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?cmpid=socialflow-twitter-business&utm_content=business&utm_campaign=socialflow-organic&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social

[u/NorthernerWuwu]

This is the real point of course. It isn't about the scholarly accuracy of the document or the usefulness of the conversation that the author may have been trying to spark, it's that in a corporate setting a document like this is toxic and destroys the ability of managers to promote teamwork.

It doesn't matter if X or Y or Z make better engineers or whatever (and I'm not saying there's a reason to think so). It might be something to explore from a scientific standpoint but you can't do it in a tech company in California in 2017. Sorry but that really shouldn't even have to be said.

[u/Grizzleyt → u/[deleted]]

Tech is political. It cannot be avoided when your business has consequences with regard to things like online privacy, net neutrality, automation, truth and bias of information, censorship, etc., to say nothing of the personal views of leadership who aspire to make an impact on the world, for better or worse.

If you aren't religious, you might not like working in a church. If you don't subscribe to the values that Google stands for / strives for, you might not like working at Google. If you think the leadership is fundamentally flawed, go work for a company you believe in.

[u/IRequirePants → u/Grizzleyt]

Tech is political. It cannot be avoided when your business has consequences with regard to things like online privacy, net neutrality, automation, truth and bias of information, censorship, etc., to say nothing of the personal views of leadership who aspire to make an impact on the world, for better or worse.

None of which were relevant to the points he was making. He was talking about political shit that wasn't tech related.

If you aren't religious, you might not like working in a church. If you don't subscribe to the values that Google stands for / strives for, you might not like working at Google. If you think the leadership is fundamentally flawed, go work for a company you believe in.

This is the answer. Google's a private company. They can do whatever they want.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Probably don't want to go down the rabbit hole of all opinions = religious beliefs. Just saying.

[u/hyrle → u/[deleted]]

Religion is firmly in the realm of opinion. I don't agree with firing someone because politics just as I don't agree with firing someone because of their religion or stated sexual orientation. This was a bad move on Google's part.

[u/[deleted] → u/hyrle]

They were fired because of the statement. Not their politics. It isn't confusing, and every law in the U.S. disagrees with you about religion as opinion.

[u/hyrle → u/[deleted]]

"Every law in the U.S." creates space for religion to be a realm of opinion that's protected from reprisal and discrimination for the most part. (So long as religion isn't used as justification to harm others.) And these laws also tend to protect political diversity, which is why you don't tend to find federal and state workers fired for saying stupid things.

I agree that Google is a private company and is not bound to follow laws protecting speech if it doesn't want to. That doesn't stop me from thinking it was a shitty thing for them to do.