4 ms·

I dont understand, why did this google employee send a memo, why didnt he just write a blog about .. like normal people do I honestly think this is his biggest

I dont understand, why did this google employee send a memo, why didnt he just write a blog about .. like normal people do I honestly think this is his biggest mistake (the google employee not the ceo) .. he didnt understand boundaries It is sad, that someone gets fired for his opinion, even if this opinion is offensive ... i do believe in ones right to be offensive But I think the medium used to express his opinion , and the boundaries where choose to do so .. is erratic

Klockan 9y ago
It was a google doc that he posted on an internal discussion board, it wasn't a company or even team wide memo.
Afton 9y ago
There are lots of opinions that I might hold that would open my company up to lawsuits. In this case, he posted something that dramatically increases the likelyhood that some percentage of people fired will file suit, and this memo and the failure to reprimand/fire him will be part of the legal arsenal used against the company. Firing him is a simple mitigation strategy against this attack vector. ANY company that cares about lawsuits would have to make this move completely independently of the possible merits of his article. If it hadn't been leaked, he might not have needed to be fired. But once it was public news there was no sensible choice that Google could make. Again, I'm not trying to weigh in on his paper's content here, but as a simple legal precaution he needed to be fired. Note that this isn't just about sexism, but lots of protected class opinions could fall into this category of 'express this openly and you'll be fired'. No company of any size would be able to tolerate it.
jamesrcole 9y ago
It was about an internal Google matter. It wouldn't have been appropriate to publicly post it
jp_sc 9y ago
As I understand it, he posted on an internal forum designed for posting thoughts, ideas, and opinions. Then somebody decided to "leaked" to the world.

Klockan 9y ago

It was a google doc that he posted on an internal discussion board, it wasn't a company or even team wide memo.

Afton 9y ago

There are lots of opinions that I might hold that would open my company up to lawsuits. In this case, he posted something that dramatically increases the likelyhood that some percentage of people fired will file suit, and this memo and the failure to reprimand/fire him will be part of the legal arsenal used against the company. Firing him is a simple mitigation strategy against this attack vector. ANY company that cares about lawsuits would have to make this move completely independently of the possible merits of his article. If it hadn't been leaked, he might not have needed to be fired. But once it was public news there was no sensible choice that Google could make. Again, I'm not trying to weigh in on his paper's content here, but as a simple legal precaution he needed to be fired. Note that this isn't just about sexism, but lots of protected class opinions could fall into this category of 'express this openly and you'll be fired'. No company of any size would be able to tolerate it.

jamesrcole 9y ago

It was about an internal Google matter. It wouldn't have been appropriate to publicly post it

jp_sc 9y ago

As I understand it, he posted on an internal forum designed for posting thoughts, ideas, and opinions. Then somebody decided to "leaked" to the world.