The golden age for tech workers, which started in 2010, is seemingly over—and bringing your sandals, cargo pants, and personal beliefs to work is no longer a given.
Just last week, Alphabet’s Google fired 28 workers, nine of whom were arrested for engaging in a sit-in to protest a $1.2 billion joint contract with Amazon for the Israeli government. Known as Project Nimbus, the deal to provide AI and cloud services to Israel has become increasingly polarizing as its aggression in Gaza has escalated to what one UN expert denounced as genocide. Israel began its campaign in Gaza after the events on October 7, 2023, when a Hamas-led militant group attacked several Israeli bases and civilian communities, capturing hundreds of people and killing over 1,100 Israelis.
On April 18, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai penned a blog post warning staff not to “use the company as a personal platform, or to fight over disruptive issues or debate politics.”
After Google announced it had fired several employees who engaged in the sit-in protest, a handful of those employees spoke at a press conference Monday about their experiences. They shared feelings of dejection, saying the directive to work on this project was ethical, and expressed they would keep fighting until Project Nimbus is stopped. One former employee, who remained anonymous to protect his identity while looking for new jobs, opened up about how this changed his views of what America actually values as a nation. As a Palestinian-American with family in Gaza, Oreo (not his real name) explains how the shakedown and his subsequent firing changed his idea of inclusivity in the workplace.
“I’ve just come to learn that our opinions at the workplace can come back and hurt us, despite the mantras that we hear like, ‘Bring your whole self to work,’ and ‘Company X or Company Y values debate and diversity,’” he said.
Oreo claimed he never participated in the sit-ins that were at issue in the firings. He said he briefly went into the building to meet the protesters and take a group photo, and he “left shortly after and never went back to the building.” He said he was “chanting peacefully” and holding a sign by a bush that was not near the walkways or offices where the actual protests took place, but even so, he said he received an email indicating his termination without any questions or avenue to explain his case.
“I’m not naive,” he said, noting he’s aware businesses need to be productive and show value to shareholders over their workforce at times. “It was totally okay if Google did not listen to me, or take action. I wish they did, but I didn’t expect them to. But to fire me for having a dissenting opinion was not my idea of what the American workplace should be, let alone what the company motto of ‘Do no evil’ should be,” he said, a reference to the company’s former unofficial motto.
A new statement from the organizer of protests, No Tech for Apartheid, claims an additional 20 Google employees have been fired, which brings the total of Google workers that have been let go to around 50.
Fortune reached out to Google, which provided the following statement:
“As we indicated, we continued our investigation into the physical disruption inside our buildings on April 16, looking at additional details provided by coworkers who were physically disrupted, as well as those employees who took longer to identify because their identity was partly concealed–like by wearing a mask without their badge–while engaged in the disruption. Our investigation into these events is now concluded, and we have terminated the employment of additional employees who were found to have been directly involved in disruptive activity. To reiterate, every single one of those whose employment was terminated was personally and definitively involved in disruptive activity inside our buildings. We carefully confirmed and reconfirmed this.”
Google also referred Fortune to its previous statements, claiming “the protests were part of a longstanding campaign by a group of organizations and people who largely don’t work at Google,” and that the participants disrupted other employees’ work. The company also claims Project Nimbus isn’t “directed at highly sensitive, classified, or military workloads relevant to weapons or intelligence services.” No Tech for Apartheid has refuted these statements.
Nevertheless, several of the fired Google employees felt as though the rug was pulled out from under them. Oreo described feeling as if Google led him to believe it was a company that encouraged open dialogue.
“I guess I was encouraged to express my opinion at Google, after seeing many executives at Google, including Sundar himself, passionately express their opinion and emotions at work on Oct. 7,” he said. “As they should, because peaceful expression of opinion is at the essence of what America stands for, and what Google promised it would stand for.”
Oreo expressed this perceived openness led him to feel safer about speaking out and says he “followed their lead,” adding he hopes this is an exception to what he and his fellow Americans should expect from the company. He also explained how the firings at Google affected not just his employment status, but his idea of America as a nation.
“This incident hit me harder than most,” he said, explaining that as a Middle Eastern immigrant, he “always aspired, even as a child, to escape the tyranny and the one-man shows of the Middle East and to start a life in the United States, the ultimate haven for those who want to work hard and seek freedom and equality. “But I was in for a reality check.”