Apparently the arbitrary firing of James Damore wasn’t enough to make the contingent of “oppressed” Google employees feel “safe” at work.
Once again, the Bay Area technoratis’ complete lack of self awareness has made it into the headlines as Reuters exclusively reports that 100 Google US employees have circulated a petition inside the company expressing concern about the outbreak of “cyberbullying” at the company.
In all likelihood, the catalyst for this was probably another conservative employee posting on the company’s internal messageboard about an idea that didn’t conform to the company’s tepidly progressive ethos. Because, in a company where the overwhelming majority of the workforce conforms to the Bay Area tech bubble’s tepid liberalism, any and all dissent is deemed “threatening.”
The organizers of the petition say they want to put a stop to “personal attacks” that are occurring on the company’s forums. Though they neglected to provide a single example of these attacks to Reuters. The petition also calls for Google to expressly detail the “rights and responsibilities” for accusers, defendants, managers and investigators in these types of human resources cases (apparently they missed the memo about how expressing conservative or anti-establishment views could swiftly lead to termination).
Ironically, the signatories of the petition are also demanding that Alphabet crack down on human resources complaints that are thinly veiled bullying tactics (We suppose they’ve never heard the phrase “lead by example”).
The group is lobbying midlevel executives in the hopes that enough of them will raise the signers concerns with senior management.
And there you have it: Dozens of wealthy and overwhelmingly white Google employees complaining about “cyberbullying” and preaching about progressive values while contributing to an economic phenomenon that is displacing hundreds of thousands of minorities and poor. Unfortunately for all of them, the virtue signaling of the Bay Area elites only extends to people above a certain income.
Three current employees and two others helping to organize the group said it formed last fall. They said that among its proposals, which have not previously been reported in detail, are that Google should tighten rules of conduct for internal forums and hire staff to enforce them.
They said they want to stop inflammatory conversations and personal attacks on the forums and see punishment for individuals who regularly derail discussions or leak conversations. The group also wants Google to list rights and responsibilities for accusers, defendants, managers and investigators in human resources cases.
The group also desires greater protection for employees targeted by what it views as insincere complaints to human resources used as a bullying tactic and goading.
The organizers said Google should be more attuned to when people seeking to stir animosity or expressing views opposite the company’s stated values try to take over discussions about race, gender and other sensitive subjects.
One Google spokeswoman had the temerity to defend the company’s workplace.
“We enforce strong policies and work with affected employees to ensure everyone can do their work free of harassment, discrimination and bullying,” she said.
However, one software engineer complained to Reuters that he returned from disability last year to a company that seemed “alien” to him. In his view, protections for the disabled and trans people had been abandoned.
Matt Stone, a software engineer at Google who was on disability leave last year, said he returned in January to an “alien environment” in which protections for disabled and transgender individuals were up for debate.
“We’ve been taken under siege in a war we didn’t even know we’re in, a war we didn’t even want,” he said. “We want it to stop.”
Two other employees said they have reduced posting on company forums out of fear of becoming bigger targets. It is not clear if the internal harassment debate has affected recruitment and retention of employees, per Reuters.
Meanwhile, the dwindling ranks of Google’s conservative employees have issued their own proposals – including asking the company to clarify rules surrounding conduct on its internal messaging boards, while also asking the company to do more to protect conservatives from retaliation.
All of this is happening against the backdrop of unprecedented public backlash to tech companies’ rapacious mining of users’ data for profit. Also, Damore’s lawsuit is slowly moving forward.
“The reaction to Damore’s memo was not for its opponents to engage in dialogue or reason with him, but rather to leak his memo, attack him personally, and work to get him threatened and fired- casually, unhesitatingly, maliciously,” Dhillon said by email.
And at the same time, a separate class action lawsuit against the company for not paying its female employees as much as its male employees (conditions that, according to the feminist movement, exist in every workplace in America) is also winding its way through a California court.
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