Lentis/The Work Climate at Google

In August 2017, James Damore was fired from Google after authoring Google's Ideological Echo Chamber, a controversial memo criticizing diversity efforts made at the company. Damore and his co plaintiff, David Gudeman, have filed a class action lawsuit against Google for alleged discrimination against conservative white men. The lawsuit calls into question whether the claim that the tech giant discriminates against certain ideologies is founded, and the corporate culture at Google.

Open Discussion
Unlike many companies, Google actively encourages its employees to express themselves, discuss policies, and oppose decisions made by management. Google prides itself on openness, and has multiple forums and service available to foster discussion. Because Google encourages openness and sharing of controversial ideas, their decision to fire James Damore angered employees who saw it as a betrayal of the open-discourse culture. Google reasoned that Damore crossed a line with his memo "by advancing harmful gender stereotypes." Google was similarly criticized for its conditional support of openness in 2015 when Erica Baker, a then Google employee, published a spreadsheet online for her coworkers to compare salaries. Baker was reprimanded and denied a bonus for creating the spreadsheet. Google has been criticized for its selective allowance of openness and discussion.

Forced Arbitration
The company has also come under fire for their forced arbitration policies. Under these policies all Google employees must settle any legal disputes with the company through private arbitration rather than through civil court procedure. This policy was particularly at issue in cases of sexual misconduct in the workplace. In October 2018, The New York Times published an article about Andy Rubin's 2014 firing pursuant from an internal sexual misconduct investigation. The article also told a number of other stories about Google's handling of sexual misconduct cases. Soon after the article was published, a number of Google employees organized a walkout, demanding an end to forced arbitration in cases of sexual misconduct and discrimination. Over 20,000 employees participated in the November 2018 walkout prompting Google to give in to many of their demands. After continued pressure by employees the company in March 2019, the company eliminated all forced arbitration policies for current and future employees.

Google's Diversity Mission
Google is vocal about its commitment to diversity and inclusion, and was one of the first major tech companies to annually publish the race and gender breakdown of its workforce. Google also funds programs to increase interest in computer science and software engineering. In its 2019 diversity report, Google included the following statement on its commitment to diversity: ""Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. When we say we want to build for everyone, we mean everyone. To do that well, we need a workforce that’s more representative of the users we serve. Diversity, equity, and inclusion are business imperatives for Google. They improve outcomes for our employees, our products, and our users... We are committed to a set of goals to increase workforce representation and to create a more inclusive culture.""

Google's culture of promoting expression and opposition sometimes clashes with its commitment to diversity inclusion. Critics such as Damore argue that Google has selective commitment to diversity and inclusion, and that the company does not tolerate diversity of thought and opinion.

Corporate Spending
Google LLC, has engaged in political spending since 2006. Since then, its has been equal between parties each year. Since 2014, their average and total donations has been slightly higher for republican candidates. Looking at the spending habits of Alphabet Inc., Google's parent company, gives more insight into the political atmosphere of the company. In 2016 Alphabet Inc. was the 12th largest lobbying group and the 51st largest political donator. In 2018 the rankings were 8th and 45th respectively. Overall, the group donated $7,623,518 to political campaigns. Donations made by Alphabet Inc. associated PACs including Google LLC, have a near even split between democrats and republicans. However, donations from individuals associated with Alphabet Inc., which made up over two thirds of the group's total donations, skew heavily toward democrats. This suggests that while Google and Alphabet Inc. have diverse political interests that would encourage bi-partisan donations, Its leaders and employees definitely lean towards the left.