As much as a hundred Google U.S. employees concerned about cyber-bullying inside the company have organized into a group proposing new policies for conduct.
The whole motive was to stop inflammatory conversations and personal attacks on the forums and declare punishment for individuals who regularly derail discussions or leak conversations. The organizers expressed its concern and Google’s need to check the implementation of policies violated during discussions about race, gender, and other sensitive subjects.
The whole point in bringing forward a discussion is to share ideas but some ended badly like one engineer wrote last summer that women are biologically unsuited for technology jobs. James Damore, the engineer we are talking about, was fired for perpetuating stereotypes, sparking more heated conversations.
Matt Stone, a software engineer at Google who was on disability leave last year, said he returned in January to an “alien environment” in which protections for disabled and transgender individuals were up for debate.
“We’ve been taken under siege in a war we didn’t even know we’re in, a war we didn’t even want,” he said. “We want it to stop.”
Such cases have affected other employees as well who reveals to have reduced posting on internal forums in order to totally prevent being targeted It remains unclear whether the internal harassment debate has affected recruitment and retention of employees.
Fong-Jones said Google organizers nationwide have received leadership training and advice on media strategy and labor rights from online petition service Coworker.org, which has helped employees at Starbucks Corp and other companies lobby around workplace issues.
Self-described conservatives at Google, who often clash with the organizing group, have made their own proposals, including asking the company to clarify forum rules and protect employees from retaliation, according to a wrongful termination lawsuit Damore filed in January.
“The reaction to Damore’s memo was not for its opponents to engage in dialogue or reason with him, but rather to leak his memo, attack him personally, and work to get him threatened and fired — casually, unhesitatingly, maliciously,”
Dhillon said by email.