Google CEO Sundar Pichai Says He Does Not Regret Firing James Damore (theverge.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: Google CEO Sundar Pichai responded today to the firing of employee James Damore over his controversial memo on workplace diversity, stating that while he does not regret the decision, he regrets that people misunderstood it as a politically motivated event. Speaking in a live conversation with journalist and Recode co-founder Kara Swisher, MSNBC host Ari Melber, and YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki in San Francisco, Pichai said that the decision to fire Damore was about ensuring women at Google felt like the company was committed to creating a welcoming environment.

"I regret that people misunderstand that we may have made this for a political belief one way or another," Pichai said. "It's important for the women at Google, and all the people at Google, that we want to make a inclusive environment." When pressed by Swisher on the issue of regret, Pichai stated more definitively, "I don't regret it." Wojcicki, who has spoken publicly about how Damore's memo affected her personally, followed up with, "I think it was the right decision."

Comments

Epic bullshit

[HornWumpus]

Of course it was political. How stupid do they think we are?

Re:Epic bullshit

[Anonymous Coward]

The majority of people did not read the memo. The actual content of the memo is not sexist, but it is challenging. People would rather round it down to a common category that they can definitively reject with full social support....than put forth the mental effort of understand what he actually said, what he actually meant, and how well-supported it actually is.

Pointing out to these people that they did not read the memo will not motivate them to read it. And even if it does, when they read it they will just skim it and zoom in on the catch-phrases, missing the actual meaning and instead seeing their own expectations reflected right back at them.

The ability to stay truly objective, in a domain like this, is rare. Most people simply cannot do it. Nor do they feel the need to try.

Re:Epic bullshit

[fafalone]

Just the other day I saw an article complaining about another extremely racist policy: Color-blind assessment. (See here)
That's a big part of why so many of us on the left aren't thrilled about the progressives are doing... "equality" now means simply switching which groups get preferential treatment, as punishment for past wrongs. It's a completely untenable position. And part of the reason why Trump won... a lot of Democrats just stayed home. Your whole life you advocate for everyone to receive equal treatment, now that makes you a right-wing racist because equal treatment isn't good enough... that alienates people.

Re:"welcoming" and engineering do not mesh

[gweihir]

And fail. Most of the core activities in good engineering is solitary and can only be done that way. In fact, "designed by committee" is about the most negative thing you can say about an engineering product and that is no accident. The whole "team" nonsense was created by bad engineers that struggle to reach the level of a qualified technician and need the group to hide in. Of course, those then want all that "welcoming" bullshit and "safe spaces" and call every environment where their incompetence is actually called out "toxic".

Re:I don't think he's ever going to regret it

[Spamalope]

So you haven't read the memo itself. You wouldn't write that they couldn't keep Damore and women if you had, as he was making credible realistic suggestions about how to make the workplace more inviting. Those suggestions ran afoul of progressive ideology though, and daring to suggest that gender is real and that women may feel welcome if things like family life were allowed for is heretical nowadays.