[carapace]

> Mahama Gandhi didn't work for the East India company while simultaneously fighting for freedom.

LOL!

I worked at Google for about two years as a "TVC" (a programmer in a cubical, not a "real" Googler) and it was like being kidnapped by aliens, after I left that's how it felt: Like I was one of those people who had just been returned to Earth.

One thing that doesn't get talked about in re: Google and values: there's an entire "underclass" of employees that are of definite inferior status. The janitors, re-stockers of cafes, and maintenance people, etc. They wear special uniforms, and are trained not to fraternize with the "real" Googlers. They don't get to ride the fancy buses to and from work.

They are also of a different racial mix. Googlers are generally white or Asian but the staff are generally Hispanic. So there's politics, and then there's politics...

[ThrustVectoring]

This is arguably because of ERISA and Google's decision to make their 401(k) plan highly optimized for software developers. ERISA says that you have to offer the same 401(k) to all employees and that it has to meet fairness criteria for "highly compensated" employees, but it doesn't say what labor inputs have to be provided by employees vs contractors.

[nesyt]

This is true of most (perhaps all) big tech (perhaps all) companies.

[ericd]

Maybe, but if you loudly espouse progressive values as Googlers seem to do more than most tech workers, maybe you should put some of those values into practice, and actually make a real effort to integrate those contractors into the group?

[CBLT]

Is this in California? I've noticed in California that food service workers (at any establishment) tend to be Hispanic. In Toronto, they tend to be Asian.

Since these companies are required to be race-blind when hiring, they are going to be a reflection of their local job markets.