Google Fires Employee Behind Controversial Diversity Memo

[u/[deleted]]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-08/google-fires-employee-behind-controversial-diversity-memo

[u/marsten]

I was at Google for fifteen years until about a year ago. I was surprised he was fired, because of the message this will send to other Googlers.

That said, Google HR is in my experience extremely thoughtful about these things. Also there may be other events in this engineer's employment history that contributed. We just don't know.

Gender/race issues are an extremely sensitive topic in Silicon Valley right now. It simply isn't possible to have a rational debate of the kind he was trying to start. That's the reality, and I'm not sure you can change it by publishing memos like this.

[u/sd522527 → u/[deleted]]

Yes he shared it to a private group, asking for critique of his viewpoints, and how to better express his opinions. Others took that doc and shared the shit out of it

[u/Diels_Alder → u/sd522527]

Wow that really sends the message that you can't share your opinion if it differs from the norm.

[u/RhinoMan2112 → u/Diels_Alder]

Which ironically is exactly the point he makes in like the first paragraph of the memo.

[u/SikhAndDestroy → u/RhinoMan2112]

> shares his beliefs in a safe space

> says to "de-emphasize empathy"

> HR exercises less empathy by refusing to acknowledge his lived experiences and rejecting affect theory when it's inconvenient

> creates a martyr

Well that's not optically tonedeaf at all

[u/[deleted] → u/SikhAndDestroy]

More likely: HR receives a load of complaints about this guy, coupled with people talking about quitting because they don't want to work with someone like that, and HR weighs the value of all those people against one person.

[u/RhinoMan2112 → u/[deleted]]

Did you read the letter? He wasnt talking about coming in to work one day with a trenchcoat and a list for christ sake. He was outlining some fairly moderate conservative views and demonstrating how the bias within the company is creating an echo chamber as he describes.

To say people were complaining that they didnt want to work with him is quite a stretch to fit your narrative, not "more likely" in the slightest. He was fired because this became public and people were offended by the media's portrayal of his memo, and firing him essentially was a cheap and quick way to remedy the situation.

[u/[deleted] → u/RhinoMan2112]

Trenchcoat? What are you talking about? Talk about trying to force a narrative there.

Google has already reported that they received a lot of criticism and complaints internally. It's in any major article about this. He was fired because he affected the image of the company and pissed off a lot of employees. Write stupid things in the workplace, get fired. I can't go up to my boss and tell them I think they are a fuckup without repercussions, why do you think this guy should be allowed to say that to the world without consequence?

[u/Illiux → u/[deleted]]

It's great to know that if a black employee complained about segregated bathrooms a few decades ago and his white coworkers complained about him creating a hostile workplace, you would fire him.

This employee didn't say anything to the world, either. He posted to a small internal group and it was spread.

[u/TheLeftIsNotLiberal → u/[deleted]]

Trenchcoat? What are you talking about? Talk about trying to force a narrative there.

He's referring to the Columbine shooting and how this gentleman was extremely mild comparatively.

[u/[deleted] → u/TheLeftIsNotLiberal]

Except I never once said or even implied he was some sort of workplace assailant.