Google Is Getting Trolled For Firing An Engineer Who Questioned Its Diversity Practices

OfficeChai Team

Google’s decision to fire an engineer who wrote a 10-page memo questioning the company’s diversity hiring practices is coming under some fire of its own.

Two days ago, a memo had gone internally viral within Google. The memo, which was written by Google Software Engineer James Damore, talked in detail about how Google’s diversity hiring efforts were misplaced, and said how the company should value diversity in thought instead. The author had called Google an “echo chamber” where some ideas — such as that men and women have different skills — are considered too controversial to be discussed.

Google now appears to have proven the author’s point by going ahead and firing him.

The author of the original memo had stated that people should be hired based on their ability alone. Google, like many other Silicon Valley tech companies, actively strives to create a diverse workplace by prioritizing hiring women and people of colour. The author had said in the memo that on average, men and women have different traits, and that explains why there isn’t an equal distribution of men and women in tech and leadership roles. He said artificially creating an equal workplace could have adverse effects on the company. “Discrimination to reach equal representation is unfair, divisive, and bad for business,” his memo had said.

He also added that Google had created a culture that only allowed people within it to think a certain way, and didn’t allow people to express opinions freely. People have been saying that the engineer’s firing only proves what he was trying to say.

Even women are angry at Google’s handling of the situation.

 

Some people are also calling for a boycott of Google.

People are calling Google’s firing authoritarian. Some are creating Google doodles with the communist hammer and sickle in its logo.

From having a motto of “Don’t be evil” to being compared to communist dictatorships, Google has come a long way.