It's a college student mentality, where the way to succeed is performative protest eventually leading to administrative redress of grievances. These employees identify so deeply with their company that an effective, adversarial approach to using their latent power is unimaginable
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I've said it a lot, but it would only take about 100 employees to shut down large parts of Google. How this threat was defused by shunting employee anger into harmless channels, including a cosplay "union" whose sole achievement was a NYT op-ed, is a fascinating object lesson
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The chief obstacle to effective workplace organizing in tech is the psychological threat it poses to employees, whose sense of identity is so intimately rooted in their work that they are unable to make the smallest use of their latent power. Steelworkers wouldn't be so neurotic.
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The best imaginable outcome in many tech organizers' eyes is a favorable NLRB ruling, or in other words, finding an ever-higher manager to file a grievance with. The world the NLRB originated in—workers advancing goals independent of what their bosses want—is conceptually alien.
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The most likely outcome of tech workers at Apple being too inert to even create their own Slack instance (it's free!) is that it will doom the dad jokes and fun dogs slack channels at the company, while affecting pay disparities not a whit.pic.twitter.com/IlBvPjLmnx
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Pinboard Retweeted Josh Eidelson
Like, this dude is a Stanford grad and worked in Google's mobile advertising division (!) for two years, but in an NLRB hearing today explained how he was shocked, shocked when the third largest company in the world behaved like a corporationhttps://twitter.com/josheidelson/status/1432754521592061953 …
Pinboard added,
Josh EidelsonVerified account @josheidelson"The phrase 'Don’t Be Evil,' it’s a big part of what Google stands for in my mind and–before the recent past couple years–a big part of what I understood Google to be about," ex-employee Wyatt Liang-Ratliff testified. It "meant that it’s not like the rest of corporate America"Show this thread5 replies 10 retweets 86 likesShow this thread -
There were even people like this at Yahoo, back in the day when it was run by a tanned Hollywood CEO who I'm not sure had ever used a computer. They would tell you in full sincerity they "bled purple" and were committed to changing the world through whatever it was Yahoo did
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Replying to @Pinboard
Curious where you would work if you had to choose a major tech co? Or would none of them pass muster.
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Replying to @nicholasjones
"Had to" in what sense? The way you phrased this question implies the option to pass.
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Replying to @Pinboard
Not sure — it’s a hypothetical. Mostly on the basis that not all CS grads can or should work for small startups. Which implies a lot of people have to choose a line on the spectrum between working for say the peace core and working for Palantir (or whatever your preferred evil is
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I really don't know how to answer. I spent a lot of effort making it so I didn't have to work at these places. My general observation is that people would much rather believe they were forced to do something than to admit they made a choice
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Replying to @Pinboard
Totally fair. I admit to having made a choice — I think a lot about the balance of equities between the various cos. But I completely respect the position that they’re all bad
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