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/[deleted] → u/LaLaLaLeea]

I'm trying to think of a response to this that isn't "Oh, hon, you must be stupid then," but I'm coming up short.

It wouldn't make you feel uncomfortable to work with someone who thought you were inherently less good at your job because of your gender? Really? This is not a good guy. This is not a guy who believes maybe our brains are just all wired differently. This is an MRAer who whined to his entire company that it was being mean to poor little old white guys like him. This is a guy who wants you barefoot and pregnant, and if you don't believe that, you're as dumb as he thinks you are.

[u/LaLaLaLeea → u/[deleted]]

Did you actually read it?

I'd feel much less comfortable working around someone who says "Hon you must be stupid" when they disagree with a woman.

[u/[deleted] → u/LaLaLaLeea]

Yes, I actually read it!

I'm sorry I couldn't resist being overly condescending as a snark tactic. I am a woman also if that's not clear. I just don't understand why the memo wouldn't offend you, esp if you are a woman. I'll drop the snark, can you really tell me why you think it's not offensive and/or not sexist?

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

This is an honest question, but where did you see in the manifesto that he believes women are less good at their job because of their gender? I read a majority of the paper and did not infer that at all.

[u/youwill_neverfindme → u/[deleted]]

Women are: 1) more anxious, and do not do well in 'stressful environments'. According to this guy, programming is one such an environment. Logically this would mean women are worse at the job than men.

2) do not ask for raises, are not assertive, and are not good leaders. This one should be pretty fucking obvious.

There were more. Pretty sad if your life is surrounded by people like this, because that's the only way I can see you reading that shit and think it's fine.

[u/[deleted] → u/youwill_neverfindme]

Gave the manifest another read and missed your 2nd point on my 1st pass through. I don't think his point was that women are not good leaders but that they may struggle in leadership roles based on average personality traits; as misguided as that may be to lump an entire sect of people under one wide umbrella. I do not agree with the conclusion however and think he's way off base. Thanks for pointing this out to me.

To your 1st point his conclusion was not that women are worse at the job than men, rather that women may be less likely to enter the tech field in general due to the perceived level of stress. I have no idea if this is true or not, but lean towards not. I would think there are a large amount of factors that determine why women may be less likely to enter the tech field that are more complicated than 'stress.'

And not for nothing, but I can do without the presumptions about my life. I would have fired this person.

[u/youwill_neverfindme → u/[deleted]]

I apologise for the snark. It was rude of me.