Google Fires Engineer Who Wrote Memo Questioning Women in Tech

[King of Creampies]

Sundar Pichai, Google’s chief executive, said a memo written by an engineer had promoted “harmful gender stereotypes.”

In an email titled “Our Words Matter,” Mr. Pichai said that he supported the right of employees to express themselves but that the memo had gone too far.

“The memo has clearly impacted our co-workers, some of whom are hurting and feel judged based on their gender,” Mr. Pichai wrote. “Our co-workers shouldn’t have to worry that each time they open their mouths to speak in a meeting, they have to prove that they are not like the memo states, being ‘agreeable’ rather than ‘assertive,’ showing a ‘lower stress tolerance,’ or being ‘neurotic.’”

James Damore, the software engineer who wrote the original memo, confirmed in an email to The New York Times that he had been fired. Mr. Damore had worked at Google since 2013. He said in his memo that he had written it in the hope of having an “honest discussion” about how the company had an intolerance for ideologies that do not fit into what he believed were its left-leaning biases

Mr. Damore, who worked on infrastructure for Google’s search product, said he believed that the company’s actions were illegal and that he would “likely be pursuing legal action.”

“I have a legal right to express my concerns about the terms and conditions of my working environment and to bring up potentially illegal behavior, which is what my document does,” Mr. Damore said.

Mr. Pichai’s memo was reported earlier by Recode, and Bloomberg confirmed Mr. Damore’s dismissal.

Before being fired, Mr. Damore said, he had submitted a complaint to the National Labor Relations Board claiming that Google’s upper management was “misrepresenting and shaming me in order to silence my complaints.” He added that it was “illegal to retaliate” against an N.L.R.B. charge.

Mr. Pichai said he would be cutting short a family vacation to return to Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., to deal with the matter. He said the company intended to hold an all-hands meeting to discuss the issue on Thursday.


Looks like Google didn't want to deal with him so they fired him. I do think Google knew what they were doing when they fired him so good luck with that lawsuit.

 

[AndroidHero]

 

[Doobie Doo]

Cot damn, have they actually released the memo. I wanna read it.

 

[Maude]

What about his co-workers who publically after with him?

 

[Arithmetic]

WS are mad.

Spoiler

 

[Anerdyblackguy]

Good for his ass.

 

[Koba St]

Im sure fox news is speaking to his agent right now

 

[Aviso]

Link to the memo...

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...QIZzAT&usg=AFQjCNFUEd1SUuvZmYlgUmMWSmfqBY6Vkw

 

[Aviso]

After reading the memo I think it might be a reach on Google's part. His first sentence says "I value diversity and inclusion, am not denying that sexism exists, and don’t endorse using
stereotypes."
-
He also provides cons on left and conservative bias stating that "
Neither side is 100% correct and both viewpoints are necessary for a functioning society or, in
this case, company. A company too far to the right may be slow to react, overly hierarchical, and
untrusting of others. In contrast, a company too far to the left will constantly be changing
(deprecating much loved services), over diversify its interests (ignoring or being ashamed of its
core business), and overly trust its employees and competitors."

 

[Majestic]

WS are mad.

Spoiler

No black men in the team as usual

 

[Ms.CuriousCat]

I can see where he's coming from but I'm a woman therefore open and agreeable so

It's quite funny how one of his recommendations is to treat people as individuals and not faceless groups but his entire argument is centered around generalising women. How blind we are to our viewpoints....

 

[Formerly Black Trash]

How privileged and insulated from normal work place environmenta do you have to be to think thay was a good idea?

 

[AmenhotepIV]

He was low key saying

 

[FreedMind]

"As with many things in life, gender differences are often a case of “grass being greener on the other side”; unfortunately, taxpayer and Google
money is being spent to water only one side of the lawn."

lmfaooooooo

"females get all the benefits why can't males get treated as well as them!!"

Why would he be upset about so called minorities and females having programs set up to help them succeed? Do white males not have access to similar programs or something?

I know I wouldn't want to work with this cac. He's basically disparaging women and POC who had to work hard to end up at Google. Clearly, we can only get inside of Google because of pity, not cause we excel academically or professionally.

He wants to talk about cost benefit, let's talk about the cost benefit of slavery. Let's talk about the cost benefit of his memo disrupting the workplace, because clearly Google decided it ain't worth keeping his nonsensical opinion around.

The worst part is that his termination won't even make him question himself. It'll only reinforce his beliefs.

 

[Elfuego]

Im sure work is the only time he interacts with a woman without having to pay for it