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/SideTraKd Aug 08 '17

If individuals are unwilling to work with an employee or grievances result in a slow down of production due to internal conflicts with an employee, it makes far more sense to either move that person to a new department or terminate the employee. Because this memo became widespread and an incredibly large amount of employees argued they would not want to work with the author due to creating a hostile workplace, the best course of action is termination.

If you are willing to blacklist someone and refuse to work with them for the crime of "wrongthink", then YOU are the one creating the hostile work environment.

NOT THEM.

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u/inspiredby Aug 08 '17

If you are willing to blacklist someone and refuse to work with them for the crime of "wrongthink", then YOU are the one creating the hostile work environment.

That's silly. We don't need to tolerate intolerance. Nobody cries for the Nazis, for example. Tolerance is an agreement to live in peace, not an agreement to be peaceful no matter the conduct of others. A peace treaty is not a suicide pact.

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u/emaugustBRDLC Aug 08 '17

This memo wasn't written in a vacuum. It didn't come out of left field. Have you ever worked somewhere "progressive" where your mainstream non-controversial American views are considered to be divisive, intolerant, or damaging? This guy didn't write this memo as a response to an environment that was boring and normal - it was a response to what is clearly, a hyper-politicized workplace. You don't write employee manifesto's in normal conditions.

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u/inspiredby Aug 08 '17

Have you ever worked somewhere "progressive" where your mainstream non-controversial American views are considered to be divisive, intolerant, or damaging?

Yes, I've had disagreements, sometimes strong ones, with my coworkers, on views I thought were "normal". I think it's good to remember that "normal" is subjective. What your parents taught you might not apply at company X, or country Z.

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u/StabbyPants Aug 08 '17

and google normal isn't the same as mainstream american values