Comment by Kokesh@lemmy.world on Google fires more workers after CEO says workplace isn’t for politics

Ok, so if I find out I work for Nazi contractor and object to that, it is politics?

Yes. What about that do you think is non-political? Abhorrent politics are still politics.

Really great point that adds a ton to the conversation. Clearly the semantics of the word “political” are what’s important here.

Discussing politics at the work place has been an HR violation for some time, but speaking against the company policy or its customers has always been a fireable ofense. I’m not sure why this surprises anyone.

Sure, google is an evil corporation and there’s lots of reasons to hate them, but why are we focusing on this specific thing which is common across all workplaces?

And yes, if you find out your employer is constructing concentration camps and you openly speak against that, you’re probably going to lose your job. Why is this even a question?

It’s just a Tuesday in the Capitalist Hellscape © of U.S.A.™

Lol you’re getting tossed in jail doing this in a communist society…this isn’t about capitalism at all. It’s about keeping people from creating a hostile work environment, look how polarized politics is online, shit gets heated in a work setting? It’s a no go for any sane company wanting to keep the peace between employees.

Just because communism also sucks does not mean that capitalism has not ruined our lives.

No one said it hasn’t helped it some, but until you have magical replicators like in star trek, people will still be people. You cannot stop human nature to want more.

Seems to me that the problem is bankers. Not the average Joe

If the employees owned the firm, then no they are not.

Authoritarian Communism? Yup, it sucks too and I’d call that out.

There isn’t anything stopping workers now from creating employee own companies. They exist today.

I think maybe you’re conflating capitalism and politics.

The need for workers to voice out against company policies and actions often necessary for safety of workers, customers, etc. This is required for capitalism to work to any standard.

Its not hard to see how firing employees for noting safety problems can cause problems. The obvious case for this is Boeing where they started punishing people for doing basic quality control work.

Where did I say people aren’t allowed to speak out against company policies and practices?

Discussing politics at the work place has been an HR violation for some time, but speaking against the company policy or its customers has always been a fireable ofense. I’m not sure why this surprises anyone.

Looks like a navel-gazing USA thing. Here in Europe I cannot imagine that there’s many companies who’d fire workers for protesting or tells them to shut up forever.

Here in Sweden, firing an employee for giving an opinion on company policy is illegal. Just look at the Tesla union wars.

That’s not actually true. Even in Sweden, employees can be fired for misconduct and what constitutes misconduct is a complex matter. But more importantly, in the Tesla case, those employees are on strike which is a different issue.

They can be fired for misconduct, yes, What makes you think protests or giving opinons on work related mtter, possibly supoorted by a union, would be interpreted as “misconduct”? Can you give an example of a case like that where misconduct was having an issue with selling products to war criminals or similar?

Publicly labeling customers as “war criminals” is misconduct and will get you fired anywhere in the world, yes. Stop pretending you misunderstand this simple fact.

You should be aware of the fact that Google & the others have offices in Europe and they have the same policy here too. These type of policies fit well within the legal framework in most EU countries. And I guarantee that people would get fired over protests disrupting the workplace if found unwarranted.

which is common across all workplaces?

In your shithole country, maybe.

Oh, please, enlighten me. In what country do you think you’re allowed to violate company policy?

Even if we ignore what @prole wrote, in civilized countries you’re allowed to break company policy if it infringes your rights, regardless of what a contract says.

you’re allowed to break company policy if it infringes your rights

No country guarantees you the right to openly discuss politics in the workplace though.

In what country do you think you’re allowed to violate company policy?

Lol did you already forget what you said? Or did your original comment actually say, “Violating company policy at the work place has been an HR violation for some time…” Because yeah, no shit. Somehow I don’t think that’s what you were going for…

Did you purposefully completely change the topic, or was that some kind of “sly” attempt to pivot? Shit is real weird.

Maybe you were about to ask the actual logical follow-up question of, “In what country do you think you’re allowed to discuss politics at work?” before doing a quick google search and realizing you’d make yourself look even stupider.

As if the entire conversation wasn’t about whether or not something should be allowed to be a company’s policy. Not whether or not employees should be able to break their work’s HR policy. Do you not see the distinction here?

You must be very confused. I did not forget anything. I’m simply making the claim that your impression that this happens only in my “shitty” country is wrong and if you tell me what country you live in, I can give you multiple examples of it happening there too. You’re probably misinformed or ignorant of the law if you think it doesn’t.

“A company should not be able to make X part of their policy.”

In what country is an employee allowed to violate their company’s policy?

That’s you. If only there was a word for this… Shmallacy?

The actual question would be,

In what country is an employer barred from firing a person for talking about politics?

Maybe I’m giving you too much credit, but I feel like you knew this and realize how stupid you sounded. The better thing to do would probably just have been to quietly exit the conversation.

By the way, check usernames, I just entered this thread.

Why is this a surprise to us? We had faith in humanity.

And is it really common in all workplaces?

Not being able to discuss politics at work is not really the case for everyone though, it’s worker politics that aren’t allowed, if the politics agree with the owner class they’ll set up a PAC for it. Whoever heard of an executive or board member fired for discussing politics that paint the organization in a positive light? I also think it’s worth pointing out most companies would fire for this and are authoritative in structure and don’t allow for democratic practices like elections, petitioning, protesting, etc. Just because it’s that way now doesn’t mean it always will be with good labor protections.

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Google fires more workers after CEO says workplace isn’t for politics(wapo.st)

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