A federal agency has found that Google was well within its legal rights to fire James Damore in 2017.
The Interracial | Adult Movies Onlinecompany dismissed its former engineer after he wrote a paper arguing that woman aren't as biologically equipped for leadership roles as men. Damore filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board after his firing, but a newly released January memo from the agency sides with Google.
SEE ALSO: We need to change the way we talk about women in techAs NLRB legal counsel Jayme L. Sophir wrote on Jan. 16: "While much of [Damore's] memorandum was likely protected, the statements regarding biological differences between the sexes were so harmful, discriminatory, and disruptive as to be unprotected."
In the 10-page memo that first surfaced publicly in August 2017, Damore took issue with what he saw as a left-leaning "monoculture" at Google that left little room for public consideration of conservative viewpoints. That's where Sophir's reference to much of the memo being "protected" is relevant.
In Google's view, Damore crossed a line when he focused his writing on the biological differences between men and women. The NLRB letter acknowledges that he made an effort to "cloak" his more controversial points behind "'scientific' references and analysis" and "'not all women' disclaimers," but further notes that such hedging offers him no protection.
32_CA_205351_01_16_18_.pdf by mashablescribd on Scribd
Damore's "statements about immutable traits linked to sex—such as women’s heightened neuroticism and men’s prevalence at the top of the IQ distribution—were discriminatory and constituted sexual harassment," the letter reads.
The complaint might have gone differently if Google had been careless with the firing. But as Sophir's memo notes, Damore's boss and the human resources manager "prepared written talking points in advance" making it abundantly clear that his dismissal -- according to documentation Google provided -- was "based solely on the part of your post that generalizes and advances stereotypes about women versus men."
The NLRB letter also references a company-wide email sent out in the aftermath of Damore's dismissal that largely echoes the reasoning used to justify his firing. The agency ultimately recommended that the complaint be dismissed -- which it might have been, had it not been withdrawn in January.
We learned only recently that Damore is part of a class-action lawsuit alleging discrimination against white male conservatives in Google's hiring practices.
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