In a world where socio-political issues are increasingly divisive, saying something you think is wrong about gender identity or the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can result in you becoming a victim of cancel culture or getting fired from your job. There is sex.
Now, Google CEO Sundar Pichai has weighed in on the debate over the relative value of political expression and workplace coexistence by ordering employees to leave their political opinions at home. There is.
A day after the tech giant fired 28 employees who took part in a sit-in protest against its cloud contract with Israel, Pichai said in a company blog post that the office “does not fight over disruptive issues or discuss politics.” ” warned employees that this was not the place.
Pichai didn’t specifically mention the protests or the Israel-Hamas war, but said the $1.92 trillion company is “a business, and we don’t want to disrupt, make our colleagues feel unsafe, or take advantage of them.” This is not the place for such behavior.” The company as a personal platform. ”
“We have an obligation to be an objective and trusted information provider serving all of our users around the world,” Pichai continued.
“When we go to work, our goal is to organize the world’s information and make it accessible and usable to people around the world. We hope that our actions will reflect this.”
luck We have reached out to Google for comment.
“Google Employees Against Genocide”
Last week, employees at Google’s offices in New York City, Seattle, and Sunnyvale, Calif., staged a nearly 10-hour sit-in to protest the company’s involvement in Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion Israeli government cloud contract. Ta.
Staff members wearing T-shirts with the slogan “Googlers against genocide” were also seen occupying the office of Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian.
In the aftermath, Google’s head of security, Chris Rakow, said in an internal memo that the protests “made our colleagues feel threatened” and warned those who might try to violate the company’s policies in the future. He warned them to reconsider.
“We continue to enforce our long-standing policy of taking action against disruptive behavior, including through termination,” Rakow warned.
28 ‘disruptive’ employees fired by Google (including 9 arrested for refusing to quit) belong to ‘No Tech For Aparttheid’, which has criticized Google’s response to the Israel-Hamas war are doing.
“Sundar Pichai and Thomas Kurian are genocidal profiteers,” the group leading the protests wrote in a press release.
“Thanks to their technology, we know how they are able to survive at night, despite the fact that 100,000 Palestinians have been killed, missing, injured, and counting, in Israel’s massacres over the past six months. We don’t understand how you can sleep.”
Changing the culture of technology
Tech companies have long been known for progressive corporate cultures that welcome napping and abortion benefits.
Pichai also said in the memo that Google has enjoyed a “culture of vibrant, open discussion that allows us to build great products and turn great ideas into action.”
But what was once a driver of innovation is now a source of significant tension across many companies.
Thanks to social media, it is no longer fashionable to agree to disagree, and entire labor groups fear being canceled or labeled as snowflakes.
As a result, bosses are increasingly choosing to ban political talk in the office altogether.
In 2020, Silicon Valley-based cryptocurrency company Coinbase announced that it would no longer allow discussion of politics or social issues in the workplace, and that staff who didn’t like it would be free to leave.
Meanwhile, when Meta introduced its Community Engagement Expectations (CEE) policy at the end of 2022, it took all controversial topics, including gun rights and vaccines, off the office table.
“While this comes with the tradeoff of not allowing any kind of expression in the workplace, we believe this is the right thing to do for the long-term health of our internal community,” said Lori. Gawler says.View what leaders at the time wrote in internal memos luck.
