Google CEO Says Fired Employee Violated Conduct, but Company Values Free Expression

Google "strongly" supports employees' rights to express themselves, CEO Sundar Pichai said, but a now-fired engineer's 10-page document circulated inside the company violated its code of conduct, "advancing harmful gender stereotypes." Pichai's Monday note made public Tuesday didn't mention the document's author, James Damore, reportedly fired Monday. "To suggest a group of our colleagues have traits that make them less biologically suited to that work is offensive," said Pichai. But he said employees, "especially those with a minority viewpoint," shouldn't be afraid of expressing their views and the company needs to find a way to debate issues without violating the code of conduct. Pichai said he was cutting a vacation short to discuss the issue. Contact information for Damore couldn't be found.