "family
friendly" at a company-wide meeting. I don't know how it would even be
possible to storm out of such a meeting, when any meeting with more than 100
people will have people coming and going completely unnoticed. It sounds like
sensational journalism from The Daily Caller.

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alexnewman
It's a good thing that family friendly isn't parsed as anything other than two
words with no implied context. It doesn't sound less awkward than everyone
friendly. After what's the difference between kid friendly and family
friendly.

~~~
happymellon
Kid friendly normally implies that kids are the target market, and that adults
may find it childish.

Family friendly implies that it is suitable for all ages.

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DanBC
A friendly reminder that the Daily Mail is hopelessly inaccurate.

