Google CEO Sundar Pichai reminded his employees on Thursday that the tech giant will be "mission first" and not a place to "debate politics."
Following the firing of 28 employees on Wednesday, Pichai sent his employees a 1,200-word memo detailing "structural changes to improve velocity and execution across the company." Toward the end of the memo, the CEO took the opportunity to address the protests that occurred earlier in the week.
"But ultimately, we are a workplace and our policies and expectations are clear: this is a business, and not a place to act in a way that disrupts coworkers or makes them feel unsafe, to attempt to use the company as a personal platform, or to fight over disruptive issues or debate politics. This is too important a moment as a company for us to be distracted." Pichai wrote.
On Tuesday, dozens of Google employees conducted sit-ins and occupied offices in Seattle, Wash., New York City, and Sunnyvale, California, to protest the company’s $1.2 billion cloud contract with Israel. The activists for No Tech for Apartheid called for a "day of action" on April 16 demanding that Google "stop powering Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza." The group claims that the initiative, called Project Nimbus, supports the development of military technology used by the Israeli government.
Nine employees were arrested following the initial investigation.
Pichai’s statement follows a Wednesday memo from Google’s vice president of Global Security Chris Rackow advising employees to "think again" about testing Google’s commitment to employee conduct. "Their behavior was unacceptable, extremely disruptive, and made co-workers feel threatened. It clearly violates multiple policies that all employees must adhere to — including our code of conduct and policy on harassment, discrimination, retaliation, standards of conduct, and workplace concerns."
One of the fired employees, Emaan Haseem told reporters she doesn’t regret participating in the protest saying, "There was absolutely no way that I could continue working at Google without pushing these demands."
"They’re continuing to lie not just to their employees, but to the public and all tech workers," she said.
James Morley III ✉
James Morley III is a writer with more than two decades of experience in entertainment, travel, technology, and science and nature.
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