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Sundar Pichai Should Resign as Google’s C.E.O

nytimes.com

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Re: Sundar Pichai Should Resign as Google’s C.E.O

#31

Post by naturalgradient »

Shank wrote: post #8

Honestly, I think he made the right move just from a PR perspective. His firing makes sense: the CEO and HR are both acting to protect the company. The author of the manifesto caused Google a PR disaster and created a huge state of internal conflict, valid or not. The shareholders are probably really happy that their CEO removed a person who managed to get Google so much bad press in so little time. This is the reali…

> The shareholders are probably really happy that their CEO removed a person who managed to get Google so much bad press in so little time.

Debatable, the shareholders might not be happy that Google might now become a political target for oppressing views.

However, I agree that given potential liability issues from hostile workplace lawsuits almost forced his hand, which is very unfortunate.

Re: Sundar Pichai Should Resign as Google’s C.E.O

#32

Post by thomasahle »

endtime wrote: post #18
Shank wrote: post #8

Honestly, I think he made the right move just from a PR perspective. His firing makes sense: the CEO and HR are both acting to protect the company. The author of the manifesto caused Google a PR disaster and created a huge state of internal conflict, valid or not. The shareholders are probably really happy that their CEO removed a person who managed to get Google so much bad press in so little time. This is the reali…

The leakers caused the bad press, not Damore. (Unless he was the leaker, of course...)

It was all over the media before the leak. Before it was just based on rumors of "some internal viral memo". Leaking it might even have helped calm the waters.

Re: Sundar Pichai Should Resign as Google’s C.E.O

#33

Post by lisper »

The primary thesis of Damore's memo [1] was not that women are biologically unsuited to STEM careers. The primary thesis was that, at Google, you cannot even advance the hypothesis that biology might be a factor without putting your career at risk. Ironically, by firing Damore, Pichai proved him correct.

EDIT: if you doubt this, just look at the document's title and TL;DR section.

[1] https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/3914586/Googles-I...

Re: Sundar Pichai Should Resign as Google’s C.E.O

#35

Post by xrd »

This is comment in the memo that changed the consequences: "Stop restricting programs and classes to certain genders or races." He's advocating restricting programs that reduce the massive gap in distributions. If he had left his arguments and asked people to make their own conclusions, he might still have a job. Brooks is wrong here.

Re: Sundar Pichai Should Resign as Google’s C.E.O

#36

Post by greekyogurt21 »

jalayir wrote: post #7

The big assumption in David Brooks' piece is that the so-called "manifesto" was Damore's one and only "transgression". Were there other, previous internal complaints about him, and this was the straw that broke the camel's back?

I love how you're getting down voted for asking a reasonable question.

Re: Sundar Pichai Should Resign as Google’s C.E.O

#38

Post by Amezarak »

Shank wrote: post #8

Honestly, I think he made the right move just from a PR perspective. His firing makes sense: the CEO and HR are both acting to protect the company. The author of the manifesto caused Google a PR disaster and created a huge state of internal conflict, valid or not. The shareholders are probably really happy that their CEO removed a person who managed to get Google so much bad press in so little time. This is the reali…

Incidentally, what Damore did is probably a 'concerted protected activity' (his stated goal is to take actions that improve working conditions by making the job less stressful, increase diversity, etc) covered by the NLRB, and thus Google quite possibly broke the law in firing him for the memo.

That's not protecting the company.

EDIT: I forgot to add that from the coverage I've seen, there are also claims that Google management is illegally sharing hiring blacklists (based on a person's perceived political views) with other companies. That would also be very serious.

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