[roenxi]

> ...based on her emails and tweets she does indeed seem like an incredibly toxic personality and I sure wouldn't want to work anywhere near her...

I agree I wouldn't want her reporting to me, but is it really that hard to fire someone in California? From the outside Google management seems to endorse solidly left-leaning politics, so while anything is possible it seems unlikely that they objected to her views or activism. If they think she is toxic, it follows that they likely had actual reasons - and if there are actual reasons someone is a bad employee then they can be fired in my experience.

That lends some credence to the retaliation theory. If they can't expel her for good reasons, grab the first half-baked opportunity.

[metabagel]

Employment in California is “at will”, meaning that absent extenuating circumstances (such as a written contract) either the employee or the employer can terminate the relationship at any time, without cause. So, it’s not hard to terminate someone in California, but nonetheless employers are hesitant to terminate employees without cause, probably for fear of being sued.

I think it has to do with lawsuits being highly visible whereas underperforming employees are sort of an invisible cost. So, the risk assessment focuses on the rare but highly visible occurrence rather than the ongoing cost of continuing to employ someone who isn’t productive.

Just guessing. I don’t really understand this phenomenon.

[metabagel]

What makes it even more perplexing for me is that most companies require you to sign an arbitration agreement, which significantly reduces both the cost of a legal conflict as well as the risk of an extreme verdict being rendered.

And yet, my perception is that companies often resist terminating problem or unproductive employees due to the perceived risk of being sued.

Discriminating against a member of a protected class is against the law, so perhaps they are worried about being accused of that?

[pseingatl]

It is illegal to fire someone based on race-based considerations.

[busterarm]

Google can afford lawyers and PR to deal with an employment lawsuit but a lot of smaller companies don't feel like they can.

I had an experience once where a toxic, delusional, pathological liar of an employee was hired and started making up wild accusations about their coworkers on day 1. They then proceeded to do no work and had their role at the company progressively minimized so that they could have satisfactory performance for how little they were doing (and couldn't do much damage). There was no way the company was going to fire them and thankfully after a couple of years they decided to quit, despite making their entire team miserable that whole time.

[pseingatl]

The solution to dealing with such a person is a transfer, TDY for successive three month periods around the country (including Alaska in the winter), requiring reimbursement of hotel bills (i.e., no cash advance). You'll find the disgruntled employee resigns quickly, usually after the first safari.