Why the Google Manifesto writer was fired

I read the Google manifesto.

This is why Google decided to fire him.

Google has been sued for gender pay discrepancy. Millions of dollars are at stake. So Google is doing their very best to show that they treat their female employees fairly. Google also has to consider their public image, since more than half of Google′s potential user base consists of women.

One Google employee wrote a piece implying that these new practices were the wrong thing to do, and that there were difference between men and women that make income inequality inevitable. This was posted as an memo on an internal Google network, ostensibly where only Google employees would be likely to read it.

Criticizing company policy where your coworkers can see it is often a fast-track to getting fired. This includes statements made on social media, statements made to journalists, and postings on company bulletin boards. This goes double for criticizing policy in front of clients and customers.

James Damore′s termination was not about ideology, it was about the bottom line. Although it is legal to fire a person for political beliefs, most employers are happy to hire Democrats, Republicans, independents, and people who don′t vote at all. Google weighed millions in possible lawsuits and bad PR against Damore′s contributions to the company. They decided that they were in no longer need of his services. If keeping a employee is going to cost a company millions more than what they pay him, they will likely find a reason to fire him.

Damore is a smart man. He knows how computers work. He would like us to believe that he is an expert on human biology and psychology. He probably knew how US corporations work. He had to have known that publishing this manifesto would get him both fired and famous. That was probably his plan all along.