Google fired 28 employees after anti-Israel protests at its California office Photo: X/Katejsim
Google CEO tells employees to leave their policies home in a rebuke to employees who opposed her work with the Israeli government.
Sundar Pichai said the office was not a place to «fight over disruptive issues or discuss politics» amid bitter divisions among employees.
The order marks a decisive departure from Google, which has long been seen as a beacon of Silicon Valley's collegial culture that encourages political debate.
Google once told employees to “bring their whole selves to work” and encouraged broad political discussions on its internal forums.
However, this policy has threatened to backfire in recent years as the company has been rocked by a string of employee protests over defense contracts and gender inequality.
On Wednesday, Google fired 28 employees who staged a walkout at the company's offices to protest its work for the Israeli government.
“[W]e need to be more focused on how we work, collaborate, discuss and even we disagree,” Mr. Pichai wrote in an email to employees.
“We have a culture of active and open discussion that allows us to create amazing products and bring great ideas to life. This is important to preserve. But at the end of the day, we are a workplace, and our policies and expectations are clear: this is a business, not a place where you can act in ways that disturb or make co-workers feel unsafe, try to use the company as a personal platform, or argue over for destructive problems or discuss politics.
“This is too important a moment for us to be distracted.”
“When we come to work, our goal is to organize the world's information and make it public and useful. It trumps everything else, and I expect us to act with that in mind.”