After firing, engineer says hypocrisy is rife at Google
Ex-Google engineer James Damore says problems with the company’s culture and diversity programs prompted him to write the memo on gender differences that ignited a social media firestorm and led to his dismissal.
Damore, who went from employee to outcast upon the memo’s circulation, said in his first public comments that he penned the document out of a love for Alphabet’s Google. Damore was a software engineer at the search giant’s Mountain View, Calif., headquarters until Monday afternoon, when he said he was fired for “perpetuating gender stereotypes.” His missive — published internally to Google employees last week — argued that conservative viewpoints are suppressed at the company, and biological differences explain in part why more men work in software engineering than women.
“A lot of this came from me seeing some of the problems with our culture at Google, where a lot of people who weren’t in this groupthink just felt totally isolated and alienated,” he told YouTube chat-show host Stefan Molyneux in an interview posted online. “There were many people that came to me and said, ‘Yeah, I’m thinking of leaving Google because this is getting so bad.’ ”
“I really thought this was a problem Google had to fix,” he added. ‘Just shaming’
Damore said he was exploring legal remedies and revealed he created the document — started on a 12-hour flight on a work trip to China — after attending a “secretive” diversity training session that rubbed him the wrong way. “There was a lot of just shaming: ‘No, you can’t say that. That’s sexist.’ There’s just so much hypocrisy in a lot of the things that they were saying,” he said. “I decided to create the document to clarify my thoughts.”
In a second interview on YouTube Wednesday, Damore specified that he believed the diversity policies he heard discussed at the meeting were “illegal” and that teams at Google under pressure to increase diversity among their workers made hiring decisions based on candidates’ race or gender. A Google spokesperson disputed the characterization of the meeting as “secretive” and said the company is transparent about its diversity policies and practices.
Many in Silicon Valley denounced Damore’s arguments, including Google CEO Sundar Pichai, who said Monday in a memo to employees that the engineer’s manifesto violated Google’s code of conduct and that suggesting “a group of our colleagues have traits that make them less biologically suited to that work is offensive and not OK.”
But others, mainly right-wing groups, agreed with his description of a “politically correct monoculture” and in particular, saw Google’s decision to fire him for voicing an unpopular opinion as proving exactly his point. Julian Assange tweeted that WikiLeaks would hire Damore, adding “Censorship is for losers.” Gab.ai, a far-right social network, also offered Damore a job, calling his writing “a beautiful work of art.” Harvard degree
On his LinkedIn profile, Damore, 28, says that he has a Ph.D. from Harvard University in systems biology, which his supporters noted as a credential for him to talk about the biological differences between men and women. A Harvard spokeswoman said Damore only completed a master’s in systems biology, a field that uses quantitative methods to study biological systems such as cells and organisms. A spokesman for the University of Illinois confirmed he has a Bachelor of Science degree in molecular and cellular biology from 2010. Damore is reportedly from suburban Chicago.
Damore didn’t go into his future plans apart from acknowledging a number of job offers. He did admit the scale of the socialmedia backlash had taken him by surprise, conceding it was a “blind spot” of his and that he was still struggling to understand the severity of the public reaction. Damore also said he was surprised by the size of his support.
He reflected on how Silicon Valley culture discourages the airing of rightleaning sentiments.
“Definitely those who aren’t on the left feel like they need to stay in the closet and not really reveal themselves,” Damore said. Those people “actually mask and say things they don’t believe.” Free speech issue
Though one might argue for a right to free speech, such protections are generally limited to government and other public employees — and to unionized workers with rights to disciplinary hearings before any firing, labor experts say.
Broader protections are granted to comments about workplace conditions. Damore argues in a federal labor complaint that this applies to his case, but the experts disagree.
“By posting that memo, he forfeited his job,” said Jennifer Lee Magas, public relations professor at Pace University. “He was fired for his words, but also for being daft enough to post these thoughts on an open workplace forum, where he was sure to be met with backlash and to offend his colleagues — male and female alike.”