[nmfisher]

It’s abundantly clear that Google was itching to get rid of her. They probably couldn’t believe her luck when she (stupidly) tried to bully them with not just a threat of resignation, but an actual statement of “I will resign on date XXX”.

I also don’t believe that Google would have done this for no reason (given her behaviour during the LeCunn incident) so I’m sympathetic towards Google’s conduct. If Gebru had simply come out and said “Google tried to censor my paper and so I was forced to resign”, I would be thinking very differently.

[jasonv]

She also claimed she was previously going to sue Google. She claimed it loudly and publicly. As long as we’re accounting...

[6gvONxR4sf7o]

I don’t believe anyone has claimed she said “I will resign on date XXX.” The wording I think she and Dean have said she used was “or I will work on a last date” or something. As in “or I’ll work on figuring out what my last date at google will be.”

[ergocoder]

It's incredibly entitled to think she would be the only person who gets to decide what the last day would be.

Either side can terminate the employment earlier.

I'd assume best intent that she would not go with something like "my last day is a year from now".

Why would if she leave immediately or 14 days later? If she didn't get to wrap up her work, then that's Google's loss.

To be honest, trying to spin this as Google firing her is very very strange. It's a non-issue, and she did throw an ultimatum.

[busterarm]

That's a commitment to resign. Many large companies have a policy of walking out a resigned employee immediately.

[dekhn]

That's not SOP at Google except in very limited circumstances. When I resigned, I told my manager and we negotiated an exit date 2 weeks after. I volunteered to give up my laptop early etc and not come into the office, but they really wanted me to finish up. People who steal or leak, however, could be terminated immediately and walked out by security. I guess also if you worked on a competitive product and changed to a competitor, they'd walk you out, too.

[busterarm]

And that just tells you how Google felt about this particular relationship.

It still doesn't translate to a firing.

[dekhn]

I use the term "terminated". her employment was terminated immediately on the spot for cause.

[busterarm]

Except these terms have meaning. If you're "terminated", you can usually get unemployment. In some cases even if it was for cause.

If you resigned, generally you can't, barring some specific circumstances.

[6gvONxR4sf7o]

I’m not arguing that she did or didn’t resign, just that she didn’t say “or my last date is the 10th” or anything else that clear.

[busterarm]

My point is that that's not necessary. It's a clear commitment to having an end date.