An unnamed senior employee at Google has the company under fire after sharing an anti-diversity document with fellow employees in response to the company's diversity programs.
The unknown engineer, who sent the 10-page manifesto around the company, spent a lot of his memo railing against the idea that any practices within Google are sexist. With the company currently facing lawsuits regarding alleged pay discrimination, the memo denies any wage gap between men and women has anything to do with their sexes. Amongst his claims, the employee suggests that men have a higher drive for leadership positions, and suggests women are more prone to stress than their male counterparts.
The memo also dives into supposed political biases, and appears to advocate for greater right-leaning influence within the company, going so far as to suggest conservatives are better equipped for the industry than their counterparts.
"Alienating conservatives is both non-inclusive and generally bad business," reads the memo, "because conservatives tend to be higher in conscientiousness, which is require [sic] for much of the drudgery and maintenance work characteristic of a mature company."
Naturally, a memo with the bullet point, "De-emphasize empathy" is not going over well, either internally or in the court of public opinion. Once a copy of the memo leaked, people were happy to pile on a company that already has a pretty shaky reputation when it comes to work culture.
This Google memo... who thinks this way?! Women can't be programmers? I work with some that could probably code circles around him. pic.twitter.com/YtzNAvK91Z
I'll put $100 on the memo guy at Google being described as "yeah he's an asshole but produces good code/ships on time so 🤷🏻♂️"
That Google memo makes my blood boil. Because he felt he was working in a place where it was ok to share it.
Re: the sexist Google employee memo, "women can't succeed here because they want a strong work/life balance" is an incredible thing to state
The brilliant @kateconger got the full anti-diversity memo circulating at google and it's really fucking bad https://t.co/w9PhYIJ8ws
In response to the backlash, Google eventually sent a statement on the matter to their employees, with Google Vice President of Diversity, Integrity & Governance Danielle Brown dismissing the memo outright.
"It's not a viewpoint that I or this company endorses, promotes or encourages," wrote Brown. "Diversity and inclusion are a fundamental part of our values and the culture we continue to cultivate. We are unequivocal in our belief that diversity and inclusion are critical to our success as a company, and we'll continue to stand for that and be committed to it for the long haul."
You can read the full memo here.
