Posted on 01/09/2018 7:55:03 AM PST by SeekAndFind
James Damore, the Google employee who was fired last year after his memo about diversity efforts at the company went viral, has filed a lawsuit against his former employer. Damore’s suit, which is joined by another ex-Google engineer named David Gudeman, claims that the company discriminates against conservatives and against white males. From Fox News:
Damore, Gudeman, and other class members were ostracized, belittled, and punished for their heterodox political views, and for the added sin of their birth circumstances of being Caucasians and/or males, the lawsuit alleged. This is the essence of discriminationGoogle formed opinions about and then treated Plaintiffs not based on their individual merits, but rather on their membership in groups with assumed characteristics.
Google employees and managers strongly preferred to hear the same orthodox opinions regurgitated repeatedly, producing an ideological echo chamber, a protected, distorted bubble of groupthink, the lawsuit adds. When Plaintiffs challenged Googles illegal employment practices, they were openly threatened and subjected to harassment and retaliation from Google.
The lawsuit itself is available for download here. It paints a detailed picture of some specific instances at the company when senior executives told employees that race and gender were to be taken into account in hiring and that this stance was not open for debate:
On March 30, 2017, Damore attended a weekly company-wide meeting called a TGIF meeting. These weekly meetings were used as an avenue for employees to connect and discuss
certain topics involving Google.The TGIF meeting on March 30, 2017 was entitled Womens History Month, and Google brought in two presenters for this get-together: Ruth Porat (Porat), the Chief Financial
Officer of Google, and Eileen Naughton (Naughton), the Human Resources Director of Google.During the March 30, 2017 TGIF meeting, either Porat or Naughton pointed out and shamed individual departments at Google in which women comprised less than 50% of the workforce. Alternatively, they applauded and praised departments, such as the sales department, where women comprised more than 50% of the workforce.
During the event, Porat and Naughton also discussed that when looking at groups of people for promotions or for leadership opportunities on new projects, Google would be taking into
account gender and ethnic demographics. They then mentioned that Googles racial and gender preferences in hiring were not up for debate, because this was morally and economically the best thing to do for Google.
At a subsequent gathering in June, the “Diversity and Inclusion Summit,” the same message was repeated. During a breakout session, Damore spoke to a human resources person at the company about his concerns and the HR person agreed with him [emphasis added]:
At the Summit, Damore spoke with Meghana Rao (Rao) from Googles Human Resources department (Google HR). Damore told Rao that he believed some of the positions taken
by Google were divisive and misguided. Specifically, Damore mentioned that it seemed like Google was elevating political correctness over merit.Rao responded to Damores comment by stating some of the political things at Google were a problem. They discussed how some Google employees with conservative views and values did not feel included, and Rao mentioned how she, and other HR representatives, had received similar complaints in the past from employees with conservative views.
Damore’s memo, the one that went viral and prompted his firing, was written in response to a call at the end of this diversity summit meeting for feedback on the presentation. A third diversity training in July was organized by the “Unbiasing Group.” When Damore expressed his concerns at this meeting, he was laughed at:
At the in-person training, entitled Bias Busting, Google discussed how biases against women exist in the workplace, and how white male privilege exists in the workplace. The training was run by the Unbiasing Group at Google, and there were approximately 20 Google employees present. Damore disagreed with this one-sided approach. When Damore verbalized his dissent and his concerns with the one-sided presentation, other employees, including managers, laughed at him derisively. They considered his views to be conservative, and thus flawed and worthy of disparagement.
After Damore was fired in early August, Google allowed employees to give one another Peer Bonuses for disagreeing with him:
The Google Recognition Team allowed employees to give fellow employees Peer Bonuses for arguing against Damores political viewpoints. Peer Bonuses were typically reserved for
outstanding work performance or for going above and beyond an employees job duties. Defending the liberal agenda, or defending violations of California employment law, is not in any Google employees job description.
All of this comes from just the first dozen or so pages dealing with James Damore and his firing. The lawsuit goes on to claim the company tolerated other employees recommending conservatives be fired for their opinions. One employee, a manager, even recommended creating a blacklist of people who make diversity difficult.
Sorry, you’re not a protected class................
The Google Recognition Team allowed employees to give fellow employees Peer Bonuses
What is this place, a frikkin Preschool??
3-5 years from now he will be a very rich man.
Which is good, because he’ll not work in Silicon Valley again.
They do it at Intel too.
$100 cap.
Company paid.
In a fair workplace this would be an open and shut case. Clearly these Conservatives were treated unfairly and held up for ridicule for no other reason but disagreeing with the Liberal political viewpoint.
This firing had nothing to do with his work performance.
Unfortunately this is California we are talking about, and the highly intelligent and tolerant Liberals can neither intelligently debate him, not tolerate his different views. Aside from some headlines, I doubt he will win in California. In most other states, reason and logic would prevail.
Hope he wins bigly.
WOW. That “peer bonuses” part is just mind-blowing.
Google is extension of College Campus, but kids get paid and had stock options.
I despise and detest Google. This is no surprise. It assume they keep a dossier on every employee’s surfing habits, and assign a classification, cross-referencing employee files.
There is no good that is going to come from what Google does.
Actually, he is - at least in theory. This could be an interesting lawsuit. It’s also retaliation against protected activity.
Peer bonuses are not a bad idea but Google misused them in away that did not conform with their stated rules.
Peer bonuses can be used to reward hard workers who go beyond what is required. This applies in most any work environment whether it is a shop floor, construction crew, or software development operation. Too often those who go above and beyond go unrecognized and in many cases recognition goes to someone else who has the right friends.
Google needs to be sued to the max for not only breaching their own rules but also for violating the guys Constitutional rights and discrimination laws as well.
Yes, what YOU said...”Peer bonuses” for agreeing with the borg (management) is rather a stupid thing to have allowed.
Big leftist companies are trying to fire and impoverish conservatives into submission. The firing of employees for political beliefs should be verboten, unless politics is a part of the job. In today’s world where big companies dominate so much of the job market, it is no answer to respond that the fired conservative can look for another job.
Dude. In case you didn’t notice, you’re white. If you hadn’t been, you never would have gotten that kushy job in the first place. Google on bro. (I hope he beats the snot out of them, but......)
Next, we'll have a premier tech company telling us they lost backups of their email servers and how a rash of unrecoverable hard drive errors corrupted the entire HR department's data.
Given that Apple fired a black female executive for defending the concept of diversity of opinion in Big Tech, he has a strong case that Google is actively discriminating against people for their beliefs AND undermining their freedom of speech and belief.
I pray he wins big time. Modern diversity is merely reverse racism. People should be hired based on skill levels, only.
Open and shut case....It’s time for CONSERVATIVES to fight back against liberal corporations. A conservative can’t speak out against discrimination?? Hey morons,you discriminate against Caucasians who are male and Conservative.
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