Summary The memo had drawn heavy criticism from many people. Photo courtesy: Google Images
(Web Desk) - James Damore, the man claimed by US media reports as being responsible for writing an anti-diversity memo at Google, was recently fired by the search engine giant.
According to BBC, Google’s chief executive Sundar Pichai said that the controversial memo’s author had been fired as he had broken the firm’s code of conduct and crossed a line by "advancing harmful gender stereotypes in our workplace”.
Pichai went on to say that a lot of what was in the memo was open to debate "regardless of whether a vast majority of Googlers disagree with it ”, but for someone to state that some employees at Google had “traits that make them less biologically suited to that work is offensive and not OK”.
The memo had previously been heavily criticised by Danielle Brown, Google’s head of diversity, although the text’s author had claimed that he had received numerous “personal messages from fellow Googlers expressing their gratitude”.
The memo, which had been named Google’s Ideological Echo Chamber, had argued that gender created different biological abilities in men and women which was a reason why there was a lack of female representation in top tech or leadership roles.
Meanwhile, on social media news of the firing received a mixed response form users with some commentators claiming that Google had done the right thing by firing a man who was encouraging the spread of harmful ideas at the firm and others stating that the author should not have been fired for simply exercising his freedom of speech.
Google: Women improve workplaces because they are different from men.
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) August 8, 2017
Memo Guy: Women are different, on average, from men.
Google: Fired.
Shameful conduct by @Google. Hope he sues the bejesus out of the totalitarian bullies. https://t.co/vzrbgsvymg
— Rita Panahi (@RitaPanahi) August 8, 2017
Good job @sundarpichai!!
— EricaJoy (@EricaJoy) August 8, 2017
Now what about all the employees who said they agreed with the sexist stereotypes? https://t.co/8izvoRtMHa
Right move @Google. You should also issue a statement on your philosophy and values as a company. https://t.co/zcXIwPG9Yf
— Amy Siskind (@Amy_Siskind) August 8, 2017
Google sure does have a way of proving Memo Dude s point
— Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) August 8, 2017
This is not the first time that Google has come under fire for female related employment issues. In January, according to an article in The Verge, the US Department of Labor sued the firm for what it claimed was “systemic compensation disparities against women pretty much across the entire workforce.”
