Senior Google Engineer faces punishment for writing his thoughts about diversity
When we all speak about social bias, gender gap, sexism, racism we are all entitled to an opinion but nowadays it seems that if you have an opinion that does not concur with what other people think, you will get shamed into thinking that way and think twice the next time you want to speak about personal or delicate subjects.
This is what is happening inside Google - and I highly doubt the same thing is not happening in every major company - and after a senior engineer wrote his thoughts about this subject he is being publicly shamed, harrased in social media and a lot of people are asking Google to fire him.
There is a lot of people that agrees with this man´s point of view, the problem is, they do not want to go public because of all the shaming they could face or the risk of losing their job. So much for having the right to speak your mind huh?
I am not going to turn this into a political or gender article. I just want to share the piece and hear some thoughts about it.
Personally I think this article - which some people incorrectly are referring to it as manifesto - is one of the most accurate pieces I´ve read in all of 2017.
Psychological bias, gender bias, diversity bias. They are all there, they all exist. The wage gap, sexism at the workplace, lack of equal oportunities also exist. On the other hand, programms created to address this issues are suffering from the same Bias, making this programs infair for people that are not part of a minority.
I am not going to make a tl;dr (too long, didn´t read) about it, I want you to read it all and give me your opinion. It is a very long read but it is worth every second spent reading.
This, my friends, is being called "Intolerant Manifesto" and I do not understand why. They are just facts and the writer is addressing he supports diversity and programs, he is just stating how he feels inside the workplace and offers a different perspective of how to approeach these delicate matters without giving support to diversity.
It is not attacking women, it is not atacking minorities, it not attacking diversity. If you read carefully you will notice it is stating how to use different perks we as human beings have, to achieve greater results withing the workplace.
Most of this is very reasonable, perceptive and well-stated. I wonder if the people who are so outraged about it even read the whole thing, or if they're just giving the response they think is expected of them.
This one bothered me a lot, because the employee is simply tired of being in the closet about his views, and makes a heartfelt appeal for ideological diversity and better treatment of conservative employees.
Again, I am not trying to make this a debate for people to attack my point of vies, I just want to hear your point of view on this Article this person wrote.
You make me lose my hope, live with you Adasatu thing that can not be avoided Although heart is not willing to cry
All there is eternal takan
You make up, please
Hope, live with you
Formerly .. yourself myself
We are united by time
There are promises we have ever uttered
In the past did not want to deny not want to disappear
All there is eternal takan
You make it disappear
Hope, live with you
In the past, you, myself,
We are united by time
Unfortunately right now I don't have the time to read it as I have I go to the hospital to be with my mom during her surgery. All I can say is I'M so glad to be self employed and be the only employee. If I harass myself too much I'll just kick my own ass and the boss won't say a word about it. 😁
Dude self employment is the best thing you can achieve if you can assume the cost of getting there (those few years of real struggle). I hope everything went good with your moms surgery my friend.... how was it?
She came through with flying colors. She is home and actually recovering faster than expected.
That is great news to hear my friend, so glad everything went ok :)
Thank you
The simple truth remains that one should speak up. Just do it. It's a fundamental right.
But then, sometimes it's a wise thing to consider the special circumstances.
Sometimes, one has to stoop to win.
And the kid goes low to be breastfed by the mother. It's not medocrity. It's being pragmatic
Thank you for sharing @anomadsoul
And the simple fact that people are scared of speaking up says a lot about google+s current HR situation man, did you know he got fired? He is looking to sue them because under Californian law he got dismissed unfairly.
Hahaha that last phrase, right on mate.
Well now mate...that's a pandora's box you've popped the lid on, but what the hell let's take a peek!
As a female lawyer who started her law career late in life having been a mature age uni student, I have oft been on the business end of pretty much every kind of practice that is mentioned in this article (and not in a good way).
However, I mostly agree with the author. Political correctness, feminism, being granted the right to vote and even no longer being considered the property of my male relatives notwithstanding, there is still plenty of bias and discrimination afoot, and it's not limited to the workplace either.
Now I could go on for days responding to this well researched and thorough article, but I'll try to be brief (first time a lawyer ever said that!).
I believe the point he/she seems to be making (very broadly) is those who are considered by the staff and management at Google, not to be part of some 'disadvantaged minority', should sit down, shut up (and certainly not complain), about programs available to the 'disadvantaged minority', that are not available to the majority. Further, he/she queries what of those amongst the 'majority' who likewise need such programs but are denied this assistance by Google!
While I agree with his position, I fear he is taking on the whole human condition...as human beings, we are inherently flawed with our biases and prejudices, samenesses and differences, often imposed on us from birth and very difficult to overcome even with life long education.
Should we chuck in the towel...hell no! I think that articles like this and the posting on Steemit of them by our fellow Steemitizans like @anomdasoul are how we move forward. Let's change the attitudes of the world one post at a time... Ugoated and Resheeped!
Wow first of all, I am blown away by the time and effort you took to reply to me this way, I am sorry I didnt reply earlier but I don´t have a phone, only laptop and I had to go out yesterday.
As I told you in your post, I had no idea you were female, neither lawyer nor grandma. I guess I followed you for your content and not for who you are. I read some of your posts today and in some you state all of this, I guess I didn´t read any of those before, I am glad I did it now :) It is always nice to put a face or at least a personality to the author you know?
Yes, sexism still exists and as you say, even though we as a society have come so far by granting votes, the property issues etc there is still a lot to address, but as you say, the how we do it is what is failling...
That is exactly the issue! In order to help minorities and special groups they are forgeting about the main idea of the company and also focusing in small (but not less important) issues. Like, you are taking water from the lake to water your house plants but not using it to water your big garden... (I dont know if that makes sense).
Of course, bias will always be there, but this kind of people exist to point them at us so we can try to correct those biases, but if we react like this, how are going to become a better society? Why do we shame and censor those who are only trying to help...?
Ayyy thanks for the goat mate!
He got fired!! Can you believe it? He already has a job offer though... and he is exploring the possibilitie of suing google.
Oppression can exist in many forms.
Oppression by majority (or "the norm") is but one of these forms.
A number of days ago I did also touch upon this general topic.
I must admit that I would have expected better - a more refined approach - from Google. I feel that the content of this engineer's "manifesto" * does a good job of attempting to demonstrate, to the non-padlocked mind, that (ab)using policies to provide advantageous opportunities to some people on the basis of their demographic, while also exercising inconsistency in its team formulation strategies, is going down a path that 'might' be well-intentioned, but which (even though not explicitely stated) ultimately means that other demographics are shafted as its the trendy thing to do.
(* which in truth is little more than a glut of mud flung upon both the engineer and his thoughts - an slanderous act of opinion-engineering with the secondary purpose of dissuading inquiring minds from actually mulling upon his word).
As a student of consistency I cannot help but back this engineer's view (even if I wouldn't have placed emphasis on left or right - such is by my reckoning irrelevant to the big picture).
I was thinking of placing a few disclaimers - but no. I'll tackle the ill-thought-out accusations as they arise. ;c)
Thank you for sharing this with us @anomadsoul.
Oh damn I just checked the link you gave but the post has already been paid off. I went to another post and gave you a full vote my friend. Damn, you are making some good points here and also I see you like writing philosophy, so glad I saw this comment (even so late, sorry) so I can start following you.
Of course! I mean, we all know google is a pioneer in a lot of things but to be honest they just fell off the pedestal I had them on, the way they handled things was poor to say the least.
Yeag, I think the emphazising of the political views is out of place, maybe just being consistent with the ideas without adding he is from the right wing would have been enough.
I was forced to take my choice of a gender/racial based tolerance class in school.
I was highly disgusted at the thought because I felt as though it implied that I was a racist or gender discriminate. That we all were to be lumped in that group of people.
Classes filled up quickly, and I ended up randomly selecting black studies.
I did learn a lot but one of the most important things I learned was from the professor.
She believed that it was important, no matter what someone believed, to have an open intellectual discussion.
There were some people that were openly racist in the class and as long as they explained themselves with a little bit of factual evidence it was perfectly okay.
This seemed so strange to me because of cultural shaming but I really enjoyed the discussions.
It always felt like we were making a small amount of progress in the cultural understanding of each other.
I feel like that's mainly what this guy did and I have no problem with it personally.
But this really isn't about one man's views.
This is about differentiating a company from an individual.
Company's have very tolerant, passive stances because potential money is on the line.
I saw this post as well and it made my day due to the honest approach the writer uses, while also applying a concise writing style.
The reaction should not surprise anyone - feminism today is a religion/cult, not to be compared to "equal rights for everyone".
It is very dazzling. I for eal think that most people who are making all the fuzz haven´t even read the article he writes. Come on, every aspect he onboards is unbiased and only stating well researched facts. He is not insulting or demeaning anyone!
I get it, sometimes you have to get into arguments but if this guy gets fired he can sue Google and by the laws in California que will definitely win.
Not to mention all the harrasment and mistreatment he is gonna get at his workplace...
The argument "why do men even want those high level jobs in the first place?" really makes a lot of sense. Most women overestimate the "fun" those jobs provide - in the end many men slave away 80 hours a week while putting up with countless pressure, simply to increase their social standing and attractiveness. The same motivation does not work for women - hence fewer female executives.
He got fired!! Can you believe it? He already has a job offer though... and he is exploring the possibilitie of suing google.
Thankyou for sharing ,, amazing and nice post
I like;)
This post has received a 1.72 % upvote from @booster thanks to: @anomadsoul.