This issue with James Damore and Google's response did it. But there is more...
I've been a software developer for 30+ years and have experience just about every type of workplace environment. I'm male and Caucasian too. Though for some reason feel it’s unethical to state those facts. Like it lessens the value of my opinion because I am not a minority.
I've had the luck to work with start-ups and helped to define the culture there too. Working with as many diverse people as I have, yet always with mature intelligent adults leaves me wondering if large companies must move towards treating their employees like children. Is it that one bad employee causes a precedent and moves the entire organization to lower their expectations? I've worked with "bad" people and almost always there is an underlying reason for their behavior, a divorce, illness or even mental disease for example.
So with that background why is Google trending towards an ideological workplace? Why is mandatory diversity training required?
Having interviewed at Google and Apple and having worked at Intel for five years I see this enculturation, this requirement to shut up and sit down. To embrace the "brand". Of course a company is not a democracy, there was a saying at Intel when I tried to argue a point; I was told to "disagree and commit". A reasoning person doesn't do this. A child has to. I just listened to James Damore's interview with Jordan Peterson
Jordan Peterson & James Damore
Catch it before Google takes it down...
Mr. Damore's statements about "secret" diversity training. Where obviously racist teachings were expressed, really scares me. At Intel we were required to watch videos about bribes and other unscrupulous business practices. This training was as far from what I do for a living as selling shoes is. I felt bad that Intel's HR and upper management felt it had to waste my time and insult my intelligence every so often. A company cannot treat professionals as average or worse at the lowest of expectations.
The other reasons I can’t work for Google is the blind faith in a "code of conduct" bible. To further my fear of Google, below are links to Mr. Damore's "memo", the president's response to Mr. Damore's memo and then the new VP of Diversity's response to the memo.
Mr. Damore's memo
Sundar Pichai
Danielle Brown
First of all: "VP of Diversity, Integrity & Governance" WTF! Minister of Propaganda and National Enlightenment? Seriously the more abstract the title, the better chance to overstep your bounds for the company.
At Intel which had a large (50%) Indian workforce I saw how some men treated women. I observed men barking orders at female Indian engineers. The woman would suddenly pivot to attention as if their father had reprimanded them. And it was not just one man that did this. Modern western men (at least in my experience) do not do this.
At Intel there is a culture of affirmative action for females. My manager's manager was female and was so ensconced in the "Intel" way, you could not have a conversation without it turning to propaganda. Her ability to network in the complex maze of "getting stuff done" and "toe the line of Intel culture" was a tap dance I enjoyed watching. I was co-author on a paper presented by a female engineer I mentored for a while. This was presented at the Grace Hopper (Women in Computing) conference. I was not allowed to go, women only. Well, tacitly women only...
Perhaps with a company over a certain size demographers can start looking at the statistics. Then compare that to the population at large. This is a mistake, the population at large did not pass a rigorous interview process. They didn't even pick their parents.
One of my major responsibilities is to filter out employees that do not qualify for the position at hand. I've done innumerable interviews. I get to have my biases and hire people I get along with. I know I will enjoy my job more, the new hire will too. Do you play a musical instrument? This comes up all the time. Good software engineers tend to be musicians. Can you communicate? This is critical, it weeds out a lot of non-English speakers. Sadly I can't recall even interviewing a female candidate. Searching my soul I can't think of a reason not to prefer one.
Having been part of a team of incredibly non-PC alpha males doing incredibly high stress startup work, we needed to be a football team or a squad in the infantry. If anyone tries to moderate the culture, then they are not part of the team. I've seen what peak camaraderie does for productivity and creativity. You need to ride that roller coaster with your hands up in the air! Large companies must stifle such groups and will pay for it with mediocre innovation. I don't want to waste my time being "trained", nor do I want to just ride the kiddie coaster.
As I get older I am more interested in the idiosyncrasies of my fellow humans. The best potlucks were at companies with people from many different countries.
It is very hard finding good engineers. In my experience female resumes don't exist. I wish they did.
