At-will employment in California generally means you have to have 6 - 12 months of documentation to fire someone. Heck if he was an alcoholic and showed up blasted every day to work, Google would have to send him to rehab before they could terminate.
Re: Reactions?At some point, our AI masters will be able to detect what Orwell labeled "thoughtcrimes." Then we'll be much closer to the non-hostile work (or university or checkout line at the supermarket) environment.
Re: Reactions?So the issue as far as the organization is concerned is not that he or anyone else has these attitudes, but that he was stupid enough to express them. It's good that we can all be open-minded about things.
Re: Reactions?He isn't just speaking his point of view, he's creating a hostile work environment. How can any female engineer (of which there are many at Google) feel comfortable working with him? He has a right to his opinion, and Google has the right to let him go.
Re: Reactions?This is kind of why a significant portion of the U.S. population is fond of red baseball caps featuring a particular embroidered message.
Re: Reactions?Yeah, but when you're an employee at will that goes out of your way to say half the population isn't fit to do a certain gender-neutral job, as most jobs tend to be, termination isn't all that surprising, especially at a place under such intense scrutiny as Google. Not even having "views are my own" on your Twitter profile can save you.
Re: Reactions?To most reasonable people, being fired for what you think is improper. My guess, though, is that Google HR has made the case that this sap violated some "Code of Conduct" that allows for immediate termination. Big companies love stuff like that, as we know.
Re: Reactions?I think it's safe to say that if this hadn't leaked, the engineer would not have been fired. It's all about PR for Google. In some ways, his firing is completely counter to Pichai and Google's assertions that free discussion is encouraged even when you disagree with the point of view expressed. That said, his remarks went too far and we're offensive.
Women have long felt they can't speak up when they are subjected to discrimination, sexism or sexual harassment for fear of retribution. That is a problem. But is it a problem that you feel afraid to express your offensive points of view in the workplace for the same reason? Eh, I'm not that sympathetic...
At-will employment in California generally means you have to have 6 - 12 months of documentation to fire someone. Heck if he was an alcoholic and showed up blasted every day to work, Google would have to send him to rehab before they could terminate.
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Women have long felt they can't speak up when they are subjected to discrimination, sexism or sexual harassment for fear of retribution. That is a problem. But is it a problem that you feel afraid to express your offensive points of view in the workplace for the same reason? Eh, I'm not that sympathetic...