In Silicon Valley Thriller, a Settlement May Preclude the Finale | Hacker News Reader

In Silicon Valley Thriller, a Settlement May Preclude the Finale

nytimes.com

73 pointswallflower16 comments

These companies will try very hard to settle before this goes to trial, because the emails that have been unearthed so far are not flattering. The companies lost their motions for summary judgment, which http://appleinsider.com/articles/14/03/28/silicon-valley-ant... is where the companies could have proven that their actions were not illegal based purely on the law and uncontested facts. Now, they'll face a jury trial, and in such a setting, in front of ordinary people, the appearance of wrongdoing can matter a whole lot. The emails produced so far in many cases come across as mean and callous, and that's going to play in front of a jury.

I think tech companies will have to take a lesson from this case and reexamine some of their approaches to dealing with engineers. Tech more so than many other industries seems incestuous in terms of how companies deal with the labor pool. This can result in policies that open these companies up to liability under antitrust as well as discrimination laws.

> are not flattering. > across as mean and callous

I think you're being too generous. Multiple executives from non-cooperating firms warned Steve Jobs in e-mails that the non-poaching agreements he was asking for were illegal.

Non-poaching, non-solicitation and their cousins are awful for the employee, the industry and future employers. People are not commodities to contract over, and the egregiously pompous executive negotiations will earn fierce punishment from a jury or judge if this doesn't settle.

I agree that no-hire agreements are harmful to employees, but non-solicitation is beneficial. Cold calls are obnoxious and I'd be glad to see them stop forever.

Lol, way to be short-sighted.

Don't answer your phone then. The fact that you're advocating a worse labor market for employees because you don't like phone calls is pretty appalling.

I'm not advocating a worse labor market, I'm advocating a market where engineers' lives are not constantly interrupted by phone calls from recruiters. Tech workers do not benefit in any way from being cold-called.

The job market in silicon valley is very favorable to tech workers. A typical college grad could start applying tomorrow and have multiple offers by the end of the week. Someone with a few years at a top-tier company on their resume could probably get an offer directly after the interviews conclude. This is what hiring managers mean by "tech worker shortage": if you can write code, you can get a good job on a very tight schedule.

> I'm advocating a market where engineers' lives are not constantly interrupted by phone calls from recruiters.

Don't answer your phone. You're advocating a market where people cannot be recruited because you're happy with your current job. It's selfish.

I'm sure it is incredibly stressful to be a plaintiff in this case, but to use a man's death to frame the story -- when the circumstances were "murky" and the connection presented is one person's speculation -- seems...inappropriate on the part of the Times.

From what little they write about it, he seems like he was probably suffering some kind of mental health issue. Writing that "Mr. Marshall’s death is just one of many ways in which the case has shaped up to be a Silicon Valley drama unlike any other." just doesn't seem OK.

I agree, and it would appear given he "pulled out a five-inch metal spike and hit one of them" I'd say the circumstances leading up to the attack were murky, not the response by the sheriff as a result of being attacked.

Stress is a mental health issue. All mental health issues are not chronic mental illnesses. Stressful circumstances can create poor mental health. That's one of the ways we identify signs of stress - i. e. by a person's behaviour.

The awards would probably not be much. From the initial three settlements for a total of $20 million, the lawyers have asked for incentive payments of $20,000 for each class representative. (They have asked for $5 million for themselves, a standard percentage in these cases

This kind of makes you question what is going on. The entire industry (?) can buy themselves out of genuine racketeering allegations for 2% of what FB spent on istagram. It would be interesting if the judge blocked this for being an un-reasonable discount. $20K per worker would likely be the minimum--per year--this type of policy would thwart. So again, this is off at least by a factor of 10 in terms of NPV in the context of a long-running conspiracy (ie, 20K from one thwarted job x at least 10+years). It does, however, emphasize the value for money of the "hush money" being paid.

The defendants do not want jurors to hear that Google and Apple, in particular, are two of the most financially successful companies in the world, because that might encourage a jury to award a larger sum.

This also seems dis-engenuous, given that a career with either firm can be worths millions (and often tens of millions) of dollars. That woud put into context the notion that something like $20k/fte is out of order in relation to the career damage that blacklisting a "switcher" into some form of "career path-dependency".

Part of me wishes Steve Jobs was still alive so he could see how this particular action was very much wrong. I admire a lot of his accomplishments, but this action seems very illegal.

Steve jobs lied to his close friend Steve Wozniak about the payment from Atari in the 1970s so he could keep 90% of the money. His daughter was raised on welfare by a single mother for a period of time while he refused to help or acknowledge his paternity. He cheated early employees out of equity to such a degree that Wozniak gave some of his shares away to make up for it.

I can't see any reason to believe that if Jobs was still here today that he would suddenly become compassionate, caring or empathetic after showing none of those traits for 40 years.

I agree, I doubt he would.

This whole situation is more depressing than anything. Who would have thought that exemplars of our industry would cheat their own employees to this degree. One might have expected this in some other industries, but software?

Of course they'll settle. They have the money and hate for more embarrassing and illegal stuff to come out in public.

But now the DOJ will undoubtedly charge and jail the characters that broke the law? Planing or doing something illegal over email or IM for example is wire fraud. Imagine the rest. Blind justice and all.

...waiting.

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