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TECHNOLOGY Monday 14 august 2017

Google gender debacle speaks to tech culture wars, politics

By BARBARA ORTUTAY treat ... electronic commu-
AP Technology Writer nications much more infor-
NEW YORK (AP) — The mally than face-to-face
Google engineer who speech.”
blamed biological differ- But the consequences are
ences for the paucity of similar, if not more severe.
women in tech had every
right to express his views. EXPLOSIVE CLIMATE
And Google likely had ev- Initially shared on an inter-
ery right to fire him, work- nal Google network, the
place experts and lawyers memo leaked out to the
say. Special circumstances public over the weekend,
— from the country’s divi- first in bits and pieces and
sive political climate to Sili- then in its 10-page entirety.
con Valley’s broader prob- It took a life of its own
lem with gender equity — as outsiders weighed in.
contributed to the outrage WikiLeaks founder Julian
and subsequent firing. But This Monday, Aug. 7, 2017, photo shows a Google sign at a store in Hialeah, Fla. Assange took to Twitter to
the fallout should still serve Associated Press offer Damore a job. One
as a warning to anyone in his supervisor. conservative group, Ameri-
any industry expressing un- “Do you understand that UNIQUELY GOOGLE A DIFFERENT WORLD cans for Limited Govern-
popular, fiery viewpoints. at this point, I could not The fallout comes as Silicon Still, bringing so much pub- ment, criticized what it
“Anyone who makes a in good conscience as- Valley faces a watershed lic, negative attention called Google’s politically
statement like this and ex- sign anyone to work with moment over gender and would spell trouble for any correct culture and left-
pects to stick around ... is you?” he wrote . “I certainly ethnic diversity. worker. That’s especially so wing bias. Others called for
foolish,” said David Lewis, couldn’t assign any women Blamed for years for not hir- in this age of fast-spreading a Google boycott.
CEO of Operations Inc., a to deal with this, a good ing enough women and mi- social media posts, when Known for its motto, “don’t
human resources consult- number of the people you norities — and not welcom- internal company docu- be evil,” Google is broadly
ing firm. might have to work with ing them once they are ments can easily leak and seen as a liberal-leaning
may simply punch you in hired — tech companies go viral. company, something Da-
WHY HE LOST HIS JOB the face.” such as Google, Facebook It didn’t help that this was in more criticized in his mani-
The engineer, James Da- Though one might argue and Uber have promised the heart of Silicon Valley, festo. Liberals and tech
more, wrote a memo criti- for a right to free speech, big changes. These have where typing fingers are industry leaders came to
cizing Google for pushing however unpopular, such included diversity and men- on 24/7 and people rarely Google’s defense and de-
mentoring and diversity protections are generally toring programs and cod- disconnect from social me- nounced Damore’s claims
programs and for “alien- limited to government and ing classes for groups un- dia, even on a quiet August as baseless and harmful.
ating conservatives.” The other public employees — derrepresented among the weekend. Or that Google is “It’s fair to say that what-
parts that drew the most and to unionized workers companies’ technical and a brand consumers interact ever side of the political
outrage made such asser- with rights to disciplinary leadership staff. Many tech with all day — and want to aisle you are on, ... we are
tions as women “prefer jobs hearings before any firing. companies also pledge to read about when memos in a climate where we are
in social and artistic areas” Broader protections are interview, though not nec- go viral. dealing with very highly
and have a “lower stress tol- granted to comments essarily hire, minority candi- Perhaps the biggest lesson charged and emotional is-
erance” and “harder time” about workplace condi- dates. is this: Don’t be so quick to sues,” Schmidt said. “And
leading, while more men tions. Damore argues in a These are the sorts of things post your angry thoughts those issues are spilling into
“may like coding because federal labor complaint Damore’s memo railed for thousands, then millions, the workplace.”
it requires systemizing.” that this applies to his case, against. to see. Instead of looking for a
Google’s code of conduct but experts disagree. As such, experts say Da- Michael Schmidt, vice bright-line test on what is
says workers “are expected “By posting that memo, he more might not have been chairman of labor and permissible, he said, “both
to do their utmost to create forfeited his job,” said Jen- fired at a company that employment at the Cozen sides need to understand
a workplace culture that is nifer Lee Magas, public doesn’t have such a clear O’Connor law firm, said there has to be a sensitiv-
free of harassment, intimi- relations professor at Pace message on diversity. that while workers might ity to the bigger picture,”
dation, bias, and unlawful University and a former em- In addition, had Damore have refrained from such a level of respect and cul-
discrimination.” Google’s ployment law attorney. “He worked for a smaller, lesser- remarks around the physi- tural sensitivity across all
CEO, Sundar Picahi, said was fired for his words, but known company, an inter- cal watercooler, “people demographics.q
Damore violated this code. also for being daft enough nal memo might not have
Yonatan Zunger, who re- to post these thoughts on created such a “media
cently left Google as a se- an open workplace forum, storm,” said Aimee Del-
nior engineer, wrote in a where he was sure to be aney, a Hinshaw & Culb-
Medium post that he would met with backlash and to ertson attorney who repre-
have had no choice but to offend his colleagues — sents companies on labor
fire Damore had he been male and female alike.” matters.