Google appears to be finding out the hard way that there is no possibility of being correct in dealing with modern day gender diversity claims. For, after that James Damore memo and firing we’ve now got someone claiming they were fired because they protested about it. It is possible to read a little between the lines here and think that the parting of employment ways wasn’t so much about what was said but about the time taken to say it. But then that’s not quite how these things work out in the court of public opinion, is it?
A former Google engineer has filed a lawsuit alleging that he was fired for speaking out against James Damore’s controversial memo about gender, the latest development in a litigious battle over diversity and speech at the technology company.
Tim Chevalier, a site reliability engineer who worked for Google until November 2017, sued his former employer in California state court on Wednesday. Chevalier, who identifies as queer, disabled and transgender, alleges that Google terminated him over posts he made on internal forums advocating for diversity at Google and criticizing Damore.
Those varied characteristics of Chevalier, at least some of them being protected, aren’t quite the point here. Or at least that’s what Google appears to be saying:
The suit alleges that Chevalier was chastised by his manager for spending too much time on “social activism” and by human resources for a blogpost he wrote criticizing the Damore memo as “misogynistic”. According to the suit, Google objected to Chevalier’s use of the phrase “white boys” in his blogpost because it “could be perceived as a generalization about race and gender”.
We would read that as “time to do some work not social justice activism at work” but perhaps that’s just us.
But to move from the specific to the more general. How can anyone manage a workforce with these sorts of rules in place? Google itself seems to think it has a problem with diversity – especially the female/male mix – in the workplace. The company is famed for being engineering driven, attempting at least to find the root causes of problems before trying to fix them. Damore might have been misguided (we don’t think he was but that’s another matter) but it was an attempt to find that root cause. And yet when that’s dealt with according to progressive mores, we’ve this claim from the other side, that the discrimination is pro- those ideas that got Damore let go.
What actually is a viable line to take when this sort of thing is going on? And yes, it does need to be defined otherwise no one will be able to get anything done in any large organisation.
Chevalier, who identifies as queer, disabled and transgender
Yes. I expect his next job will not be in Tech.
Appeasement never works. They should have defended Damore and the right to have a robust work place. Instead they opted for micromanagement of everyone’s opinions. Well, live by Speech Codes, die by Speech Codes. I am just sorry they all can’t lose.
Well we’ll see whether Danmore’s suit is successful or not. Ultimately if you require a specialist from a general population unless that specialism is evenly distributed among that general population then you won’t have a workforce that represents the general population. So then a firm’s got a decision to make. Live with things as they turn out and get on with business or apply a selection policy not on the specialism per se, but on various other factors designed to get an even demographic mix in the company? One problem with that latter course is that underrepresented demographics with that… Read more »
There is only one driving principle here: “Something happened to me and it’s your fault.” To reprise one of Tim’s earlier posts, a person with a surgically forked tongue who pretends not to be a human has more latitude within Google than a person writing that there may be factors other than hatred (perhaps even self-selection) to explain lack of numerical equality of outcome in the Google management suite–though Damore has only himself to blame; he presumably had a work assignment when he diverted hours of time to his futile memo trying to Change The World inside Google. A good,… Read more »
Spike: “Damore has only himself to blame; he presumably had a work assignment when he diverted hours…
As I understand it, employees were encouraged to respond to a “diversity seminar” or some-such, and that is what Damore was doing in in writing his memo. I’m not sure that wouldn’t ordinarily be counted as a working activity. In any event, Google didn’t fire him for spending working time on the memo, but for the contents – I doubt he could have retained his position by proving that it had been written on his home computer in his own time.
Gender Diversity has always been a problem in the workforce, we all know blokes who like girly lovely long hair.
They are at the pre- tranny stage and in most cases keep it in their bedrooms at home.
“What actually is a viable line to take when this sort of thing is going on? And yes, it does need to be defined otherwise no one will be able to get anything done in any large organisation.” “Your job is your job, and that’s all we care about. Make £20K in sales. In your spare time, if you suck dick in saunas, attend PETA rallies, or even attend furry conventions, I don’t care. Don’t make £20K in sales, I do.” Weak CEOs get jumpy about the press. It’s right to respond to bad things that are core to your… Read more »
“What actually is a viable line to take when this sort of thing is going on? And yes, it does need to be defined otherwise no one will be able to get anything done in any large organisation.” “Your job is your job, and that’s all we care about. Make £20K in sales. In your spare time, if you suck dick in saunas, attend PETA rallies, or even attend furry conventions, I don’t care. Don’t make £20K in sales, I do.” Weak CEOs get jumpy about the press. It’s right to respond to bad things that are core to your… Read more »
Gender Diversity has always been a problem in the workforce, we all know blokes who like girly lovely long hair.
They are at the pre- tranny stage and in most cases keep it in their bedrooms at home.
There is only one driving principle here: “Something happened to me and it’s your fault.” To reprise one of Tim’s earlier posts, a person with a surgically forked tongue who pretends not to be a human has more latitude within Google than a person writing that there may be factors other than hatred (perhaps even self-selection) to explain lack of numerical equality of outcome in the Google management suite–though Damore has only himself to blame; he presumably had a work assignment when he diverted hours of time to his futile memo trying to Change The World inside Google. A good,… Read more »
Spike: “Damore has only himself to blame; he presumably had a work assignment when he diverted hours…
As I understand it, employees were encouraged to respond to a “diversity seminar” or some-such, and that is what Damore was doing in in writing his memo. I’m not sure that wouldn’t ordinarily be counted as a working activity. In any event, Google didn’t fire him for spending working time on the memo, but for the contents – I doubt he could have retained his position by proving that it had been written on his home computer in his own time.
Well we’ll see whether Danmore’s suit is successful or not. Ultimately if you require a specialist from a general population unless that specialism is evenly distributed among that general population then you won’t have a workforce that represents the general population. So then a firm’s got a decision to make. Live with things as they turn out and get on with business or apply a selection policy not on the specialism per se, but on various other factors designed to get an even demographic mix in the company? One problem with that latter course is that underrepresented demographics with that… Read more »
Chevalier, who identifies as queer, disabled and transgender
Yes. I expect his next job will not be in Tech.
Appeasement never works. They should have defended Damore and the right to have a robust work place. Instead they opted for micromanagement of everyone’s opinions. Well, live by Speech Codes, die by Speech Codes. I am just sorry they all can’t lose.