Google could be in for some trouble after sacked employee says he isn't backing down.
James Damore, the software engineer who wrote an internal memo that questioned Google’s diversity efforts and was fired as a result, will likely sue the company, according to The New York Times.Damore told the Times he would “likely be pursuing legal action. I have a legal right to express my concerns about the terms and
conditions of my working environment and to bring up potentially illegal behavior, which is what my document does.”
Damore revealed he had submitted a complaint to the National Labor Relations Board before he was fired claiming that Google’s upper management was “misrepresenting and shaming me in order to silence my complaints,” adding it was “illegal to retaliate” against an N.L.R.B. charge.
Pichai wrote, “The memo has clearly impacted our co-workers, some of whom are hurting and feel judged based on their gender. Our co-workers shouldn’t have to worry that each time they open their mouths to speak in a meeting, they have to prove that they are not like the memo states, being ‘agreeable’ rather than ‘assertive,’ showing a ‘lower stress tolerance,’ or being ‘neurotic.’”
In his memo, Damore wrote:
Google’s political bias has equated the freedom from offense with psychological safety, but shaming into silence is the antithesis of psychological safety. This silencing has created an ideological echo chamber where some ideas are too sacred to be honestly discussed. The lack of discussion fosters the most extreme and authoritarian elements of this ideology. … Only facts and reason can shed light on these biases, but when it comes to diversity and inclusion, Google’s left bias has created a politically correct monoculture that maintains its hold by shaming dissenters into silence. This silence removes any checks against encroaching extremist and authoritarian policies.
Going by his words, Google could be faced with a lawsuit in less than no time.