- Google fired 28 employees involved in protests over a $1.2 billion cloud deal with Israel.
- The company warned its employees that any disruptive behavior would not be tolerated.
- An employee was fired in March for interrupting an interview with a Google Israel executive to protest the contract.
Google has issued a warning to any employees considering participating in future sit-in protests at the company’s offices: “Think again.”
Google fired 28 employees Wednesday following protests within the office over the company’s $1.2 billion contract with Israel.
The company sent an internal memo Wednesday evening, reviewed by Business Insider, explaining its course of action and asking employees to rethink violating its policies during the protests.
“If you are one of the few people tempted to think that we will overlook behavior that violates our policies, think again,” Google said in the note. “The company takes this very seriously.”
Protests against Google’s Project Nimbus contract, which provides cloud computing services to the Israeli government and military, took place outside Google offices in New York, Sunnyvale and Seattle, as well as inside locations in New York and Sunnyvale, when a number of employees staged a sit-in.
Google has placed employees involved in the protests within its office under investigation and removed their access to its systems. Of that group, five were arrested in Sunnyvale and charged with trespassing, and four were arrested and charged with criminal trespassing in New York.
Google said in the memo that this behavior violated several policies, including its code of conduct and its policy on harassment, discrimination, retaliation, standards of conduct and workplace concerns.
“They invaded offices, defaced our property, and physically interfered with the work of other Googlers,” Google said in the internal memo. “Their behavior was unacceptable, extremely disruptive and made colleagues feel threatened.”
According to one of the employees arrested in New York, Hasan Ibraheem, 23, the demonstration began around noon on Tuesday. The group of employees sat in the office and sang and gave speeches every 15 to 20 minutes until about 6 p.m.
The group was asked to leave several times, but Ibraheem said at the time that he viewed the demands as “empty threats.” After losing access to the company’s systems and refusing to exit, police arrested the remaining group at 9:30 p.m.
Google said it would continue to investigate and take necessary action.
“Such behavior has no place in our workplace and we will not tolerate it,” Google said in the memo.
Google added that it would continue to use its policies to take action against disruptive behavior, which may include termination. The company also said employees should expect to hear more from leaders about behavioral standards and workplace discourse.
Google employees have made headlines in the past for organizing protests, ranging from walkouts to protest sexual abuse at the company to petitions urging Google CEO Sundar Pichai to stop providing from AI technologies to US military drones.
Most recently, Google fired an employee for disrupting a presentation in New York. by the head of the Google Israel company.
Read the full memo below:
Googlers,
You may have seen reports of protests at some of our offices yesterday. Unfortunately, a number of employees hosted the event in our New York and Sunnyvale buildings. They invaded offices, damaged our property, and physically obstructed the work of other Googlers. Their behavior was unacceptable, extremely disruptive and made colleagues feel threatened. We have placed the employees involved under investigation and cut off their access to our systems. Those who refused to leave were arrested by law enforcement and expelled from our offices.
After an investigation, we have today terminated twenty-eight employees involved. We will continue to investigate and take necessary action.
Such behavior has no place in our workplace and we will not tolerate it. This clearly violates several policies that all employees must adhere to, including our Code of Conduct and our Policy on Harassment, Discrimination, Retaliation, Standards of Conduct, and Workplace Concerns.
We are a place of business and every Googler is expected to read our policies and apply them to how they behave and communicate in our workplace. The overwhelming majority of our employees are doing the right thing. If you’re one of the few people who thinks we’ll overlook behavior that violates our policies, think again. The company takes this extremely seriously and we will continue to enforce our long-standing policies to take action against disruptive behavior – up to and including termination of employment.
You should expect to hear more from leaders about standards of behavior and discourse in the workplace.
Chris
businessinsider
