Google worker says he was sacked for liberal views

Google logo
Google has been criticised for its lack of diversity among its workforce Credit: AP

A former Google engineer has claimed he was fired for fighting against racism and sexism, in the latest controversy to hit the technology giant about its workplace culture. 

Tim Chevalier, who worked for Google for two years, claims he was let go for speaking out against discrimination because Google only lets employees "who represent the majority" speak. 

Mr Chevalier is now suing the tech giant for discrimination and illegal dismissal. In files submitted to a court in San Francisco, he claimed that Google made it easy for employees to criticise under-represented minorities "who shared perspectives not held by their overwhelmingly white, male, cisgender peers".

It is the latest accusation to hit the company, which was engulfed in a sexism storm last year when it was forced to fire an employee who published an "anti-diversity" memo.

Mr Chevalier claimed that he was let go after spending much of his time sending emails and responding to internal posts discriminating ethnic, sexual and gender minorities, in a company where women were regularly discriminated against.  The sensational allegations portray a workplace where employees frequently questioned the engineering and leadership competence of racial minorities and women.

Google strongly encourages workers to use messaging systems to communicate and build up networks outside of their teams. This includes posting on Google+ and sending questions on Dory, a virtual leaderboard in which questions are upvoted or downvoted by employees to give some more visibility than others. 

James Damore
Former Google employee James Damore

In May 2016, Chevalier claims an employee posted a question to Dory: "If we have fewer black and Latin people here, doesn't that mean they’re not as good?” A number of replies to the post suggested that by encouraging the hiring of underrepresented minorities, Google was lowering the qualifications, he added. 

By September 2017, Google was already battling claims about gender discrimination, but the issue came to a head when an internal memo that suggested women were less likely to be in technology or leadership roles due to their biological traits was leaked to the press.  The offending post, written by fired Google engineer James Damore, read: "Differences in distributions of traits between men and women may in part explain why we don't have 50 percent representation of women in tech and leadership".

In the files, which were submitted to court on Wednesday, Mr Chevalier said that the Damore furore was symptomatic of a widespread culture of discrimination across the company. But when attempted to change people's views he was on several occasions reminded that he was spending too much time on political issues, he said. He alleged that a manager warned him that political views "were okay but that you need to be a good engineer" and that he was repeatedly reminded that he had not been hired to write posts on Google+. 

Mr Chevalier was told he would lose his job in November 2017, after human resources opened an investigation into his work emails and correspondence and found that some of his political comments on posts shared over Dory, including one which he criticised Republicans for affiliating themselves with people carrying torches and yelling "you will not replace us" at a rally in Charlottesville Virginia, breached their policies. 

Another included a comment under a plea for Google executives to make a public statement saying "conservatives and Republicans are welcome" at Google, to which Mr Chevalier responded, "if Republicans don't feel comfortable with Google policies [they are] welcome to leave".

Last week the US National Labor Relations Board ruled that Google did not break the law when it fired Mr Damore after he tried to sue the company.  

"An important part of our culture is lively debate," a Google spokesman. "But like any workplace, that doesn't mean anything goes. All employees acknowledge our code of conduct and other workplace policies, under which promoting harmful stereotypes based on race or gender is prohibited.

"This is a very standard expectation that most employers have of their employees. The overwhelming majority of our employees communicate in a way that is consistent with our policies. But when an employee does not, it is something we must take seriously. We always make our decision without any regard to the employee’s political views."

License this content