Microsoft fires employees who organized vigil for Palestinians killed in Gaza
Microsoft fires employees who organized vigil for Palestinians killed in Gaza
Microsoft has fired two employees who organized an unauthorized vigil at the company’s headquarters for Palestinians killed in Gaza during Israel’s yearlong war with Hamas.
Microsoft has fired two employees who organized an unauthorized vigil at the company’s headquarters for Palestinians killed in Gaza during Israel’s war with Hamas.
The two employees told The Associated Press they were fired by phone call late Thursday, several hours after a lunchtime event they organized at Microsoft’s campus in Redmond, Washington.
Both workers were members of a coalition of employees called “No Azure for Apartheid” that has opposed Microsoft’s sale of its cloud-computing technology to the Israeli government. But they contended that Thursday’s event was similar to other Microsoft-sanctioned employee giving campaigns for people in need.
“We have so many community members within Microsoft who have lost family, lost friends or loved ones,” said Abdo Mohamed, a researcher and data scientist. “But Microsoft really failed to have the space for us where we can come together and share our grief and honor the memories of people who can no longer speak for themselves.”
Microsoft said Friday it has “ended the employment of some individuals in accordance with internal policy” but declined to provide details.
Google earlier this year fired more than 50 workers in the aftermath of protests over technology the company is supplying the Israeli government amid the Gaza war. The firings stemmed from internal turmoil and sit-in protests at Google offices centered on “Project Nimbus,” a $1.2 billion contract signed in 2021 for Google and Amazon to provide the Israeli government with cloud computing and artificial intelligence services.
We all knew that Microsoft wasn't a good company. Let this news motivate you to switch to GNU/Linux.
This seems like it should be more of a "write-up" type of offense, rather than skipping straight to terminating employment. This is a vigil, not a protest. Microsoft: "how dare you mourn those killed by a genocidal regime."
BTW - what is everyone's favorite non-MS suite of office programs? I've been using Only Office, but curious what others think.
Unionize
As always, fuck Microsoft. Literally been saying this over 30 years already.
Don't use windows, switch to Linux. It's free, actually reasonably secure, actually works, won't spy on you, won't force shit on you just to make you pay more.
Don't use Microsoft azure. It's overpriced and runs in Linux anyway.
Don't use Microsoft 365 online shit. Outlook functions horrendously bad, teams is a sad joke. I unfortunately have to deal with teams every day because government customers thought it was a good idea and EVERY call there is some shit. People can't get in, people don't have audio, people ALWAYS have the wrong audio device selected no matter what and need to spend the first 5 minutes to get their audio and video working. It's shit quality compared to zoom or Google meet or open source alternatieves...
Stop giving this piece of shit your money
War Profiteering: It's not just for weapons manufacturers any more!
Right, my daily reminder that the US doesn't belive in human rights. Article 23 of the UN human rights declaration for anyone curious. This is also a fun, yet basic resource: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/countries-with-independent-national-human-rights-institution?time=latest
It's sad that the west still glorifies this fucking homunculus that not only doesn't try to adhere to any agreed principals and values, but actively goes against them. The republicans are against half the things written in there, while the dems "compromise" so hard that "barely making it" is the ultimate unachievable goal in the distance to aim towards. Fucking pathetic.
How do people have the time to organise vigils and get into "coalitions" and politics in the workplace?
Granted I don't work at Microsoft, but I feel me and everyone around me is overworked enough that when we have the time to stop working... We head home (or close the laptop if WFH) and rest, not engage in additional activities in the workplace.
Microsoft should go macro-shaft themselves.
Obviously, since they "fix their bugs" so much, they need people to not be distracted. Right? Right? It's not because they're probably racist assholes.
If it didn’t get approved, I can understand why the company would take that stance.
But I do think they should have just approved the event
I never understand how people are surprised with this sort of thing happens.
They did something on company property that the company probably would not approve of and got let go for it. And it sounds like they seem to think they company should be providing space to do it.
People really should learn to keep their political opinions out of the office where your opinions might run counter to the person that controls your ability to pay your bills.
Honestly I don’t know much about the war over there because I’ve been actively avoiding info about it (just got enough problems without piling on a war I have no skin in) but organizing unsanctioned political events on company grounds sounds like it’s looking for heat. That’s a publicity traded company but not a government entity so freedom of speech isn’t really a shield there.
That's what you get for supporting terrorist organisations. Palestine war isn't a simple war. Israel needs to ensure that no oct7 can happen in future. To do that, they needed to crush every Hamas member. Now, Palestinians helping Hamas members to hide. That makes them responsible as well. Besides, Israel can't afford to lose more of their IDF soldiers to save women and children, who will most likely become other terrorists who will attack them in future. That's the reality, and you can't play dumb in war. Israel has every right to defend itself, and the West will always support them. And take some interviews with Jewish children from the West about how they are being bullied for being Jews. Muslims go to the West, chant for the Caliphate, and call for the genocide of all of the Jews. After Jews, atheists and Christians next. No community in the world can live side by side peacefully. You let them live, they will start to attack your religion, and your beliefs in the name of freedom of speech.