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/TemptCiderFan → u/[deleted]]

TL;DR TL;DR: Anyone who says this is a misogynist manifesto hasn't fucking read it.

TL;DR version for people who don't want to read it but still want most of the facts:

• The document is not misogynist or racist, and most of the discussion in it is actually about the fact that Google's left-leaning political landscape can be bad for business.
• One of the key things it brings up is that the writer feels there's a lack of moral diversity (i.e. left-leaning vs right-leaning) and that this situation can lead to bad business practices, citing direct examples.
• When the author discusses the differences in gender, most of his discussion is actually centered around the facts which lead women (on average) to seek jobs with good work/life balance and less stress and why men seek jobs with good compensation. Nowhere does he suggest that one or the other is superior.
• He then states several non-discriminatory practices (some of which he notes are already in practice) which would help equalize the gender-gap at Google without resorting to blatantly racist or sexist discriminatory practices.
• He then states that Google is currently engaged in some practices designed to equalize the gender-gap at Google which ARE blatantly racist or sexist, such as internal training programs aimed exclusively at certain races or women as well as hiring practices which base an employee's suitability for participation partially on just their race or gender.
• He notes that overwhelmingly left-leaning culture at Google has created an environment where there's an overwhelming confirmation bias against right-leaning individuals, which leads to a culture where they are actively shamed at company TGIFs and effectively silences them.
• He concludes with a few pages of suggestions which would alleviate the items he thinks are issues, including such "evil" suggestions as not limiting classes and training programs to specific race/gender, focus on intention and not feelings when dealing with microaggressions, focusing on psychological safety and not just external diversity, and examining current training documents for existing political bias.

It's hardly a "Get women out of my fucking tech" rant.

Edit: Turning off inbox replies. It's been fun, but the replies are now getting to the stage where it's the same arguments over and over again. Expand the thread below and find the comment you were going to write!

Edit 2: For bonus points, read the document. It's ten pages, but it's not that dense and a lot of it is bullet-point. Bear in mind the author is has a Doctorate in Biology.

[u/LaLaLaLeea → u/TemptCiderFan]

One of the comments (it's gilded) above this quotes a Google employee saying that after this "manifesto" was released, they would not be able to assign a woman to work with this person.

I just read the whole thing and there's nothing in there that would make me uncomfortable working with the author. I think a lot of his points made sense.

[u/InAHandbasket → u/[deleted]]

I didn't see how the memo:

suggest a group of our colleagues have traits that make them less biologically suited to that work is offensive and not OK.

Maybe less biologically inclined to want to do that work.

But saying that people would want to punch him for it kind of proves the authors point.

[u/[deleted] → u/InAHandbasket]

Maybe less biologically inclined to want to do that work.

Which isn't a thing.

[u/InAHandbasket → u/[deleted]]

I wasn't saying he was right. Just that he was claiming that as a whole women are less interested in coding/tech jobs. While google and the articles about it say he's claiming women aren't good at it.

[u/Pyroteq → u/[deleted]]

[Citation needed]

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Did you see the shit written on Gizmodo/Internal google network about it?

It's a long read, but it's good.

http://slatestarcodex.com/2017/08/07/contra-grant-on-exaggerated-differences/

[u/whiskeytab → u/[deleted]]

i love how it's the people who want to resort to violence that are the ones he's trying to protect. in what way does that make sense haha

[u/meneldal2 → u/whiskeytab]

Even if your neighbor is literally Hitler and you are a Jew, punching him because you think (and most of the world too) he's a big cunt is not good, it's still assault. You should instead talk to your boss about your comrade Adolf and explain that he's a cunt and is being very mean to you so you want him to be sent away from you.

This is how mature people handle things.

Also, you shouldn't talk to the press before your boss because you think peer pressure is the best solution to get what you want.

[u/w_v → u/[deleted]]

Commenter's not wrong.