Google Fires Employee Who Criticized Company’s Diversity Policy

Google has reportedly fired an employee after the individual wrote a memo in which he criticized Google’s diversity policies and reinforced gender stereotypes.

According to Bloomberg, Google engineer James Damore is under fire for writing a memo in which he condemned Google’s stance on diversity and reaffirmed prevailing gender stereotypes.

In the memo, called “Google’s Ideological Echo Chamber,” Damore specifically claimed that the reason why there are so few women in technical positions is due to the biological differences in women and men, reports the New York Times.

Damore was ultimately fired over the memo and accused of “perpetuating gender stereotypes.”

The memo has since caused significant backlash in Silicon Valley. Google’s CEO, Sundar Pichai, has spoken out against Damore’s claims and has said his memo was harmful to the company environment.

Some employees have even threatened to leave the company if the memo was not addressed by management.

“The memo has clearly impacted our co-workers, some of whom are hurting and feel judged based on their gender,” Pichai wrote in an email titled “Our Words Matter.”

“Our co-workers shouldn’t have to worry that each time they open their mouths to speak in a meeting, they have to prove that they are not like the memo states, being ‘agreeable’ rather than ‘assertive,’ showing a ‘lower stress tolerance,’ or being ‘neurotic,’” he continued.

Pichai also stressed that Google is committed to free speech, but that Damore’s memo crossed a line.

Danmore, however, told the New York Times that, by writing the memo, he hoped to have an “honest discussion.”

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Publication date: August 8, 2017