Google Fires 28 Employees Over Office Protest

Google confirmed the termination of 28 employees who participated in disruptive protests at the company's New York and Sunnyvale offices. 

This was disclosed in a memo addressed to all Google employees on Tuesday. In the memo, Google detailed the events and emphasized the company's stance on such behaviour.

According to the memo, the protesting employees "took over office spaces, defaced our property, and physically impeded the work of other Googlers." 

Google considers these actions "unacceptable" and a violation of its Code of Conduct and other workplace policies.

The company stated that those involved were placed under investigation, had their access to company systems revoked, and ultimately terminated after the investigation concluded. 

Google also emphasized that further investigations are ongoing and additional actions may be taken.

The memo reiterates Google's expectation for employees to adhere to established policies and warns against disruptive behaviour. 

It highlights the importance of a professional workplace environment and assures employees that such actions are taken seriously.

Google also anticipates further communication from leadership regarding workplace conduct and communication standards.

Read the memo below; 

Serious consequences for disruptive behavior

Googlers,

You may have seen reports of protests at some of our offices yesterday. Unfortunately, a number of employees brought the event into our buildings in New York and Sunnyvale. They took over office spaces, defaced our property, and physically impeded the work of other Googlers. Their behavior was unacceptable, extremely disruptive, and made coworkers feel threatened. We placed employees involved under investigation and cut their access to our systems. Those who refused to leave were arrested by law enforcement and removed from our offices.

Following investigation, today we terminated the employment of twenty-eight employees found to be involved. We will continue to investigate and take action as needed.

Behavior like this has no place in our workplace and we will not tolerate it. 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.

We are a place of business and every Googler is expected to read our policies and apply them to how they conduct themselves and communicate in our workplace. The overwhelming majority of our employees do the right thing. If you’re one of the few who are tempted to think we’re going to overlook conduct that violates our policies, think again. The company takes this extremely seriously, and we will continue to apply our longstanding policies to take action against disruptive behavior — up to and including termination.

You should expect to hear more from leaders about standards of behavior and discourse in the workplace.