I'm honestly somewhat surprised that these firings haven't triggered a mass walkout or something at Google offices yet. They're being very cavalier with employees they spend so much effort (at least historically) on keeping in the office to work "free" hours.
Some of the protesting workers have said the company has a double standard when it comes to which employees it disciplines. Other Google workers have posted the names and photos of pro-Palestinian workers online, “doxing” them and opening them up to harassment from people on social media, the workers have said.
Seems like it's not an entirely unpopular action with the staff.
The labour situation is one that people don't want to risk it. Even 150k jobs are fucking good right now.
My BSc+MSc+BEng degree-holder buddy with a rich resume laden with FAANGs is still challenged to land a permanent role after a year. He'd DEFINITELY not give a fuck while he can feed his family.
Would you walk out of your 250,000/year software engineer gig over this? Most people won't and don't. Go to work, get paid, and live your life how you want.
When my co-workers get terminated for political criticism? Yeah, I would. Lots of tech workers would and do — remember the Blizzard walkout several years ago? At the very least, this is the type of thing that spurs white collars to form unions.