Google is not run or influenced by tech workers or engineers.
Its run by financial engineers, as are all multi-national corporations these days, as survival and scale doesn't depend purely on tech or its quality, but on leverage of cross border differences in interest rates/tax rates/forex rates/regulations/subsidies/energy costs/labor costs/property costs/rent and now tariffs. Plus market capture games through sheer money power.
What influence do tech workers have on any of these things? Zero.
So if you want influence on how modern large corps behave, you need the majority of the finance dept on your side or own the majority of the companies shares.
All other strategies and tactics are superficial and unsustainable, as the last 2-3 decades have already demonstrated.
tromp•1h ago
If 10% of Google tech workers go on strike to demand changes, Can Google afford to fire them all?
Ekaros•1h ago
At this point probably. I believe there is 10% extra capacity everywhere. And that 10% would not prevent recruiting replacements.
ben_w•1h ago
Depends what they do exactly.
If they're all people who invent new products that Google kills after a few months or years, nobody will care.
If they're all SRE's, that may cause problems.
os2warpman•21m ago
>Can Google afford to fire them all?
Google can't afford to not fire them all.
Anything that hinders or even questions the moneymaking machine is evil.
If Google was a single, conscious, self-aware living entity it would consider dissent among the humans who make up its cells to be a cancer.
For every employee that is fired, or quits, there are ten people carving "FAANG FAANG FAANG" into their chest with a knife as some form of ritual summoning, hoping their wounds heal before the interview so they don't get blood on the white seats of the white Model S they're going to buy after getting hired.
lwo32k•1h ago
Its run by financial engineers, as are all multi-national corporations these days, as survival and scale doesn't depend purely on tech or its quality, but on leverage of cross border differences in interest rates/tax rates/forex rates/regulations/subsidies/energy costs/labor costs/property costs/rent and now tariffs. Plus market capture games through sheer money power.
What influence do tech workers have on any of these things? Zero.
So if you want influence on how modern large corps behave, you need the majority of the finance dept on your side or own the majority of the companies shares.
All other strategies and tactics are superficial and unsustainable, as the last 2-3 decades have already demonstrated.
tromp•1h ago
Ekaros•1h ago
ben_w•1h ago
If they're all people who invent new products that Google kills after a few months or years, nobody will care.
If they're all SRE's, that may cause problems.
os2warpman•21m ago
Google can't afford to not fire them all.
Anything that hinders or even questions the moneymaking machine is evil.
If Google was a single, conscious, self-aware living entity it would consider dissent among the humans who make up its cells to be a cancer.
For every employee that is fired, or quits, there are ten people carving "FAANG FAANG FAANG" into their chest with a knife as some form of ritual summoning, hoping their wounds heal before the interview so they don't get blood on the white seats of the white Model S they're going to buy after getting hired.