HRER 836 Diversity Case Project
Group C: Rachel Fry, Sawyer Welham, Shelby Smith
CASE REVEAL
Progressive in nature, Google became one of the first tech companies to hold itself accountable for
it’s largely white or Asian, and decidedly male demographic; releasing a race and gender breakdown of its
workforce back in 2014. The transparency led way to strategic plans on how to create a more diverse
workforce. Efforts received backlash as the company has since been dragged into a series of incidents and
lawsuits, highlighting the company’s challenges in the midst of a global-social crisis (Wakabayashi, 2018).
The extent of demographic divisions within Google became apparent in July 2017 when James
Damore, a software engineer, wrote and internally circulated a 10-page memo titled "Google's Ideological
Echo Chamber," which openly criticized the company’s diversity programs (Wakabayashi, 2018). In his
opinion, biological differences, not a lack of opportunity, accounted for the shortage of women in
leadership and technical roles. On August 5th, 2017, Gizmodo published an abridged version of the antidiversity memo, omitting sources and graphs, which resulted in outcry and controversy across social media
and other public forums (Revesz, 2017).
On August 7th, shortly after Damore shared the Google memo through Google's internal mailing
list, Google remotely fired Damore for violation of the company’s Code of Conduct. In response, Damore
filed a lawsuit in January 2018, alongside fellow former employee David Gudeman, who also felt he had
been discriminated against (Robertson, 2018). The pair claimed that the company had “systematically
punished and terminated” them for their political beliefs; and therefore, sought class action status to
represent white male employees with conservative views who had been allegedly been discriminated
against (Robertson, 2018).
Damore also had filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board the same day he was
fired alleging that Google violated his right to participate in a protected activity (Tiku, 2018). Several days
later, a lawyer for the NLRB concluded that portions of Damore’s memo were not protected by labor law
due to its harmful, discriminatory, and disruptive nature, and so Google was within its rights to fire him. In a
memo, the lawyer wrote that workplaces should be free to "'nip in the bud' the kinds of employee conduct
that could lead to a 'hostile workplace’" (Tiku, 2018).
Due to the rejection, Damore and Gudeman have transitioned the class action to private
arbitration, which now also includes claimants Stephen McPherson and Michael Burns, who were both job
applicants and claim they were denied offers as conservative white men. Google continues to dispute the
assertion that “conservative” employees can be considered a protected class (Robertson, 2018). The
decision on this case is still pending a final verdict.
Since Google’s initial class-action lawsuit, the organization has reevaluated and revamped its hiring
practices and culture in hopes of creating a more inclusive and diverse environment. In an attempt to right
its wrongs, it seems Google may have overcorrected and instead created a “reverse discrimination”
scenario which has unintentionally isolated specific “majority” groups, which flipped the typical pay gap
narrative on its head. In the case of Damore, Google once again had to return to the drawing board and
determine how to mitigate a seemingly reoccurring issue. This has also opened Google eyes to pay
inequalities as well. During a Google pay study, it was found the organization underpaid men for some jobs,
uncovering deeper structural issues that resulted in pay disparities between men and women. “To
standardize compensation between genders within the group, Google disbursed almost $10 million to more
than 10,000 employees,” (NPR, 2019). What’s more, “Google in 2014 began publishing diversity statistics
and vowed to hire more women, minorities, and LGBTQ workers. But Google didn’t include or reference
diversity statistics for age in its diversity report or even reference age. Incredibly, age remains invisible in
Google’s 2019 diversity report” (Forbes, 2019).
Google’s internal communications are known to elicit harassment for unpopular views and posts.
Lawsuits have surfaced from former employees claiming discrimination, hostile work environments, and
harassment. Damore is just one example. Last summer, Google rolled out new workplace policies and
guidelines for internal communication in response to employees who have pressed the company for
months to address their concerns over workplace harassment. This is the first of potentially many attempts
to internally rebuild familiar, trust-based interactions. “Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced the changes
in a company-wide email that stressed the company’s effort to maintain its open culture while enforcing
respectful communication among employees,” (Conger, 2018). This includes a clear and detailed list of
guidelines explaining appropriate posts and responses as well as Human Resources responses.
Nonetheless, Google has made some small progress in its attempts to formalize the way employees
communicate with each other and enforce talent acquisition practices that promote diversity. Results from
the 2018 annual diversity report show change, albeit very slow. “Google is 69.1 percent male and in the US
53.1 percent of the workforce is white, 36.3 percent is Asian, 3.6 percent is Latinx, 2.5 percent is black and
0.3 percent is Native American, meaning the percentage of women in Google's workforce, as well as the
representation of black and Latin individuals, saw hardly any change, increasing just 0.1 percentage point
over the year. Native American representation didn't change at all. The report shows that for every race,
there are fewer women than men. While three percent of its workforce identifies as black or black and
another race, only 1.2 percent of that category is women. For those identifying as Latinx—5.3 percent
overall—just 1.7 percent are women.” (Locklear, 2018). But for the first time, Google has included
intersectional data in its annual diversity report. Danielle Brown, Google's VP of diversity and inclusion
stated, "It helps us really highlight where we are and aren't making progress and ensuring that we don't
leave anyone behind. The data in this report shows that despite significant effort, and some pockets of
success, we need to do more to achieve our desired diversity and inclusion outcomes," showing Google is
aware of its areas for growth and working towards improvement (2018).
References
Barnes, Patricia. (July 20, 2019). Deja Vu: Google Settles Age Discrimination Lawsuit For $11 Million. Forbes.
Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/patriciagbarnes/2019/07/20/deja-vu-google-settlesage-discrimination-lawsuit-for-11-million/#dd4750271f1e
Brown, Danielle & Parker, Melonie. (2019). Google diversity annual report 2019. Google. Retrieved from
https://diversity.google/annual-report/
Conger, Kate. (June 27, 2018). Google Rolls Out New Internal Rules in an Effort to Fix its Culture. Gizmodo.
Retrieved from https://gizmodo.com/google-rolls-out-new-internal-rules-in-an-effort-to-fix1827157437
Locklear, Mallory. (June 15, 2018). Google is still very white and very male. Engadget. Retrieved from
https://www.engadget.com/2018/06/15/google-diversity-report/
Revesz, Rachael. (August, 2017). Google 'anti-diversity manifesto' sparks backlash among employees.
Retrieved from https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/google-anti-diversitymemo-manifesto-lgbt-gender-equality-backlash-a7879756.html
Robertson, A. (2018, October). James Damore is moving his lawsuit against Google out of court. Retrieved
from https://www.theverge.com/2018/10/17/17989804/james-damore-google-conservativewhite-male-discrimination-lawsuit-arbitration
Schwartz, Matthew. (March 5, 2019). Google Pay Study Finds It Underpaid Men For Some Jobs. NPR.
Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/2019/03/05/700288695/google-pay-study-finds-itsunderpaying-men-for-some-jobs.
Tiku, Natasha. (February, 2018). EX-GOOGLE EMPLOYEE CLAIMS WRONGFUL FIRING FOR CRITICIZING
JAMES DAMORE’S MEMO. Wired. Retrieved from https://www.wired.com/story/ex-googleemployee-claims-wrongful-firing-for-criticizing-james-damores-memo/
Purchase answer to see full
attachment