Skip to content
Advertisement
When Appliance Fail?

A Google insider spills the tea on how the company forsook its founding ideals

Claire Stapleton's new book, Don't Be Evil, recounts her journey from company cheerleader to outspoken dissident.

schedule 16:07 visibility 2 views
A Google insider spills the tea on how the company forsook its founding ideals
Source: Ars Technica

In 2018, 20,000 Google employees worldwide made headlines when they staged a walkout to protest how the company had handled sexual misconduct allegations against key corporate executives, among other grievances. One of the organizers was Claire Stapleton, a communications specialist whose distinctive voice and ability to channel the corporate ethos had once earned her the internal moniker "Bard of Google."

Six months later, a disillusioned Stapleton resigned, claiming she had been demoted during the most recent restructuring as retaliation for helping to spearhead the walkout. The story of how she went from enthusiastic cheerleader to proactive dissident, and the many lessons she learned along the way, are featured in her new book, Don't Be Evil: Bad Bosses, Fake Promises, and My Escape from Big Tech—A Biting Memoir of Twelve Years Inside Google.

Stapleton didn't set out to be a rabble-rouser. When she joined Google out of college in 2007, it was like "getting the golden ticket in Willy Wonka," she told Ars. Awareness of her good fortune offset any initial uneasiness or skepticism, although Stapleton was sufficiently independent-minded not to move into what was then Google's new corporate housing development in Mountain View, California. Stapleton was very good at her job, and she quickly moved up the ranks, playing a key role in shaping the company's public image.

Read full article

Comments

newspaper

Originally published at

Ars Technica

open_in_new Read Full Article

Related Articles

Threads has a VR app now
Technology

Threads has a VR app now

Meta has launched a Threads app for Meta Quest VR headsets, the company announced on Tuesday. The launch follows Meta bringing the app to its Ray-Ban Display AR glasses last month and the recent news that the platform has crossed 500 million monthly...

The Verge
Another OpenAI executive takes off
Technology

Another OpenAI executive takes off

Brad Lightcap, OpenAI's special projects lead and the company's former COO, announced his departure after an eight-year stint at the AI lab. In an internal memo he later posted to X, Lightcap told colleagues he'd be starting "something new." "Over...

The Verge

Read More

Your Appliance Broke?
Reliable Repair for