Atleast, not if Google can find out my genes. Because Type 2 diabetes runs in my family. Allergies and asthma, too. Everything that Google would rather not hire you if you carry the genes. Mind you, Google only needs to check my web site in its screening process to know what runs in my family, but nobody else with common genetic diseases can work at Google either - if they know about your genes. Yours and my common garden variety health problems run counter to their corporate culture. Or atleast, that is what they explained when they fired one of their founding executives, Brian Reid (See below). Now it seems there is more to their thinking - people who carry these genes are evil, and must be eliminated through genetic selection.
Now Google has added a level of scariness. They have decided to advance low cost complete human genome testing as part of its campaign to combat "evil" - which, Google has now explained, includes people with diabetes and asthma. Now, why don't I think Google should have control of such a database?
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,138707-c,google/article.html
At the last day of the Web 2.0 Summit, attendees learned that having their genome mapped will set them back US$300,000 and that Google Inc.'s founders really stress over the prevention and extermination of evil.
WeatherBill CEO David Friedberg belonged to Google's Corporate Development team and, when negotiating acquisitions, it wasn't unheard of for either Page or Brin to ask hard questions about the deals if they sensed that the members of companies' management teams had an evil streak, he said.
Meanwhile, entrepreneur Bret Taylor, who developed products at Google for four years, said Page and Brin were excellent at steering product teams to think big while reminding them always keep in mind the question of evil.
Earlier in the day, genetics maverick J. Craig Venter informed attendees that mapping a person's genome these days costs about $300,000, but that, as happened with calculators, the price will tumble over time. For instance, if you can wait a couple of years, the cost will probably be closer to $100,000. That's a bargain compared with the about $70 million that it cost to map Venter's genome.
Venter's genome is posted on the Internet. He joked that there might come a day when singles on the dating scene will be able to do a Google search for potential mates' genomes, especially if they might at some point consider becoming fruitful and multiplying.
The son of a man who died of cardiac arrest at age 59 and of a woman who is still playing golf at 85, Venter has identified genes in his map both for heart disease and longevity. However, he estimates that scientists will need a critical mass of 10,000 human genomes in order to engage in the type of analysis that will lead to major, unequivocal insights about genetic traits.
And in a rare display of corporate affection, representatives from Internet archrivals Google and Microsoft sat beside each other at a panel on online maps and exchanged pleasantries.
The slightly surreal moment came about halfway through the a panel titled "Edge: Mapping." Brian McClendon, engineering director and product manager of Google Earth, commended his Microsoft peer Erik Jorgensen, general manager of Live Search, for Microsoft's support of Google's Keyhole Markup Language (KML).
KML is the language used to create data files for both Google Maps and its sister desktop application Google Earth. On Monday, Microsoft announced that its Live Search engine's local search component has gained support for KML, giving it access to the wealth of mapping data created with KML and available on the Web.
Microsoft and Google can "duke it out" for customer acquisition, but "the fight shouldn't be on file formats, so cooperating on this makes all the sense in the world," Jorgensen said during the mini lovefest.During a panel of former Google employees, they confirmed to moderator and conference chair John Battelle that, yes, Larry Page and Sergey Brin do factor heavily into business and technology decisions whether they will have evil consequences.
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2004-07-23-google-age-discrim_x.htm
Lawsuit alleges Google discriminates against older workers
By Michael Liedtke, Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO — Online search engine leader Google casts itself as an enlightened employer that pampers its employees with free meals to supplement plentiful helpings of stock options that could soon be worth millions of dollars.
But a lawsuit filed earlier this week by a recently fired Google manager offers a less flattering picture, contending the company has cultivated a culture that discriminates against older workers and fostered serious morale problems.
The civil complaint, filed Tuesday in Santa Clara Superior court, alleges Mountain View-based Google fired Brian Reid, 54, as its director of operations in February 2004 because he didn't fit in a culture emphasizing "youth and energy."
Google denied the allegations. "We believe Mr. Reid's complaint is without merit and will defend against it vigorously," spokesman Steve Langdon said. He declined to discuss why Reid lost his job.
Wrongful termination suits alleging age discrimination are common in corporate America, but Reid's complaint could prove awkward for Google, an unorthodox company that has depicted itself as a progressive employer since its founding nearly six years ago.
Google co-founders Larry Page, 31, and Sergey Brin, 30, emphasized their devotion to the company's workers in a letter attached to the company's plans to launch an initial public offering of stock later this year.
"Our employees, who have named themselves Googlers, are everything," the letter said. "...We will reward them and treat them well."
Page made the final decision to fire Reid, according to the lawsuit. Reid said company executives initially gave him no reason for his termination before Shona Brown, vice president of business operations, told him he was incompatible with Google's youthful atmosphere. After he left, Reid said he learned he was replaced by someone in their 30s.
Reid also contends he was discriminated against for having diabetes. He was diagnosed with the disease — a condition that "substantially limits his ability to engage in major life activities," according to the lawsuit — shortly after being hired in June 2002.
The firing cost Reid his annual salary of $200,000 and 119,000 Google stock options with an exercise price of 30 cents per share. Based on estimates of Google's market value, Reid's stock options probably would have been worth about $10 million after the company's IPO. The suit seeks to recover lost compensation and punitive damages.
Reid's lawsuit alleges that Google's office are far from Utopian.
The complaint says Google recruited Reid, a technology industry veteran, from his last job as a professor at Carnegie Mellon University West "to correct some very serious problems...with its work force," citing management and morale problems among women in particular.
The suit didn't describe the nature of the trouble, but said that Reid cleaned things up. Reid never received a negative job review before his firing, the suit said.
During his tenure at Google, Reid said he gathered evidence that Google purposely avoids hiring older workers. Just 2% of Google's roughly 1,900 employees are over 40 years old, according to the suit. The average age of Google's male workers was 29.7 years old and the average age of women was 28.4 years old when Reid left.
The suit doesn't mention that most members of Google's senior management team are at least 40 years old. The older executives include: CEO Eric Schmidt, who is 48; Wayne Rosing, vice president of engineering, who is 57; and George Reyes, chief financial officer, who is 49.
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9792046-7.html
A tech industry legend who claims Google fired him because he was too old to fit into the company "culture" has just won another shot at making his case in court.
A California state appeals court in San Jose on Thursday threw out a lower court's decision to dismiss a lawsuit brought by Internet pioneer Brian Reid. He's best known for helping to create the first firewall, the pioneering AltaVista Internet search engine and the alt.* hierarchy of newsgroups in Usenet.
Reid, who was 54 when he filed his lawsuit in 2004, came to Google as its director of operations and director of engineering in June 2002. He was ultimately fired in February 2004, when he was told by his supervisor that he was not a "cultural fit," according to court filings. For those keeping score, that was not long before Google announced its initial public offering, which Reid's attorneys argued deprived him of millions of dollars in potential stock earnings.
According to court papers, Reid's Google colleagues frequently to him as "old man," "old guy," and "old fuddy-duddy" during his time with the search giant. His boss, then 38-year-old Urs Hoelzle, also made age-related remarks about his performance every few weeks, dismissed his opinions and ideas as "obsolete" and "too old to matter," and called him "fuzzy," "lethargic," and other energy-lacking descriptors, the court filings said. Google, for its part, argued it let Reid go because it eliminated the department, an in-house graduate degree program, to which he had recently been reassigned.
The appeals court said a jury should have been allowed to consider a number of pieces of evidence that Reid presented in support of his case. In addition to the "ageist" comments Reid cited, he also commissioned a statistical analysis, which found younger Google employees typically received better performance ratings and higher bonuses. (Click here for a PDF of the court's opinion.)
Google spokesman Jon Murchison said the company doesn't comment on ongoing litigation, "but as our court filings have stated, we believe this complaint to be unfounded and will vigorously defend against it."
Stephen Hutcheon
October 10, 2007
Google's reputation as a hip and happening employer was cemented earlier this year when Fortune magazine anointed the Silicon Valley outfit as America's Best Company to Work For.
According to the magazine, workers at the Googleplex - the nickname given to the company's vast headquarters complex near San Francisco - enjoy conditions more akin to something you'd find at a five star resort.
Googlers enjoy a host of perks including free food from 11 gourmet cafeterias, subsidised exercise and language classes, laundry facilities, hairdressers, masseurs and even a personal concierge to help them make reservations.
Little wonder that the internet search company reportedly receives some 1300 job applications a day.
But not everyone considers the Googleplex to be a workers' paradise - especially not Brian Reid, an experienced computer scientist on the north side of 50.
Google's former director of operations and engineering has been locked in a legal battle with his erstwhile employer for the past three years over a case of wrongful dismissal.
Reid claims that despite receiving a thumbs up performance review in which he was praised as "very intelligent" and "creative", he was sacked at the age of 54 after being told he was "lethargic", that his ideas were "obsolete" and that he was a cultural mis-match.
As a result, Reid lost an annual salary of $US200,000 and stock options which today would have been worth over $US60 million.
Google argues that Reid's departure was the result of a decision to close down a program that he had been transferred to work on and was not related to his age.
Last Thursday - the day before Reid's 58th birthday - an appeals court in California allowed his case to proceed to trial, overturning the decision of a lower court which had ruled in favour of Google.
The 26-page court ruling gives a rare insight into the office politics at one of the world's most watched companies - one with a corporate culture which, according to Reid, placed a premium on being "young, energetic and whacky".
Before he was let go, Reid was told by a supervisor three years his senior, that he was not a "cultural fit" - an assertion that the computer industry veteran rejects.
"I don't dye my hair orange and ride a unicycle to work," he said in a telephone interview. "But I'm very good at what I do. I don't consider that I was incompatible with that job."
Reid, who worked for Google between June 2002 and February 2004, says he was also subjected to a string of ageist taunts and remarks from fellow employees and supervisors.
Urs Hoelzle, a Google manager 12 years his junior, repeatedly told Reid he was "slow", "fuzzy", "lethargic", and did not "display a sense of urgency", according to the court papers. Hoelzle was also said to have dismissed Reid's opinions and ideas as "obsolete" and "too old to matter".
The silver-haired Reid has given evidence that some of his colleagues referred to him as an "old man", an "old guy" and an "old fuddy-duddy".
Harsh words for a distinguished Silicon Valley computer engineer with a resume that boasts a string of achievements in both the business and academic worlds.
In 1982, for instance, Reid received the prestigious Grace Murray Hopper Award for his work in developing an early word processing system.
Later, while working at Digital Equipment Corporation, he pioneered an experiment in electronic publishing that was a precursor to the forums and discussion board that are now a pervasive part of the internet.
And it was there that he was also involved in the creation of the first firewall and, in 1991, the leading search engine of its day, Alta Vista.
"There was never any reason given by Google for my termination," Reid said in the phone interview. "They said I was free to look for a new job within the company. But behind my back they were making sure I would get an answer of 'no' to everything."
His lawyers presented a trail of emails stretching to the very top echelon of the company backing this claim.
Reid, who is a devout Anglican and a leading member of a society dedicated to using the internet to promote unity among Christians, also suffers from type two diabetes.
As a result, his doctor advised him not to miss meals. "If I was in a meeting that needed to extend into the lunch hour I had to get up and leave the meeting," he said.
For health reasons and also because he valued his family life Reid said he would generally leave the office at 7pm - a habit not widely observed in a workplace where employees often worked late.
Well known Google workaholics include vice president Marissa Mayer who turns up for work at 9am and often doesn't leave the office until after midnight.
"I like to sleep in my bed and not a couch in the office," said Reid. "So I would typically go home at dinner time and after dinner I would log on to the computer and work from home."
According to Reid, Google provided breakfast, lunch and dinner and on more than one occasion he was asked why he wasn't staying at the office for dinner.
"They do everything they can to get you to spend all of your waking hours there," he said.
The father of four said while at Google his work "dominated my life" and he would routinely clock up 12 hour days.
Although he admits he's not a party animal, Reid says he participated in social functions at work except for the more physical pastimes. "I didn't play roller hockey or anything where I could break my arm," he said.
Reid's claim that older workers get a raw deal at Google are supported by an analysis prepared for his lawyers by Professor Norman Matloff, a statistician at the University of California, Davis.
Using data supplied by Google, Matloff found that older employees received lower performance ratings and smaller bonuses.
(Google has challenged the findings in court, arguing that the analysis is based on too small a sample to be relevant.)
Reid denies his lawsuit is driven by a desire for revenge. "I can't hurt them," he acknowledged. "All I'm really trying to do is see to it that they treat other people more fairly than they treated me."