
Google Walkout Organizer Claire Stapleton Resigns - geodel
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/jun/07/google-walkout-organizer-claire-stapleton-resigns
======
eigenvector
You can read Claire's reasons for leaving Google in her own words here:
[https://medium.com/@GoogleWalkout/why-a-googlewalkout-
organi...](https://medium.com/@GoogleWalkout/why-a-googlewalkout-organizer-
left-google-26d1e3fbe317)

~~~
onemoresoop
> Fast forward a few years and I’d moved to New York, cycled through Creative
> Lab and landed at YouTube. As I neared the ten-year mark, my first boss,
> Sally Cole, who’d left Google many years before, joked that I was surely due
> for an existential crisis. But when I got back to work after having my son
> Malcolm in 2017, it wasn’t me who was having an existential crisis. It was
> Google itself.

~~~
roymurdock
"The short explanation for my decision is my health: I’m having another baby
in the fall (I acknowledge that there’s incredible privilege in being able to
walk away from a job like this)."

~~~
m0zg
You make it sound like having a child is the main reason (which would,
admittedly, be pretty normal anywhere other than at a progressive tech company
- motherhood is hard), whereas the article suggests that the main reason is
internal retaliation and gaslighting, and the baby is just the straw that
broke the camel's back.

~~~
roymurdock
The commenter I replied to left out this important detail that is also
somewhat buried 3/4 of the way into the letter. Definitely read her original
statement and form your own opinion based on the source material.

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hunter23
I haven't worked at Google in a while. Is this the same Claire Stapleton that
was responsible for doing the quirky Company weekly update / TGIF email? If
so, it's a bit sad because when I worked at Google (2009 - 2012) she was one
of the voices of the company (kind of like Victoria for Reddit AMAs).

~~~
wutbrodo
Ah that's where I recognized the name. I remember her being a minor Google
celebrity, to the point that Manu made her into a comic book character.

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heer4it
These companies are so huge and such an integral part of society that they
need to be made more accountable to the public, and forcing them to be more
accountable to their workers is part of that. I think the recent proposal to
require employee representation on the board of directors of $1B+ companies is
a good start.

~~~
StevePerkins
On Day One, the entire workforce of every company becomes "contractors".

Labor does not have the leverage in most industries as it does in large tech.
Even in tech it is cyclical. Younger readers here, who missed out on the 2001
and 2008 crashes, are going to have an eye-opening experience when the next
recession gets here.

~~~
signal11
> On Day One, the entire workforce of every company becomes "contractors".

This is going to be increasingly difficult in Europe as they focus on
“disguised employees” or “perm-tractors”. The UK has already implemented this
rule (IR35) for the public sector, with the private sector set to follow suit
in 2020. And the EU are beginning to consider how to clamp down on the
practice.

~~~
gubbrora
It seems a lot of Americans think well the rich will just find loopholes let's
just give up. I don't get it.

~~~
smacktoward
The rich here spend an awful lot of money encouraging us to think that way.

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busterarm
Google also recently terminated the maintainer of the republicans@google list.

~~~
fyoving
No politics talk at work seems to be the rational and only solution here.

~~~
JeremyBanks
The Google status quo circa 2016 was the worst of all worlds. Political
discussion was tolerated up to a point, but the point was ill-defined, and
(naturally) enforcement tended to be based on how many people disagreed with
your opinions. _Generally_ , more liberal employees could get away with much
broader and more aggressive proclamations than more conservative employees
(not sure if that's still true), but that wasn't consistent, and consequences
seemed largely random.

~~~
jdm2212
It wasn't totally random. They were mostly ok with assholes as long as they
were good engineers -- my manager _and_ skip-level manager were two of the ten
or so loudest far-left types at the company. But both were very good
engineers, and my manager actually got promoted even while devoting a
substantial amount of time to antagonizing random people on mailing lists and
G+.

I remember one guy though who was far-left, very obnoxious, and useless. And
he got fired/pushed out a little while after I left.

~~~
DuskStar
Can you think of any obnoxious right wing people who survived any length of
time? Not even far-right, just further right than the nationwide center.

Without that, it sounds like either left-wing activists are far more common at
Google, that right-wing activists are afraid to act in similar ways, or that
Google enforces such policies in an ideologically slanted manner. (My bet
would be on all three)

~~~
geodel
> left-wing activists are far more common at Google,

Yes, and I think this is common knowledge. Good place to look is Code of
Conducts for all kind of technical groups. Their language is pulled straight
from identity politics of left.

~~~
0815test
Not sure why this comment is controversial? Let's be clear here, you can agree
with the broader _goals_ of a CoC while still thinking that the language being
used in many such "codes" is highly problematic, unprofessional and prone to
equivocation and abuse.

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0815test
She walked out for good. Gotta admire her integrity! Also this from her post
just hits the nail on the head:

> [Google leadership] are talking to everyone who thought my story sounded
> familiar, anyone who’s been Through It in some form: pushed out or punished
> for speaking up, gaslit, discriminated against, isolated, harassed. People
> are telling each other their stories. Refusing to acknowledge our humanity
> and engage with the deeper issues being raised - well, that's not very
> Googley.

'Nuff said. Google is going to have serious problems in the future unless they
start addressing the obvious flaws in their company culture - their
vulnerability to upstarts and competitors can only increase going forward!

~~~
paul7986
Their arrogance and ignorance is already affecting them as many people I know
no longer use Google search.

Also check out DuckDuckGo on Alexa ... its now the 100th most popular site in
the US and continues to increase its reach; 167 globally.

Love to get away fully from Google myself! They are horrible and personally
their arrogance and ignorance is catching up to them!

~~~
rstuart4133
> Their arrogance and ignorance is already affecting them as many people I
> know no longer use Google search.

You're kidding yourself. Those people you know who are switching are having no
material effect whatsoever:

[http://gs.statcounter.com/search-engine-market-
share](http://gs.statcounter.com/search-engine-market-share)

If anything, their market share is going up.

~~~
paul7986
Google won't be the same company in a few years or so! They are no longer the
same company (not run or driven by it's founder's ethos)... most recently
saying they will block ad blockers.

Apple is all in on privacy ...Apple is as big or bigger then Google and makes
it's money off of hardware & software not invasive/intrusive ads. Those who
ride their same wave will no doubt see huge and or continued success!

Check back on that counter in a few years! It will be a different story I
guarantee you!

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roybahat
Any predictions about whether the Google Walkout ends up feeling, five years
from now, as the beginning of a movement or a flash in the pan?

~~~
dudus
5 years? I think it already has mostly been forgotten

~~~
billy_beef
What are you talking about? It comes out like often in my world?

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27182818284
> often in my world?

I work in tech and have friends in the Bay area that work in tech and it never
comes up. I honestly had forgotten Google had a walkout until this Hacker News
post today. Your online search bubble / real life bubble might be heavily
biasing you.

~~~
billy_beef
It comes up at work consistently in "future of the industry" kinds of
discussions or when I get drinks with old coworkers and we talk about parts of
our jobs we don't like. I've worked at pretty major companies, but also not
saying my experience is universal here.

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johan_larson
Not too surprising. Organizations expect loyalty of their members, and
particularly of their more senior members. Open protest, such as organizing a
walkout, is an act of disloyalty, so it's not surprising that Claire suffered
for what she did. She's lucky, I suppose, that she wasn't kicked out right
after the walkout.

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PunchTornado
I don't get what she's on about. that the guy who led Android received some
millions? really? he should have received billions. larry page screwed him
over by offering only 50m and he said himself he felt guilty. and all of this
for an alleged assault that was never proved, only labelled credible after an
internal investigation? feel bad for the guy, he developed the most popular os
and is not a billionaire.

~~~
twhb
He kept every penny of his compensation for his role in Android, and is a
third of the way to being a billionaire. The walkout was over a separate,
additional $90 million he received just to resign.

~~~
PunchTornado
and you think 90m is enough? he got only 50m when google bought android.
whatsup and ig got billions. I think he deserved much more. 90m is peanuts
compared to what he did for google and how important is android for them.

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eanzenberg
It's unfortunate.. I'm pretty sure this story is getting buried. It's insane
GOOG would do these things, include threats of demotion. Who gets demoted
these days anyways?

