Comment on Video of Eric Schmidt blaming remote work for Google’s woes mysteriously vanishes
merc@sh.itjust.works 3 months agoPart of the plan (a big part) is that any big ideas you come up with when you’re in the office and not working belong to Google.
Scenario 1: It’s 5pm so you go home, after dinner you hang out with a bunch of friends, many who work at other companies. While you’re hanging out, someone has an idea for the Next Big Thing in tech. Everybody talks about it, gets excited, and a year later everyone quits their jobs to start NBT.com.
Scenario 2: It’s 5pm so you go to the on-site gym, you stay on campus for dinner, and you hang out with a bunch of cow-orkers / friends, all of whom work at Google / Meta / Amazon. While you’re hanging out, someone has an idea for the Next Big Thing in tech. Everybody talks about it, gets excited, but since you all work for the same company you don’t quit. The company has ways for employees to work on projects like that while not having to quit. And, if you did quit, they might be able to sue you since you came up the idea on company time, and used company resources to develop it.
KevonLooney@lemm.ee 3 months ago
That’s not really how IP works. Just because you think of something while eating a sandwich that Google paid for, that doesn’t mean they own it. Your brain is not “company resources”. The sandwich was not necessary for the brainstorm.
It’s smarter to think up good ideas away from the office, but it’s completely legal to take knowledge and experience with you when you leave the company.
merc@sh.itjust.works 3 months ago
Ok, feel free to argue that against Google’s lawyers. The law may be on your side, but the lawyers aren’t.
KevonLooney@lemm.ee 3 months ago
In California it’s totally fine. That’s why there’s so many tech startups there. It’s not taxes.
merc@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
That may be the law, but Google isn’t likely to just accept it without fighting it.