The Google Memo went viral around the world and sparked a debate around discrimination in the work place. Recently James Damore, the author of the memo, has filed a class actions lawsuit against Google.
The following is the information from the first 16 pages of
this lawsuit followed by a short authors note.
Who is James Damore?
James Damore is the author of the now famous (or infamous)
Google Memo titled Google’s Ideological Echo Chamber.
Before working for Google Damore attended the University of Illinois
where he received a Bachelor’s of Science in Molecular Biology, Physics, and
Chemistry. He went on to attend Harvard University and received a Master of
Science in Systems Biology.
While he was employed at Google, Damore received the highest
possible rating on two separate occasions on his performance review, one of
which included his most recent review. He received approximately eight
performance bonuses, was never disciplined or suspended and was promoted to
Senior Software Engineer.
He did not supervise employees nor did he assign work and he
had no ability to hire or terminate anyone. Since his memo was leaked and his
termination he has gained notoriety, fame among the Free Speech crowd and
infamy among the Progressive/Social Justice crowd.
In the Name of
Diversity
Google holds weekly company-wide meetings called “TGIF
meetings” to discuss topics involving Google. On March 20, 2017 Damore attended
a TGIF meeting entitled “Women’s History Month.”
This meeting was led by Ruth Porat, the Chief Financial
Officer of Google, and Eileen Naughton, the Human Resources Director of Google.
In this meeting individual departments were called out and shamed if they were
comprised of less than 50% women. Departments that comprised more than 50%
women were applauded and praised.
Porat and Naughton also announced that when looking at
people for promotions or for leadership opportunities that Google would be
taking into account gender and ethnic demographics.
They followed that with a statement that Google’s racial and
gender preferences in hiring were not up for debate because this was morally
and economically the best thing for Google.
Diversity and
Inclusion Summit
This summit took place in June of 2017 and was attended by
Damore because to Google a “commitment to diversity and inclusion” was an
important factor in promotion to leadership. At this time Damore was on a path
toward leadership.
The summit was organized by Google’s senior vice presidents
and other members of Google’s leadership team, including Ari Balogh, Vice
President of Engineering at Google and Sridhar Ramaswamy, Senior Vice President
of GPI and Ads.
In this summit presenters discussed policies designed to prefer
categories of people (women, and certain but not all ethnic minority groups).
These policies included things such as providing extra interviews and putting
applicants into a more welcoming environment based on their race or gender.
They also discussed putting ‘diverse’ individuals into high
priority queues so that they were more likely to be hired and hired faster. ‘Diverse’
in this situation was defined as ‘women or individuals who were not Caucasian
or Asian.’
Damore, troubled by these statements and policies spoke with
Google HR member Meghana Rao who stated she had received similar complaints in
the past from employees with conservative views and stated that “some of the
political things at Google were a problem.”
In a breakout group Damore asked if Google looked at
viewpoint diversity when making hiring decisions and in evaluating how
inclusive Google was as a workplace. He was told that Google only looked at
demographic diversity when making hiring and promotion decisions.
The Google Memo
It was after this meeting that Damore decided to write the Google
Memo. Damore made no attempt to hide the memo but instead published it
publically within Google so he could gain input and edits from coworkers.
He shared it in several groups within Google including
CoffeeBeans (a group that discusses various issues at Google), the Women at
Google Program, the Code of Conduct team, and Google HR.
Along with the memo Damore questioned the legality of
diversity programs such as “Women Who Code” “BOLD” (an internship program
offered only to women and underrepresented minorities), and “Stretch” (a class
Google offers exclusively to women).
The sources he used to back up his memo were the Wiley
Online Library, the Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, Quillette, The British Journal of Guidance and Counseling, and The Atlantic. When the memo was
published in the media these citations were left out or ignored in an attempt
to attribute the conclusions directly to Damore himself.
The Code of Conduct Team responded by referring Damore to
Google HR. None of Damore’s claims about illegal hiring practices were
investigated or pursued by Google HR, other than terminating his employment.
The Women at Google group responded by stating their goal:
50% representation of women at Google.
His purpose in developing the memo was to promote discussion
among Google employees regarding “diversity and inclusion.” He ended the memo
saying:
Bias Busting
In July 2017 Google held another Diversity Training that
consisted of an online course followed by an in-person training. The in-person
training was titled “Bias Busting” and was focusing on biases against women in
the workplace, and how “white male privilege” exists in the workplace.
Approximately 20 Google employees were present at this
training ran by the “Unbiasing Group” at Google. When Damore verbalized his
dissent during the training other employees, including managers, laughed at him
derisively and considered his views to be conservative, and thus flawed and
worthy of disparagement.
As feedback to this training Damore submitted his memo. It
was at this time that is started circulating wider within Google and eventually
was leaked by an unknown Google employee to either Vice Motherboard or Gizmodo.
This selectively quoted and misinterpreted version went viral across the media
and around the world.
Threats
On August 4th 2017 Rao and another Google HR
member called Damore into a meeting. They explained that while they could not
ask him to take down his memo because it was protected political speech, they
still thought it was in his best interest to do so.
Damore understood this as a threat from Google with
termination for internal speech about workplace issues. Namely the issues of
Google’s gender and race quote programs and its dismissal of unpopular
(conservative) political viewpoints.
These were not the only threats Damore received. On August 3rd
2017 George Sadlier, Director at Google, sent out a mass email condemning
Damore’s essay as “repulsive and intellectually dishonest” and promising an
investigation into Damore.
Sadlier also promoted posts that advocated for physical
violence against Damore. On Friday August 4th 2017 Damore received a
late-night email from Alex Hidalgo, a Site Reliability Engineer at Google who
is a member of Sadlier’s organization, which stated, “You’re a misogynist and a
terrible person. I will keep hounding you until one of us is fired. Fuck you.”
When Damore forwarded this email to Google HR they suggested
Damore work from home until things cooled down.
Other employees took it a step farther and suggested not
only that Damore be terminated but that those who shared his views or supported
him should also be terminated.
These practices were not only allowed but rewarded by
Google. The Google Recognition Team allows employees to suggest fellow
employees for “Peer Bonuses” typically awarded for outstanding work above and
beyond an employee’s job duties.
A Peer Bonus was not only suggested but reviewed and considered
appropriate and approved to proceed by the Google Recognition Team for “speaking
up for googley values and promoting [diversity and inclusion] in the wretched
hive of scum and villainy that is [Damore’s Memo].”
Colm Buckley, a high-ranking SRE (Site Reliability Engineer)
Director, on August 5th 2017 stated his intention to stifle
political dissent within Google.
Due to this environment Damore filed a complaint the morning
of August 7th with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). After
this massive companywide approved, promoted and accepted attack on Damore
Google made the decision to terminate his employment.
At 6pm on August 7th Rao and Chuck Wu, Senior
Director of Engineering for Google, called Damore to let him know of their decision
to fire him for “perpetuating gender stereotypes.” When Damore attempted to
explain why his termination was unlawful, Rao stated that this was Google’s
final decision and that there would be no discussion.
This information was drawn from the first 16 pages of the class
action lawsuit
filed against Google by Damore and other employees. It not only shows the
incredible bias at all levels of Google but also the acceptance of
discrimination as long as it is against approved groups.
Authors Note: This is part one of three focusing on this
lawsuit. The second part will focus on the termination of David Gudeman and the
third part will look at the potential class members that may also be included
in the lawsuit. Feel free to share this post anywhere and everywhere, I strong
believe this information needs to be known and I doubt that Google is the
exception rather than the rule, but only time will tell.
Written by Cody Benson
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