The 'personal agenda' refers to the fact that it is unclear whether these values represent the opinion of an overwhelming majority at Google.
Some of these statements are _actually_ controversial. (Without saying whether I personally agree with them or not -- I am saying that they are far from being universally accepted.)
Examples:
> All aspects of our work should be transparent, including the freedom to decline to work on projects that don’t align with our values.
Not sure how the company should approach this exactly. I'll bring up some extreme (and maybe stupid) examples. Let's say Google wants to monetize the Google search page even more, while employees working in the UX team disagree with this direction. Should Google be able to let them go (in case there's no other UX role in the company) or not?
> Our decisions are made democratically, not just by electing our leaders who set the agenda, but by actively and continuously listening to what workers believe is important.
This approach of corporate decision making practically doesn't exist anywhere, and there's not much proof that it'd work, so I consider this controversial.
> Social and economic justice are paramount to achieving just outcomes. We will prioritize the needs of the worst off. Neutrality never helps the victim.
Google had a massive impact on the world by creating the search engine and broadening access to information to people around the world. Should it have other social missions as well? What should those be? What happens if the company's core mission (organizing the world's information) becomes at odds with other social mission(s)?
Normally the leaders of the company are responsible for making decisions here.
> Everyone deserves a welcoming environment
I think this is something most people would agree with, if there weren't many examples of people abusing these policies.
> We prioritize society and the environment instead of maximizing profits at all costs. We can make money without doing evil.
Sure, no reason to not agree with this sentence. Question is: how is this actionable? Who is going to decide what's evil, what's worth it? By default the executives do, that's their job.
> Democratic Decision Making
I'd question whether it's wanting "democratic" decision making or if the group wants a great role in decision making, perhaps beyond that which it's numbers justify. I say this as I work at a place where topics for all-hands could be submitted and voted on. This seemed to work well until a topic was submitted and the downvote to upvote ratio was "disappointing" to the person/group that submitted. After this meeting, only upvotes were allowed on submissions.
Some of these statements are _actually_ controversial. (Without saying whether I personally agree with them or not -- I am saying that they are far from being universally accepted.)
Examples:
> All aspects of our work should be transparent, including the freedom to decline to work on projects that don’t align with our values.
Not sure how the company should approach this exactly. I'll bring up some extreme (and maybe stupid) examples. Let's say Google wants to monetize the Google search page even more, while employees working in the UX team disagree with this direction. Should Google be able to let them go (in case there's no other UX role in the company) or not?
> Our decisions are made democratically, not just by electing our leaders who set the agenda, but by actively and continuously listening to what workers believe is important.
This approach of corporate decision making practically doesn't exist anywhere, and there's not much proof that it'd work, so I consider this controversial.
> Social and economic justice are paramount to achieving just outcomes. We will prioritize the needs of the worst off. Neutrality never helps the victim.
Google had a massive impact on the world by creating the search engine and broadening access to information to people around the world. Should it have other social missions as well? What should those be? What happens if the company's core mission (organizing the world's information) becomes at odds with other social mission(s)?
Normally the leaders of the company are responsible for making decisions here.
> Everyone deserves a welcoming environment
I think this is something most people would agree with, if there weren't many examples of people abusing these policies.
> We prioritize society and the environment instead of maximizing profits at all costs. We can make money without doing evil.
Sure, no reason to not agree with this sentence. Question is: how is this actionable? Who is going to decide what's evil, what's worth it? By default the executives do, that's their job.