London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Monday, Oct 20, 2025

Tensions between Google and its employees are reaching a breaking point

For years, Google was seen as the gold standard of office life. The company pushed workplace culture to new frontiers with enviable benefits such as free meals, office slides, onsite childcare and an emphasis on transparency. But Google is quickly developing a very different reputation as it confronts a mounting backlash from its own employees.
Google's internal critics have targeted a growing list of concerns in recent years, ranging from its handling of sexual misconduct allegations to its business dealings with the military. Workers have also questioned Google over a secret project, now shuttered, to develop a search engine built to satisfy China's censorship regime.

But the tension between employees and management appears to be reaching a breaking point. On Monday, Google dismissed several outspoken workers in an internal announcement for allegedly violating its data-security policies. Now some employees are accusing Google of trying to suppress its critics.

"Google just fired 4 of my coworkers for daring to ask the question 'is Google helping separate families or cage children at the border?'" tweeted Amr Gaber, a Google software engineer who has previously organized protests of the company. "After finding openly accessible information, they alerted coworkers of the horrifying news. Yes. Google is working with [US Customs and Border Protection]."

Other Google employees who have also organized protests described the firings as an attempt to intimidate workers.

"With these firings, Google is ramping up its illegal retaliation against workers engaging in protected organizing," they said in a statement. "This is classic union busting dressed up in tech industry jargon, and we won't stand for it."

On Tuesday, a Google spokesperson told CNN Business the workers were fired for accessing information that was restricted under a need-to-know policy. One of the workers, the spokesperson said, had subscribed to other Google employees' work calendars without their knowledge. Those employees later reported feeling violated, the spokesperson added.

But the policy was only recently changed, according to the joint statement by other Google employees, and left it ambiguous as to which documents were subject to the policy.

"The policy change amounted to: access at your own risk and let executives figure out whether you should be punished after the fact," the workers' statement said. "We knew then, and it's clear now: this policy change was setting up an excuse to retaliate against organizers, allowing the company a pretext for picking and choosing who to target."

The growing friction between Google and its rank-and-file employees is a turning point for a company that for years has been among the world's most desirable places to work. But Google isn't alone in its struggle to adapt to an increasingly activist employee base.

Across Silicon Valley, hundreds of Facebook (FB) employees have spoken out to oppose the company's stance on political advertising. Workers at Amazon (AMZN) staged a walkout in September to push CEO Jeff Bezos for further action on climate change. And leaders at Microsoft (MSFT) and Salesforce (CRM) have received letters from employees asking them to end government contracts with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The firings, along with Google's reported hiring last week of a consulting firm linked to anti-union activities, suggest a shift in its approach to employee dissent. As recently as 2018, Google executives held a companywide meeting to hear complaints about the sponsorship of a political conference geared toward conservatives, a decision some employees disagreed with. Around roughly the same time, Google fielded tough questions at a separate meeting about its work on Project Maven, a joint effort with the Defense Department involving artificial intelligence and military drone footage.

Google execs running the March 2018 meeting on corporate sponsorship told workers their feedback was extremely valuable.
"The reality is that I think it's only through having this kind of open dialogue that we get to the best answers and best approach for the company," Adam Kovacevich, Google's then-director of US public policy, told employees in a recording later obtained by CNN.

In the public imagination, Google's workplace culture has historically celebrated employee independence. For years, it offered what came to be known as "20% time" — the ability for Google workers to spend up to a fifth of their workweek on side projects that occasionally turned into real Google products. The concept, along with Google's other substantial perks and its longtime motto, "Don't be evil," drew contrasts with the rest of corporate America and helped project the image of a warm, friendly company that prioritized its employees.

Workers were also naturally drawn by a sense that, despite being a corporation, employers like Google were on a mission to make the world a better place, said James Bailey, a management professor at George Washington University.

"There is this idea that tech elevates us all and transforms our lives and makes it better," Bailey said. But, he added, Google's recent moves could disillusion workers who may now feel the company is "compromising the very raison d'être that tech should be about."

This month, as the firings neared, Google said it would scale back its weekly all-hands meetings -where executives habitually engage employees in discussion -in favor of monthly gatherings.

That could reinforce changing perceptions that the company is increasingly focusing its energies on identifying sources of internal dissent.

After the New York Times reported that Google had hired the consulting firm linked to anti-union activities, 2020 presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders tweeted that the move was an "unacceptable" form of "union busting."

"I say to Google: it is time to address the racism, harassment, and harmful contracts at your company and treat your workers with the respect and dignity they deserve," he said.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
This Is How the 'Heist of the Century' Was Carried Out at the Louvre in Seven Minutes: France Humiliated as Crown with 2,000 Diamonds Vanishes
China Warns UK of ‘Consequences’ After Delay to London Embassy Approval
France’s Wealthy Shift Billions to Luxembourg and Switzerland Amid Tax and Political Turmoil
"Sniper Position": Observation Post Targeting 'Air Force One' Found Before Trump’s Arrival in Florida
Shouting Match at the White House: 'Trump Cursed, Threw Maps, and Told Zelensky – "Putin Will Destroy You"'
Windows’ Own ‘Siri’ Has Arrived: You Can Now Talk to Your Computer
Thailand and Singapore Investigate Cambodian-Based Prince Group as U.S. and U.K. Sanctions Unfold
‘No Kings’ Protests Inflate Numbers — But History Shows Nations Collapse Without Strong Executive Power
Chinese Tech Giants Halt Stablecoin Launches After Beijing’s Regulatory Intervention
Manhattan Jury Holds BNP Paribas Liable for Enabling Sudanese Government Abuses
Trump Orders Immediate Release of Former Congressman George Santos After Commuting Prison Sentence
S&P Downgrades France’s Credit Rating, Citing Soaring Debt and Political Instability
Ofcom Rules BBC’s Gaza Documentary ‘Materially Misleading’ Over Narrator’s Hamas Ties
Diane Keaton’s Cause of Death Revealed as Pneumonia, Family Confirms
Former Lostprophets Frontman Ian Watkins Stabbed to Death in British Prison
"The Tsunami Is Coming, and It’s Massive": The World’s Richest Man Unveils a New AI Vision
Outsider, Heroine, Trailblazer: Diane Keaton Was Always a Little Strange — and Forever One of a Kind
Dramatic Development in the Death of 'Mango' Founder: Billionaire's Son Suspected of Murder
Two Years of Darkness: The Harrowing Testimonies of Israeli Hostages Emerging From Gaza Captivity
EU Moves to Use Frozen Russian Assets to Buy U.S. Weapons for Ukraine
Europe Emerges as the Biggest Casualty in U.S.-China Rare Earth Rivalry
HSBC Confronts Strategic Crossroads as NAB Seeks Only Retail Arm in Australia Exit
U.S. Chamber Sues Trump Over $100,000 H-1B Visa Fee
Shenzhen Expo Spotlights China’s Quantum Step in Semiconductor Self-Reliance
China Accelerates to the Forefront in Global Nuclear Fusion Race
Yachts, Private Jets, and a Picasso Painting: Exposed as 'One of the Largest Frauds in History'
Australia’s Wedgetail Spies Aid NATO Response as Russian MiGs Breach Estonian Airspace
McGowan Urges Chalmers to Cut Spending Over Tax Hike to Close $20 Billion Budget Gap
Victoria Orders Review of Transgender Prison Placement Amid Safety Concerns for Female Inmates
U.S. Treasury Mobilises New $20 Billion Debt Facility to Stabilise Argentina
French Business Leaders Decry Budget as Macron’s Pro-Enterprise Promise Undermined
Trump Claims Modi Pledged India Would End Russian Oil Imports Amid U.S. Tariff Pressure
Surging AI Startup Valuations Fuel Bubble Concerns Among Top Investors
Australian Punter Archie Wilson Tears Up During Nebraska Press Conference, Sparking Conversation on Male Vulnerability
Australia Confirms U.S. Access to Upgraded Submarine Shipyard Under AUKUS Deal
“Firepower” Promised for Ukraine as NATO Ministers Meet — But U.S. Tomahawks Remain Undecided
Brands Confront New Dilemma as Extremists Adopt Fashion Labels
The Sydney Sweeney and Jeans Storm: “The Outcome Surpassed Our Wildest Dreams”
Erika Kirk Delivers Moving Tribute at White House as Trump Awards Charlie Presidential Medal of Freedom
British Food Influencer ‘Big John’ Detained in Australia After Visa Dispute
ScamBodia: The Chinese Fraud Empire Shielded by Cambodia’s Ruling Elite
French PM Suspends Macron’s Pension Reform Until After 2027 in Bid to Stabilize Government
Orange, Bouygues and Free Make €17 Billion Bid for Drahi’s Altice France Telecom Assets
Dutch Government Seizes Chipmaker After U.S. Presses for Removal of Chinese CEO
Bessent Accuses China of Dragging Down Global Economy Amid New Trade Curbs
U.S. Revokes Visas of Foreign Nationals Who ‘Celebrated’ Charlie Kirk’s Assassination
AI and Cybersecurity at Forefront as GITEX Global 2025 Kicks Off in Dubai
DJI Loses Appeal to Remove Pentagon’s ‘Chinese Military Company’ Label
EU Deploys New Biometric Entry/Exit System: What Non-EU Travelers Must Know
Australian Prime Minister’s Private Number Exposed Through AI Contact Scraper
×