{
  "id": 2544700,
  "title": "When loving where you work becomes a problem",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/22/when-loving-where-you-work-becomes-a-problem",
  "topic": "culture",
  "section": "Culture",
  "published": "2026-08-22T08:30:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Fast Company",
    "slug": "fast-company",
    "url": "https://www.fastcompany.com/91591543/loving-where-you-work-becomes-a-problem"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Claire Stapleton's memoir, \"Don’t Be Evil,\" reveals her 12-year journey at Google, from college graduate to senior communications leader at YouTube. She co-organized the Google Walkout in 2018, protesting the company's handling of sexual harassment, and ultimately left the company. \"Don’t Be Evil\" is not just a story about Google, but a reflection on how anyone navigates power, ambition, loyalty, and conscience within the organizations they work for. The central question is where one ends and where their workplace begins.\n\nStapleton emphasizes that the institution you work for tells a story about itself, which can become a part of you. When she joined Google, it didn't feel like a typical company; it felt like joining a movement. Google promised its employees that together, they could change the world. The company's unofficial motto was \"Don’t Be Evil,\" and Stapleton believed it was genuine. She found meaning in her work, but over time, she realized that once your identity is fused to an institution's story, it becomes challenging to see the gap between the story and reality. This can lead to rationalizations and a defense of the narrative, rather than questioning its reality.\n\nCulture is a more powerful form of control than hierarchy, according to Stapleton. She describes how Google exported not just products but a philosophy of work. Trust employees, flatten hierarchies, collaborate obsessively, give smart people freedom, and they will build extraordinary things. Culture shapes what feels normal, admirable, and morally right. The voluntary nature of belonging to such a culture can make it difficult to notice how much it's steering you. When everyone around you believes they're changing the world, questioning them can feel like betrayal, and belonging can stop being a gift.",
  "summary": "Below, Claire Stapleton shares five key insights from her new book, Don’t Be Evil: Bad Bosses, Fake Promises, and My Escape From Big Tech . Stapleton spent 12 years at Google , joining straight out of college in 2007 and rising to become a senior communications leader at YouTube. In 2018, she co-organized the Google Walkout—in which 20,000 employees protested the company’s handling of sexual…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}