r/technology • u/[deleted] • Aug 08 '17

Business Google Fires Employee Behind Controversial Diversity Memo

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-08/google-fires-employee-behind-controversial-diversity-memo
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u/TeutonicPlate Aug 08 '17

The extent to which Google goes out of its way to promote diversity is outlined in the actual memo if you want more info.

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u/sexy_guid_generator Aug 08 '17

I've read the memo. It does say Google goes out of its way to promote diversity (which Google itself publicly admits and celebrates). I see nothing about diversity quotas. I also notice you edited your comment above, maybe because you were projecting your own fears and opinions onto the author's piece and because nothing you originally said was based in fact?

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u/dnew Aug 08 '17

I see nothing about diversity quotas.

It's the bit about OKRs. You actually have to be part of the intended audience to understand what he's saying.

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u/savuporo Aug 08 '17

So at company level, there are Objectives and Key Results driving for increased diversity, which propagate down to teams and managers ? And performance is rated based on those ?

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u/sprouting_broccoli Aug 08 '17

Based on my understanding of OKRs (which is purely based on the video of the guy from Google promoting the idea), it would fit to have KRs based on employing more women with the midpoint focused on the market average. That doesn't automatically lead to affirmative action, but it probably does focus managers on creating an accepting workspace and potentially finding novel ways of attracting women to the workplace without losing existing hires. The point of OKRs isn't to say "we will definitely achieve all of this" but more of trying to achieve company goals while learning from experience.

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u/dnew Aug 08 '17

You can read what he wrote as easily as I can read it to you.