How do you think an Israeli who lost a relative when Hamas murdered hundreds of innocent civilians would feel about this little stunt in the workplace?
Maybe a relative of one of the ones whose bodies were mutilated and paraded around for all to see? You don't think that might touch a nerve?
Or on the opposite shoe: What if it were a bunch of Israeli employees who occupied that office demanding that google do MORE to support the war effort?
Leave your politics out of the workplace. This is not rocket science and the phenomenon we have nowadays where _everything_ must be co-opted for the political cause-du-jour is outright exhausting, even to people who support it.
As a Jew, I wouldn't feel comfortable wearing a star of David or any external signal of it
I wouldn't even feel comfortable disclosing being Jewish to anyone in the workplace without getting chased down by a rabid mob chanting "free Palestine"
Nor am I obligated to qualify my own Jewishness by giving some opinion critical of the status quo
If you have difficulty coexisting with minorities in the workplace, that's your problem. We aren't obligated to put up with your shit
Look at this photo and tell me seriously you feel "threatened" by people sitting on the floor to protest a previously-thought-of-as-good company being a military contractor now:
As a thought experiment, let's say they were protesting Google working for the French military. Or the US military. Or the South Korean military. Is the above a photo of an "intimidating and threatening" protest?
Are the masks some lame attempt at hiding identities or is it some kind of virtue signal thing? Genuine question because I’ve probably seen 5 masks in the last 6 months and at least 2 of those were at a dentist office.
Protesting in favor/ against sensitive subjects and causing a ruckus that results in _law enforcement getting involved_ can be “intimidating and threatening” when it _happens at your workplace_.
As far as I read, law enforcement was there just to remove the people from the premises, not to stop violent behavior. You do realize many protests involve just sitting in place until police drags you away, and that that's intentional?
You realize that breaking into a private office, being asked, and then told, to leave automatically escalates a situation? Obviously they want to get arrested because they’re out for attention.
You realize there are many examples of these sit-ins lately end with protesters gluing themselves to the floor/road or damaging property, maybe toss some paint on priceless art when it happens to a museum? Or relieving themselves in place so that some poor underpaid janitor has to clean up? After the protesters smile for the camera of course.
I find that pretty intimidating because if the spoiled rich brats looking for social media points are willing to do that to themselves what else are they willing to do? Is it totally unreasonable to assume one could be stupid and end up hitting someone? In the United State where gun crime is unfortunately high?
The likelihood of this particular incident developing into that was probably pretty low but the point is that other people should not have to make that kind of mental calculus at work. They have a right not to be subjected to whatever hot button political cause is in vogue when they’re trying to go to work so they can feed themselves and their family.
If you want to protest do it on your own time on public property or your own. Don’t expect sympathy from those of us that don’t want to hear it at our place of business.
I don't even disagree with you on many of those points, but you're still dancing around the actual question and just complaining that somebody dared to protest.
You not liking my answer != me dancing around the question. If you can't glean my position on this by now there's nothing more to be had from this conversation.
Maybe a relative of one of the ones whose bodies were mutilated and paraded around for all to see? You don't think that might touch a nerve?
Or on the opposite shoe: What if it were a bunch of Israeli employees who occupied that office demanding that google do MORE to support the war effort?
Leave your politics out of the workplace. This is not rocket science and the phenomenon we have nowadays where _everything_ must be co-opted for the political cause-du-jour is outright exhausting, even to people who support it.