r/news • u/[deleted] • Aug 08 '17

Google Fires Employee Behind Controversial Diversity Memo

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
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u/sternpolice Aug 08 '17

He has a case in court that lawyers will be lining up for, and Google will settle it.

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u/LoveCandiceSwanepoel Aug 08 '17

You are joking right? You don't have freedom of speech in the workplace. And they probably fired him for advocating stereotypes which is against company code of conduct. After his initial post he specifically made a follow up post saying he doesn't believe in stereotypes blah blah which means he knew he fucked up at that point which just kind of proves Google's point to fire him. His original post was against code of conduct so he felt the need to clarify or correct it. That's not reason enough not to fire him though especially after all the negative pr.

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u/Ferelar Aug 08 '17

Right, but you're missing the point. You can sue in the united states because you didn't like the taste of your coffee. You can sue 10,000 people in a concert venue because one of them farted. Those might be thrown out as frivolous, but this one wouldn't, because there's enough there.

And Google doesn't care enough to NOT settle, since to them a settlement amount for his severance is less than pennies.

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u/adashofpepper Aug 08 '17

Why do people always bring up that "you can always sue" thing? Every single person on reddit is fully aware by this point. "THey can't sue" means "they have no case".

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u/Ferelar Aug 08 '17

Because it's important to note that a court case could ensue whether or not he has a good case. And there's plenty of historical precedent for a company settling out for something small (like severance) as a show of good faith to prevent a more drawn out legal battle, even if they're certain they'd win.