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Comment by rootusrootus | Hacker News Reader

Where Google goes, I expect the rest of the tech companies (including companies that just fancy themselves as tech companies) to follow.

This is that moment when everyone is reminded of "at will" employment.

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Tech companies won't move in lockstep on this. Battle for talent is too intense, not many companies can call shots like this like Google can. Some companies will be glad to differentiate to try and attract Googlers that do not want to return to the office, that do not want to be vaccinated (tho I think the number of tech workers that are not vax'd is small)

I agree, I suspect that very few Googlers will be unvaxxed and that trying to identify these individuals and poach them will be tough. Not a good look if other tech companies are specifically bringing in non-vaccinated employees. Might create issues with current employees.

Yeah, and on the demand side, I have a hunch that a company that implicitly or explicitly uses their lack of a vaccine requirement as a recruiting pitch would have a hard time recruiting a large subset of engineers.

The venn diagram of unvaxxed, exceptional engineers, willing to move to a new company is probably very, very small.

With the amount of ridiculous anti-vaxxing statements in this thread, I'm beginning to think there may actually be a large contingent of software engineers deciding not to be vaccinated.

I suspect there’s an even larger contingent of software engineers who love to argue and debate about practically anything, regardless of vaccination status.

What do you find unreasonable about having concerns with taking a vaccine that was rushed through testing, using a technique that has considerably less historical evidence than other vaccines, and that didn't even meet the original definition of vaccine (at least in the US)?

The data overwhelmingly shows that the vaccines are safe and effective.

The data overwhelmingly shows that COVID has a high chance of either death or longterm complications.

I know which of the two I'm going to take my chances with.

To be fair it is possible to both not take the vaccine nor ever get COVID.

How would a hiring manager evaluate someone who was knowledgeable enough to work for Google but did not get the vaccine and was not valuable enough for Google to retain by other means?

The hiring managers I know would take it as something being wrong with that candidate, who may not be so knowledgeable outside very specific fields, and has trouble working with others. So, which companies will be glad to differentiate? Are there any whose names are known to most people?

Cool, now we're discussing discriminatory hiring practices as if they should be normal.

Any employer engages in discrimination while hiring. Some categories are deemed legally protected. Some are not — an employer may choose to hire only people who have a bachelor’s degree. Discriminatory hiring practices are normal.

I would be totally fine with employers aggregating themselves into vaccine mandatory and vaccine optional categories so I can avoid the latter. Just don’t mess around and be something you’re not putting my life in risk.

> not many companies can call shots like this

Nice

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