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> he was working against their efforts to have a more gender diverse workforce It seems to me like quite a strong statement. Let's say you are doing something

by js8 9y ago

> he was working against their efforts to have a more gender diverse workforce It seems to me like quite a strong statement. Let's say you are doing something using strategy X. I come over and point out, maybe the strategy X is not quite working and you should rather try strategy Y, for these reasons. Would you call this "working against your efforts"? AFAIK, he didn't sabotage anything, he just disagreed and wrote it up. You don't have to read it, you don't have to switch to strategy Y, you don't have to do anything, you can just not care at all.

matthewbauer 9y ago
Yes that's the problem for most people. Google fired him not because of the memo but because the memo became viral. If no one at Google shared his views and shared that memo, this could have been quietly ignored.
mistermann 9y ago
This also assumes their stated goal, a more gender diverse workforce, is actually their goal. I have a feeling their actual goal is more likely avoiding controversy and having employees be as "happy" as possible. If one forgets (as I always do) that when dealing with human beings, perception is reality, you might not realize that that is realistically about the most pragmatic approach you can take with this sort of policy. And this memo certainly works against both of those goals.
- js8 9y ago
  > This also assumes their stated goal, a more gender diverse workforce, is actually their goal. Well.. if I genuinely want to help you, and you misstate your goals, for whatever reasons, you are only hurting yourself. Here Google probably lost a decent engineer. This sometimes happens in authoritarian organizations, where people who genuinely want to follow the orders from the top will misunderstand the indirect meaning, causing more harm for the organization (and sometimes it can be exploited). Actually, I believe that's why authoritarian organizations are less effective than democratic ones.

by js8 9y ago

matthewbauer 9y ago

Yes that's the problem for most people. Google fired him not because of the memo but because the memo became viral. If no one at Google shared his views and shared that memo, this could have been quietly ignored.

mistermann 9y ago

This also assumes their stated goal, a more gender diverse workforce, is actually their goal. I have a feeling their actual goal is more likely avoiding controversy and having employees be as "happy" as possible. If one forgets (as I always do) that when dealing with human beings, perception is reality, you might not realize that that is realistically about the most pragmatic approach you can take with this sort of policy. And this memo certainly works against both of those goals.

js8 9y ago
> This also assumes their stated goal, a more gender diverse workforce, is actually their goal. Well.. if I genuinely want to help you, and you misstate your goals, for whatever reasons, you are only hurting yourself. Here Google probably lost a decent engineer. This sometimes happens in authoritarian organizations, where people who genuinely want to follow the orders from the top will misunderstand the indirect meaning, causing more harm for the organization (and sometimes it can be exploited). Actually, I believe that's why authoritarian organizations are less effective than democratic ones.