Google CEO Says Fired Employee Violated Conduct, but Company Values Free Expression
Google "strongly" supports employees' rights to express themselves, CEO Sundar Pichai said, but a now-fired engineer's 10-page document circulated inside the company violated its code of conduct, "advancing harmful gender stereotypes." Pichai's Monday note made public Tuesday didn't mention the…
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document's author, James Damore, reportedly fired Monday. "To suggest a group of our colleagues have traits that make them less biologically suited to that work is offensive," said Pichai. But he said employees, "especially those with a minority viewpoint," shouldn't be afraid of expressing their views and the company needs to find a way to debate issues without violating the code of conduct. Pichai said he was cutting a vacation short to discuss the issue. Contact information for Damore couldn't be found.