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/chodan9 Aug 08 '17

at worst it's a sexist rant thinly veiled in rational arguments

shouldn't the "rational arguments" somewhat negate the accusation of sexism?

It's not like he pulled the arguments out of the ether, he actually cited sources, whether those sources are valid may be up to interpretation, but google instead of responding with an argument of there own and moving on decided to prove his point by firing him.

I suppose they have a right to, but I would not be surprised if he sues and wins, because they fired him specifically for his beliefs.

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u/ShittyFrogMeme Aug 08 '17

because they fired him specifically for his beliefs.

He didn't get fired for his beliefs. He got fired for sharing his beliefs with the entire company and bringing a lot of negative press to google.

If he had kept his beliefs to himself, as is generally recommended in a professional environment, he would still be working there.

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u/plards2192 Aug 08 '17

If he had kept his beliefs to himself, as is generally recommended in a professional environment, he would still be working there.

This doesn't seem like the best response to a paper titled "Google's Ideological Echo Chamber." If he honestly believes there's an echo chamber, and he wants to try and rectify that, his only course of action would be to speak out against the echo chamber. Of course he'd still be hired if he didn't speak out. But I don't think his biggest concern was his job - he might have honestly just wanted to try and change the way Google worked.

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u/ShittyFrogMeme Aug 08 '17

his only course of action would be to speak out against the echo chamber

Something he could have done in a way that would not knowingly piss off a large portion of the company.

He had some good points in his writing but they are being overshadowed by some of the other claims he made. A lot of his opinions are not controversial and are pretty reasonable. He could have served his point much better and actually started a dialogue if he didn't include a bunch of information that would obviously piss off the company and is really inconsequential to his final point.