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Comment by fyoving | Hacker News Reader

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

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.

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.

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)

> 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.

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.

Our elders really knew how to do some things right.

It's always entertaining when Silicon Valley companies learn that hundred-plus year companies have these stiff adult things called "rules" around for a reason. I can't imagine seriously engaging in significant political discussion at work, and can't imagine a positive outcome to it.

Well, when a company actively tries to make its employees private life a service provided by the company, that's inevitably going to include their activism as well.

The bigger companies in particular are your employer, your restaurant, your gym, your laundry service, your transportation, your social life...

> The bigger companies in particular are your employer, your restaurant, your gym, your laundry service, your transportation, your social life...

What companies besides Google and Facebook could qualify as all of those?

Let's see...Genentech has: onsite child care, car wash facilities, haircutting, spa treatments, bike repair, a gym

United Shore: their own starbucks, a gym, outdoor basketball courts.

Commvault has: ping pong, foosball, pool tables, a gym, a softball field, a basketball court, a walking trail

Procore has: a gym, catered lunches, bring your dog to work policy, fitness _classes_, massages & haircuts onsite.

Adobe: a gym

Tesla: employee lease program, shuttle services

Intel: gyms, fitness classes, spas, dry cleaning, banking.

It's easy when you've made sure the entire company leans the same way though. It would be odd to be a right-winger and work in Google--knowing that they're doing everything they can to hurt me. But of course money is money and everybody has a price.

I'm a right-winger in a leftist workplace. The key is just to keep your head down whenever politics comes up, and never participate in discussion about controversial topics. Generally I would act the same in a right-leaning atmosphere if one ever existed anyway, but at least then I wouldn't hear my coworkers' rants.

People should stick with religion talk! And of course the Tabs vs Spaces thing. Do that instead, yeah.

Googlers can have civil discussion about politics, but Tabs vs. Spaces? There'll be riot on the streets!

That stance means everyone just has to abide by whatever invisible political ideology permeates the company. Most typically, that’s unfeeling “man in a gray suit” corporate capitalism.

Where you work, who you work with, and what you do, it’s all political.

Beg to differ. The attitude came as a response to a typical corporate practice (here in the US) of your employer telling you who to vote for and taking the entire company to the polls to make sure you voted for that person.

This was the norm in the late 19th and early 20th century when we had party bosses. Parties/Candidates promised companies contracts, so your financial interest became your political interest.

You're lucky today that you can vote for whoever you damn well please.

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