It’s a well known fact that google is a visionary company from the minimalist aesthetics of its iconic offices where cutting edge ideas have been born to the widely recognisable logo. It has always been more than just a tech giant, its a symbol of progress, a glimpse of a future in which intellect and humanism are intertwined even. In an age where corporate culture had become a sort of secular religion, Google would be considered a prophet, preaching the gospel of DEI, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion.
DEI was considered a part of the company’s soul so as to say, for several years, google had poured millions of dollars into things like training programs, hiring pipelines, quotas and internal initiatives.These actions were largely looked on by the public with admiration as if they were thinking “if anyone were to pull off making Corporate fairness real, it’d be google”.
Unfortunately for the public ideologies cannot be tested in times of prosperity, they are tested in times of crisis, and sadly when push came to shove and the tech industry was violently shaken, it was clear to see how vast the difference between Google’s beautiful speeches and the harsh reality actually was.
Google as the Flagship of Diversity Ideology
Google had positioned DEI as one of its cornerstones for close to a decade. Like clockwork every year a new Diversity Annual Report would appear neatly arranged tables filled with colourful charts and percentages that signalled their progress in hiring women, underrepresented groups and those from different cultural backgrounds.
The impression that most got from these reports was that Google was a company with a bright future. A place where equality was ingrained into its very culture, a place where one would not need to fight for equality.
But beautiful diagram and using pretty words can only get one so far. Tables and reports are not even a tenth of the work, for real change ideas need to be implemented, implemented carefully so as to not destroy the delicate mechanics on which the organisation is already built. This is usually when advocators of DEI have nothing to say, often choosing to drown out the uncomfortable realities with optimistic slogans about “everything good against everything bad.”
However the truth is, an ideal perfect image is just an illusion but that it is also stagnation. To actually get to the ideal perfect image they need to invest real actual resources, compromises and organisational flexibility not just symbolic ones.
Google wanted desperately to be seen as the perfect version of society but without putting in the work it was only a matter of time until the cracks started showing.
The Moment of Collision: When the Economy Says “No”
2022 to 2023 became well known as a time of reckoning for Big Tech. Severe crisis which was followed by mass layoff, revenue decline, and forced restructuring, hit every company, Google not being an exception.
Once seen as an untouchable titan, Google too, faltered, and not by a bit but significantly. Google not only announced its largest layoffs in its history it also decided that then was when it’s perfect ideology collided with reality.
The first budgets that were cut were, DEI ones. Some divisions were even closed for good, others reduced by half. The training programmed paused and several DEI initiatives quietly written off as low priority.I
It happened so quiet and quickly, it was almost invisible to the average person, though the symbolism was almost impossible to ignore. Google was removing a delicate, expensive heirloom from the shelf, one that no longer fit into the interior of a crisis-stricken economy.
The irony? DEI was introduced as a way to help the company in adapting new social expectations, however in reality in ended up becoming an excess, the first thing to be sacrificed.
Meritocracy vs Quotas: A Crack Within the System Itself
Google has for decades cultivated this image of being a company in which everything was mainly determined by talent. Only the best of the best were able to get through the infamous gruelling multi-stage interviews, by showcasing things like unconventional thinking and engineering fearlessness.
But as the DEI agenda picked up speed, the internal section process seemed to produce a new more questionable metric; belonging to certain social groups. It was seen as a curious innovation in the world of recruitment, courtesy of Google.
Employees began slowly noticing a shift between skills and quotas:
-Managers were fearing on hiring the “wrong” candidate
-Promotions depending on not only competence but also on diversity metrics
-Engineers not being taken as seriously if they did not match the “expected profile.”
The James Damore scandal became a turning point.He wasn’t a hero or a villain, he was simply a symptom. A symptom of two opposing systems colliding, the meritocratic and the ideological.
Google very publicly and swiftly dismissed him, however with him went the possibility of open discussion about the situation at hand, they did this especially since the situation at hand had become politically inconvenient.
The Core Problem of DEI: What Cannot Be Measured Cannot Be Improved
KPIs are known to be how corporations live, in essence everything must be measurable, predictable and accountable.
However DEI does not lend itself kindly to metrics.
Decades or research had shown us that traditional diversity training has rather weak long-term effects;
-does little to reliably change behaviour
-does not reduce bias
-sometimes even produces rebound effects.
At the same time the upkeep of the DEI department costs Google tens of millions annually.
More so, when the budgets were actually cut nothing critical happened. Productivity did not fall, process continued as per usual, hiring even stabilised. The ease at which the entire departments related to DEI were dismantled only went to reinforce an unspoken truth, these initiatives contributed little to performance.
It was a telling moment; DEI was not a foundation — it was an ornament, beautiful on slides but weak in practice.
When Reality Breaks an Ideology
Still, google didn’t want to completely abandon diversity, and so it did not.
However, it did abandon the more idealistic version of DEI, the one that demanded too much, too fast, too expensively .
This situation showed us what happens when ideology attempts to bend the mechanics of a large corporation to its will.
While an idea can be noble, it becomes a burden once it stops being transformative by disrupting essentially processes, creating internal conflict and demanding resources that do not exist.
Conclusion: DEI Is a Tool, Not a Religion
This story however is not one of DEI’s failure but of Google’s adaptation, a story that shows that any ideology when confronted with reality must be able to remain flexible.
Many lessons can be taken from this case:
- While diversity is valuable it cannot be built on coercion
- equality of opportunity works — equality of outcomes will never be sustainable
- Corporate culture is like a living organism it cannot be reengineered by decree
- Economics ultimately decides if an ideal will survive a storm
While Google wished to create an ideal corporation where everyone would be equal and heard, even giants must obey the laws of gravity.
DEI will remain but not as a sacred doctrine but rather what it was always meant to be, a tool, not a dogma.