“This is a workplace and not…” Sundar Pichai’s strict message to Google employees

sundar pichai google

The last two days have been rather eventful for Google employees. First, nine employees were arrested for staging sit-in protests against the company working closely with Israel. A day later, 28 employees were fired in connection to the protests, which was followed by a rather stern message sent to employees. Now, Google CEO Sundar Pichai has weighed in with his thoughts. In a blog post, Pichai said how employees also need to be more focused “in how we work, collaborate, discuss and even disagree.”

He said that Google has a culture of vibrant, open discussion “that enables us to create amazing products and turn great ideas into action,” and it is important to preserve that. However, he added that “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.”
Pichai’s message comes a day after Chris Rackow, head of security, Google sent a stern message to employees. Rackow said that every employee should know how to conduct themselves in a workplace and that the overwhelming majority of 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,” he said in a stern warning to all employees.
The Google CEO said that Google employees must be objective and remain a trusted provider of information that serves its users globally. “When we come to work, our goal is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. That supersedes everything else and I expect us to act with a focus that reflects that,” Pichai told employees in the memo.

Also read: Google fires 28 workers protesting over contract with Israel, issues stern warning to employees