Google and Personnel Management: New Taco Truck Operators Available
June 5, 2026
Another dinobaby post. No AI unless it is an image. This dinobaby is not Grandma Moses, just Grandpa Arnold.
I located another great example of the failure of modern hiring practices. The source of this information is the Alphabet Workers Union. I admit that it is a biased source. Those who work at Google are, by definition, the world’s smartest and most capable humans on planet earth. These humans create the must-have services that beg for personally identifiable information and do their level best to extract essential signals from clicks on their assorted online properties.
I read “We Are a Fighting Union.” I am not sure if the information in the Web page that displays is a call to action, a bunch of misfits complaining about work, or a disinformation operation powered by a Gemini agentic bot chain. Frankly I don’t care. What interests me is that the existence of “We Are a Fighting Union” provides a glimpse of the consequence of what might be called “flawed human resource intake, vetting, and training programs.” In a nutshell, the Web page illustrates the real or attributed behaviors of Google leadership. (Of course, I know the company is Alphabet, but, hey, I coined the word Googzilla for my monograph published by the now-defunct Infonortics Ltd. in the UK. Therefore, I stick with “Google” as an umbrella term and use “Googzilla” to signal brilliant actions taken by the company’s leadership.
I assume Google personnel has larger images of these individuals. I assume Google’s Lens technology or a variant can identify each individual as well. This snap from the AWU Web site suggests some Googlers are not happy campers:
What is the “problem” the union wishes to address. It is not working conditions. The offices, if one actually shows up, are comfy and provide some essentials like bean bag chairs, approved beverages, and some okayed snacks. Based on my scanning of the “We Are a Fighting Union,” the problem seems to be Google’s management failings. If Google were doing a good job, there would be no need to create a union. The AWU says:
Our union strives to protect Alphabet workers, our users, and our world.
The union in my opinion is unlikely to prevail. The typical Silicon Valley type of company is a caste system or a Great Chain of Being. The idea is that “leadership” is at the top of the hierarchy. Next in line are the smartest and most endorsed technical employees. Below the second tier are serf; that is, people who do work. The set up is efficient when viewed in terms of revenue, performance metrics, or other outputs deemed important to leadership. Thus, it is possible for some serfs to move up in the hierarchy. Certain “groups” of serfs have more difficulty moving up than others. Lawyers not skilled in technology face headwinds and may work from a trailer in a parking lot about a mile from Carpetland on Shoreline Drive. Others like a 17 year old whiz can go aloft carried by a hot air balloon of a technical breakthrough that produced a “big win” in the eyes of leadership.
The unionizers face a reality: Google wants compliant serfs. Dr. Timnit Gebru is the poster child for how Google responds to nails that stick up. The “no tech for apartheid” crowd found themselves free to operate a taco lunch wagon in Redwood City. And there are other examples.
The “We Are a Fighting Union” information says it wants:
- Job protection
- Fair pay for serfs
- Flexible work conditions
- Privacy protection
- Racial and economic justice.
Okay, this is a great list for a discussion group in a high school sociology class. The five items are simply not part of the modern Silicon Valley-type company operating modality. Here’s what’s expected of serfs and what the Boards of Directors want to happen:
- Screw up or are deemed not essential, a person will be terminated. The Meta email firings provide a good example of the modern management methods for personnel procedures
- Pay is based on the tier and an “employee’s big wins.” No wins? You are out.
- Work must be done within the “time” defined by leadership. This means a standard work day plus whatever additional hours are required and continuously over a seven day work week. Work, not the serf’s needs, comes first. Fail and the serf is pushed out.
- Privacy does not exist. The idea is 24×7 surveillance with analytics identifying the non compliant.
- Justice. Give me a break. Leadership defines the rules. Keep up and follow them or you will be in a taco truck in San Carlos.
Is this a good way to run a company? It depends on one’s point of view. From the leadership level, the answer is, “Absolutely.” From the mid-level, on the way up perspective, it’s not great, but it’s going to make me rich and I get nifty opportunities. From the serf level, it sucks. But throughout history, serfs have not been happy. Suck it up or quit strike me as the options.
Trust me. The creation of a union in a Silicon Valley type company is unlikely to result in the outcome the organizers and members expect.
Remember. Money and power in Silicon Valley type companies foster the emergence of Dark Age management methods.
Stephen E Arnold, June 5, 2026
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