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Labor Board Says Google Could Fire James Damore For Anti-Diversity Memo (theverge.com)
According to a recently disclosed letter from the U.S. National Labor Relations Board, Google didn't violate labor laws by firing engineer James Damore for a memo criticizing the company's diversity program. "The lightly redacted statement is written by Jayme Sophir, associate general counsel of the NLRB's division of advice; it dates to January, but was released yesterday, according to Law.com," reports The Verge. "Sophir concludes that while some parts of Damore's memo was legally protected by workplace regulations, 'the statements regarding biological differences between the sexes were so harmful, discriminatory, and disruptive as to be unprotected.'" From the report: Damore filed an NLRB complaint in August of 2017, after being fired for internally circulating a memo opposing Google's diversity efforts. Sophir recommends dismissing the case; Bloomberg reports that Damore withdrew it in January, and that his lawyer says he's focusing on a separate lawsuit alleging discrimination against conservative white men at Google. NLRB records state that its case was closed on January 19th. In her analysis, Sophir writes that employers should be given "particular deference" in trying to enforce anti-discrimination and anti-harassment policies, since these are tied to legal requirements. And employers have "a strong interest in promoting diversity" and cooperation across different groups of people. Because of this, "employers must be permitted to 'nip in the bud' the kinds of employee conduct that could lead to a 'hostile workplace,'" she writes. "Where an employee's conduct significantly disrupts work processes, creates a hostile work environment, or constitutes racial or sexual discrimination or harassment, the Board has found it unprotected even if it involves concerted activities regarding working conditions."
There is so much disinformation surrounding Damore.
His memo was not against diversity. He specifically included very well-researched and reasoned suggestions on how to encourage more women to get involved and make tech more attractive to them as a career choice.
Read the damn thing yourself, people.
You are lying openly and systematically throughout this thread. The science on biological differences between men and women has been settled for almost half a century now. The screaming by people like you that "evolution ends at the neck, and everything above it is socially constructed", while enacting catholic-grade punishments for breaching your dogma is horrifying and clean cut anti-science.
There was nothing discriminatory or bigoted about the memo. Damore was asked what to do about the problem of too few women at Google. Like a proper engineer he broke the problem down based on scientific facts, and then made suggestions.
And like folks like Galilei and Copernicus, he ran afoul the religious fanatics such as yourself, who are at the reigns of power in today's world and have no qualms in using societal punishment to silence anyone who dares to challenge their dogmatic anti-scientific beliefs.
When the story first broke, I didn't even bother checking Damore's exact references on the science. A quick google search will turn up tens of thousands of journal articles substantiating that the gender differences he specified do in fact exist.
If you can come up a similar list of empirical studies which show no gender difference, then you have a leg to stand on. Otherwise you are using your preconceptions and biases to subvert scientific facts.
If you actually cared about the science, the very first link in my search above presents in its abstract (so you only need to spend 15 seconds reading) an obvious scientific rebuttal to Damore's memo. Women score higher on neuroticism than men. Men score higher on psychoticism. You can then make the scientific argument that gender differences exist, but they tend to cancel out. Since the null theory has to be that there is no difference (you cannot prove a negative), it then becomes the scientific duty of those advocating that there is a difference to analyze the data and show that it doesn't cancel out.
But that's not what happened. That would entail admitting that gender differences exist, and the people crucifying Damore can't have that. So they did what they could to discredit the science - ask paper authors until one of them presented opinions conciliatory to their POV. They then use that singular opinion as an excuse to ignore the entire body of scientific work on the topic.
1. That should not matter, the science was published, and the conclusions he took from it are a valid conclusion, so to the best of his ability he was stating fact, normally THAT WOULD BE ENOUGH. The fact that some of the publishers (not all not, some actually said his interpretation was correct) since backpedaled on their own research is hardly Damores fault. You are not required to be CORRECT in all interpretations, just to have not presented things you know to be false - this is LONG established - otherwise everyone would be required to be THE leading expert in everything they said - which is obviously impossible.
2 - Why not? Because you want to change what he was saying? He made it clear he was speaking of averages and trends, not absolutes - and then is getting punished as though he stated absolutes.
3 - He (amongst others) was asked by his employer to write their thoughts on the subject and publish them to a specific internal location - he did exactly as requested by his employer. He is no was distributed it further than that - where is the punishment for those who did? Why is he being punished for following instructions of his employer?
4 - Why is that his responsibility? Google asked people for their thoughts, he did exactly as asked. The fact that they did not like the response was not his fault - perhaps they should have had a process in place to vet submissions if they didnt want such opinions.
5 - Why not? They are very well known science, and the fact that they may be unpopular amongst some at present does not change than, neither does a backpedal on published research by some of the people involved (but, importantly, not all, and not the leaders in the field) does not change that. He published information that was at that time publicly published in respectable scientific journals - why should he be punished for repeating such content?
The situation we are creating here is one where someone can get punished for repeating publicly accepted (by peer reviewed journal publishing) information in a way their employer asked them to, because the employer felt embarrassed about it after the fact. Think about the ramifications of that for a while.
Also note that NO action was taken against him at the time he followed the instructions of Google - in fact it was only taken after a 3rd party made this information public. THAT, above all else, should indicate that Googles actions are blindingly wrong.
No, this is the Hundred Flowers Campaign in a corporate setting. Google sought feedback from participants of its interpretation of what diversity training should be, but didn't like the critical feedback they got, and so retaliated. The Hundred Flowers Campaign , also termed the Hundred Flowers Movement, was a period in 1956 in the People's Republic of China during which the Communist Party of China encouraged its citizens to openly express their opinions of the communist regime. Differing views and solutions to national policy were encouraged based on the famous expression by Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong: "The policy of letting a hundred flowers bloom and a hundred schools of thought contend is designed to promote the flourishing of the arts and the progress of science." ...
After this brief period of liberalization, Mao used this to oppress those who challenged the communist regime by using force. The crackdown continued through 1957 as an Anti-Rightist Campaign against those who were critical of the regime and its ideology. Those targeted were publicly criticized and condemned to prison labor camps.
your thin skin doesn't make me a troll
It's not a hypothesis, does your wife have a penis?
The problem with slashdot is that most of its users were bullied and stuffed into lockers as kids!