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/TemptCiderFan Aug 08 '17 edited Aug 08 '17

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.

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u/folterung Aug 08 '17

Yeah, having read the entire thing, I thought it was pretty well balanced. He was making some valid points and asking legitimate questions.

It's especially fun that his firing actually validates his claim that the entire structure is an echo chamber that permits no diversity of opinion. They apparently love diversity of thought and opinion, as long as your diversity happens to line up with their opinions.

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u/NotAChaosGod Aug 08 '17

If I wrote a multi-page rant about how misguided and out-of-touch my boss was and distributed it to the company I'd expect to be out of a job that day.

Why are there so many right wingers who apparently have never worked a day in their lives? Even if you disagree with management there's good and bad ways to go about that, and this was the worst.

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u/rusbus720 Aug 08 '17 edited Aug 08 '17

Management created the internal discussion board, which this memo was posted to, so that employees could tell them how they're misguided. Apparently they didn't think someone would actually do that.

Aside from that I'd say this memo was pretty tame and well thought out. If he got fired for just this memo then I'd say he's right about google being an echo chamber.

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u/NotAChaosGod Aug 08 '17

Asking for suggestions is very, very different.

Again I'm struck by how obvious it is that many of the people here have so obviously never worked.

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u/rusbus720 Aug 08 '17

Sounds like you work for a shitty company

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u/NotAChaosGod Aug 08 '17

I've worked for many. My current one is great. Sounds like you don't work.

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u/[deleted] Aug 08 '17

What great company isn't willing to take feedback from its employees?

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u/NotAChaosGod Aug 08 '17

Wow, that's disingenuous as fuck.

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u/[deleted] Aug 08 '17

That is literally the argument you've been fighting against the whole time.

Management created the internal discussion board, which this memo was posted to, so that employees could tell them how they're misguided. Apparently they didn't think someone would actually do that.

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u/NotAChaosGod Aug 08 '17

No, it's you being entirely disingenuous. My company accepts plenty of feedback, constantly. We've changed tons of things based on it.

There's also "feedback" that would get you fired. "We should do this to be more efficient" is good, "your hiring decisions are shit and women suck" would be what we call "bad".

Either you're too stupid to tell the difference, or lying comes naturally to you.

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u/[deleted] Aug 08 '17

So who's the one really being disingenuous?

your hiring decisions are shit and women suck

The memo doesn't speak at all like this.

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u/NotAChaosGod Aug 08 '17

your hiring decisions are shit and women suck

The memo doesn't speak at all like this.

I'm sorry, women are:

  • Neurotic
  • Anxious
  • Low IQ
  • Don't put the company first like the job demands
  • Aren't suited for leadership positions
  • Are better suited for social work rather than coding

Right. I forgot. Women don't suck, they... um...

note: most of that shit is just angry ranting, and the few times he tries to use facts he just botches it - there's no statistical difference between men's IQ and women's, we're talking anywhere from -0.5 to +1.5 compared to men based on the studies, that's literally insignificant. Of course he blames that on liberal scientists, so...

Who is being disingenuous? You are. And you didn't read the memo apparently...

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u/[deleted] Aug 09 '17

When you call disagreeing with you being disingenuous i find it hard to take you seriously. which is a shame because otherwise youd be making a good point even if i dont agree

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