Apr 22, 2019 - Technology

Microsoft employee questions its diversity efforts

Microsoft made headlines last week after Quartz reported that some inside the company have been questioning the value of diversity efforts.

What's happening: In posts to an internal discussion forum, according to Quartz, a female program manager at Microsoft knocked the company for a policy she says "financially incentivizes discriminatory hiring practices," adding that she's referring to incentives given to senior management for hiring those who aren't Asian or white men.

  • "I have an ever-increasing file of white male Microsoft employees who have faced outright and overt discrimination because they had the misfortune of being born both white and male," she wrote in another post, per Quartz, which elected not to name the employee.

Why it matters: While most large tech companies work to boost the presence of female, black or Latinx employees, there are some who say this amounts to a different kind of discrimination.

  • This viewpoint was most notably voiced by Google's James Damore, who was fired after writing a memo in which he said women were less biologically suited to tech work. He has since filed suit against Google.

Go deeper: Google sets new boundaries for internal debate

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