
Google X employee collapsed on the job due to harsh working conditions - Jerry2
https://thenextweb.com/google/2017/04/03/google-x-employee-reportedly-collapsed-on-the-job-due-to-harsh-working-conditions/#.tnw_Gm8pEtUE
======
faitswulff
It's clearly not an apples-to-apples comparison, but for comparison, Gabe
Newell's response when an employee (Erik Wolpaw) was diagnosed with ulcerative
colitis:

> Expecting his condition to require a departure from the company, he spoke
> with managing director Gabe Newell, who surprised him by offering an
> extended leave with pay. "Your job is to get better," Newell said. "That is
> your job description at Valve. So go home to your wife and come back when
> you are better."

\-
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erik_Wolpaw#Personal_life](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erik_Wolpaw#Personal_life)

We can't all work at the most lucrative game company on earth, but that sure
was classy.

~~~
pavlov
There are many countries in the world where it would be illegal to fire an
employee with such a condition, and his sick leave pay would be compensated by
the government so it's not up to the employer's benevolence. Just saying that
you don't have to work for Valve...

(A common argument is that "Companies wouldn't thrive in such a socialist
environment". But you can look at Supercell, King and Mojang: all are Nordic
game companies with multi-billion dollar valuations and more profits than
Valve.)

~~~
Sharlin
Not to mention the fact that Germany, Europe's economic powerhouse, has strict
employee protection laws and strong unions.

~~~
rubber_duck
And an uncompetitive job market for programmers

~~~
Pica_soO
Does the money really arrive at the programmer in the US? The guy at your
gated community opens the hand, the states prison opens the hand, the
privately paid doctor opens the hand, your university's creditor opens the
hand and its all gone. What good is earning less money, when you have to live
in constant fear of getting shot?

~~~
IncRnd
Who lives in constant fear of getting shot?

~~~
Veratyr
As an Australian living in America, I think "constant fear" is a bit of an
overstatement but you have to understand that non-Americans are coming from a
place where gun violence is near nonexistent. We have to worry about being
shot just about as much as we have to worry about a freak meteor strike.

In America, not only is it now possible, but the UNODC intentional homicide
rate [0] is about 4x higher than my home country (Australia) and most of
Europe. Yes the rate is still small, yes we're probably overreacting. I have a
feeling this will be an unpopular comparison but I'd say our fear of being
shot in America is similar to American fear of terrorism after 9/11\. Before
9/11 you simply never had to worry about it. It'd never happened, it wasn't
possible. Suddenly it happened and even though the chance a terrorist will
kill you is vanishingly small, people worry about it a hell of a lot.

[0]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intention...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate)

~~~
IncRnd
Thank you for the explanation.

Living in the United States I have never been in fear of a shooting and never
been exposed to a robbery or such where I was in danger of getting shot.

I just looked at the FBI's UCR statistics to see what others see about my
country ;) In my city 1 person was killed in 2014 by any form of murder or
negligent manslaughter, regardless of a firearm having been used. I suspect
that was a data entry error that should have been zero.

Granted, the US has far more deaths per capita by guns than places that don't
have as many guns per capita. Upon research I found this table on wikipedia,
showing overall homicides rate per 100,000 by country. This also seems drawn
from the dataset you mentioned.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intention...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate#By_country)

The US was lower than I had expected at 3.9. This is very close to the 4x
relationship you mentioned compared to Australia. However, the US Virgin
Islands must be horrible at 52.6 per 100,000 people. Guadeloupe (France) is
7.9, and the real loser seems to be Honduras with 84.6 intentional homicides
per 100,000 people. That makes me think that for someone living in Honduras,
at least one of the people you see today will be dead tomorrow.

I definitely understand people's concern about not wanting to be subject to
the dark death dealing of hammer, knife, and machine gun toting drugged
Americans, but we're really like any large country. Things have to do with the
city that is visited, since the country is vast with many cultures and
differences throughout.

~~~
Veratyr
> I definitely understand people's concern about not wanting to be subject to
> the dark death dealing of hammer, knife, and machine gun toting drugged
> Americans, but we're really like any large country. Things have to do with
> the city that is visited, since the country is vast with many cultures and
> differences throughout.

I understand that things depend a lot on where you are within a country but as
someone speaking about the safety of a country as a whole, the average is
pretty important. It's also worth pointing out that many of the places a
tourist would consider visiting are places with above average crime rates.

------
boomzilla
This is a better link: [http://www.businessinsider.in/an-ex-military-
contractor-work...](http://www.businessinsider.in/an-ex-military-contractor-
working-for-google-x-collapsed-on-the-job-and-his-coworkers-say-corporate-
culture-is-to-blame/articleshow/57949746.cms)

~~~
Johnny555
That article gives some more details about when and where it happened:

 _On a cold morning in February 2015, a group of men left the spacious Google
X headquarters in Mountain View, California, before daybreak. They traveled
more than two hours east to some trailers parked in the middle of nowhere, on
private ranch lands in California 's Central Valley...And on this day, their
complaints turned into terror. One of their team members, a man in his
mid-50s, collapsed on the job..._

While the Central Valley can have searing heat in the summer, it's generally
less so in the winter... so I looked up the weather for Merced, CA in Feb 2015
and temperatures were:

Max: 75 °F Avg: 67 °F Min: 55 °F [1]

While 75 is warm when doing heavy labor, it sounds like the article is
exaggerating when it refers to _"...extreme temperatures of the Central
Valley..."_

[1]
[https://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/KMCE/2015/2/13/...](https://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/KMCE/2015/2/13/MonthlyHistory.html?req_city=Merced&req_state=CA&reqdb.zip=95340&reqdb.magic=1&reqdb.wmo=99999)

~~~
staz
Max: 24°C Avg: 20°C Min: 13°C For the non imperialists

~~~
BukhariH
24°C is considered room temperature in the UK. That doesn't sound hot at all.

~~~
RugnirViking
? I am also from the UK and I sure as hell wouldn't want to walk/drive for two
hours outside in that temprature. Sure it wouldn't kill me but then I'm not in
my mid-50s (and perhaps not having enough water on hand)

~~~
Johnny555
I can't believe someone would look at the forecast and say "Oh no, it's
slightly above room temperature today, way too hot to go for a hike!"

I'm in my early 50's and would (and do) gladly go for a 6 hour bike ride in
that weather...

------
s3r3nity
Not sure one data point signals a "systemic" issue within Google.

Nor do I fully appreciate, as a reader, the unnecessary connection to Uber's
sexism complaints as an editorial addition to portray sensationalist chaos in
the Valley.

I don't work for Google or Uber, or anywhere in California - I am just
frustrated at how bad tech journalism can be at times.

