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Fired Google Engineer Says Company Execs Shamed and Smeared Him (bloomberg.com)
An anonymous reader shares a Bloomberg report, in which the recently fired employee has been interviewed: James Damore, who until Monday worked as an engineer on video and image search at Alphabet's Mountain View, California, headquarters, said he initially shared the 3,300-word memo internally a month ago. But it was only after the memo went viral that company leaders banded together to make him an outcast, he said on Bloomberg TV. When he initially circulated the memo, "no one high up ever came to me and said, 'No, don't do this,' even though there were many people who looked at it," Damore said. "It was only after it got viral that upper management started shaming me and eventually firing me." The memo, which was leaked to the public over the weekend, argues that conservative viewpoints are suppressed at Google and that biological differences between men and women explain in part why so few women work in software engineering. Even if someone in Google management had agreed with some of the arguments put forth in his piece, they wouldn't have felt safe speaking up, he said. "There was a concerted effort among upper management to have a very clear signal that what I did was harmful and wrong and didn't stand for Google," Damore said. "It would be career suicide for any executives or directors to support me."
He distributed it to executives asking for criticism. They ignored it. He posted it on an internal social media page asking for the same stuff.
It wasn't offensive, and scientists in these fields are backing him up. He offered more creative solutions to improve diversity efforts based on biological difference and evolutionary psychology. Google's efforts for diversity have been a $265 million dollar flop.
https://www.axios.com/googles-diversity-efforts-are-making-little-progress-2470784457.html
Oh, he's also got a PhD in biology.
How is this whistleblowing ? That's only when illegal activities are going on, no ?
In the State of California, affirmative action is illegal.
"His name was James Damore."
You realize the guy identifies as liberal, right?
Stop lying. He didn't call their female workforce inferior.
IAAL, though not an employment lawyer and not a California lawyer. I think he has a case- it will survive a motion to dismiss and possibly even summary judgment- but not necessarily one he will win if it goes to final merits. Google is likely to fight hard on this one, but they also understood a lawsuit was the likely outcome of firing him, and likely decided it was worth the cost.
You can add a fifth highly credentialed scientist in the field this is about that reviewed it... line by painstaking line.. in an interview with him.
"His name was James Damore."
In the State of California, affirmative action is illegal.
It is only illegal for the government. It is not illegal for private companies such as Google.
It is only illegal for the government [wikipedia.org]. It is not illegal for private companies such as Google.
Unless the private company accepts Public dollars as a contractor, such as Google.
The law specifically includes all State contractors.
"His name was James Damore."
Apart from being a misrepresentation of the science, it ignores the fact that the situation improves when they have an equal opportunity.
Everything he claimed about the (statistical) differences between men and women regarding the "big 5" personality traits represents the current state of the science.
Fun fact: in the Scandy countries, where a huge effort was made to level the playing field for men and women, these differences are more pronounced. Science.
I can hear a "citation needed" in the wind, so I'll steal this from Jordan Peterson's interview with the Google guy (all should be links to full papers):
Sex differences in personality:
http://bit.ly/2gJVmEp
http://bit.ly/2vEKTUx
Larger/large and stable sex differences in more gender-neutral countries: (Note: these findings runs precisely and exactly contrary to social constructionist theory: thus, it's been tested, and it's wrong).
http://bit.ly/2uoY9c4
(Women's) interest in things vs (men's) interest in things:
http://bit.ly/2wtlbzU
http://bit.ly/2fsq7Ru
The importance of exposure to sex-linked steroids on fetal and then lifetime development:
http://bit.ly/2vP0ZLS
Exposure to prenatal testosterone and interest in things (even when the exposure is among females):
http://bit.ly/2wI28RE
Primarily biological basis of personality sex differences:
http://bit.ly/2vmtSMs
http://bit.ly/2uoPzy0
Status and sex: males and females
http://bit.ly/2uoWkMh
http://bit.ly/2uoIOw8
http://bit.ly/2vNzcL6
To quote de Bruyn et al (first reference on status and sex, above): high status predicts more mating opportunities and, thus, increased reproductive success. âoeThis is true for human adults in many cultures, both âmodernâ(TM) as well as âprimitiveâ(TM) (Betzig, 1986). In fact, this theory seems to be confirmed for non-human primates (Cheney, 1983; Cowlishaw and Dunbar, 1991; Dewsbury, 1982; Gray, 1985; Maslow, 1936) and other animals from widely differing ecologies (Ellis, 1995) such as squirrels (Farentinos, 1972), cockerels (Kratzer and Craig, 1980), and cockroaches (Breed, Smith, and Gall, 1980).â Status also increases female reproductive success, via a different pathway: âoeFor females, it is generally argued that dominance is not necessarily a path to more copulations, as it is for males. It appears that important benefits bestowed upon dominant women are access to resources and less harassment from rivals (Campbell, 2002). Thus, dominant females tend to have higher offspring survival rates, at least among simians (Pusey, Williams, and Goodall, 1997); thus, dominance among females also appears to be linked to reproductive success.â
Personality and political belief
http://bit.ly/2hJ1Kjb
http://bit.ly/2fsxIzB
http://bit.ly/2fsILJd
http://bit.ly/2uoPS87
http://bit.ly/2ftDhOq
Conscientiousness associated with conservatism; neuroticism and agreeableness with liberalism: http://bit.ly/2wHNA4r
Problems with the measurement and concept of unconscious bias:
http://bit.ly/2vGzhQP
http://bit.ly/2vQuwEP (this one is particularly damning)
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
Also important to remember that he was a computer scientist addressing the "science" behind an issue outside his area of expertise.
Fair enough. Here's Dr Jordan Peterson's interview with the guy https://youtu.be/SEDuVF7kiPU . tl;dw: he got the science right.
Here's four other actual scientists commenting on the memo: http://quillette.com/2017/08/0... tl;dr: he got the science right, x4
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
To win he will have to prove more than one of a few things.
- There is discrimination (presumably against men) resulting from Google's policies, or affirmative action which is illegal in California, and thus he is a whistleblower.
Wrong. He only has to show that he made the claims in good faith.
An unsubstantiated claim grants immunity from retaliation for making the claim. The only exception is when you can show that the person made the claim in bad faith (being a liar vs. being incorrect).
I'm not even going to read the rest of your post because you're misinformed and incorrect from the start.
Perhaps you didn't notice, but the site you linked lists companies and individuals holding a state contractor's license. These are entities that are licensed by the state to provide services to the public, and shouldn't be confused with companies that have contracts with the state.
Here's something a little more relevant to the discussion, as it shows that Google does indeed have a contract with the state of California -- a description of Google's contract with the University of Californa.
Except he didn't state or even imply that anyone is "biologically unfit". All he said was that biology contributes a portion of the non-50/50 distribution of men and women in tech and high-level leadership roles. He even explicitly stated that everyone should be evaluated as individuals irrespective of their race or gender. And then went on to suggest some non-discriminatory ways to help improve diversity and reduce any unconscious/systemic bias against minorities.
Knowledge Brings Fear
You realize the guy identifies as liberal, right?
Did you read his memo... He started out by saying he'd be fired for being a conservative. If that guy is a Liberal, Elton John must be straight.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.