UPDATED 21:31 EDT / JANUARY 18 2021

POLICY

GitHub head of HR resigns after Jewish employee was fired for warning about Nazis among Capitol mob

Following the unnecessary firing of an employee over a comment about Nazis being among the people that invaded the U.S. Capitol this month, GitHub Inc. announced today that the head of human resources has “taken accountability” and resigned.

The reason the employee in question was fired was a message he sent to his coworkers regarding who was in the mob that stormed the Capitol. “Stay safe homies, Nazis are about,” read the message. Soon after, the employee had his employment terminated. Another employee had taken offense to the remark, which after consideration was a statement deemed “not conducive to company policy.”

After an outcry from fellow employees, GitHub investigated the matter and said it revealed “significant errors of judgment and procedure.” As a result, over the weekend the HR boss resigned, while GitHub apologized to the employee and offered him his job back.

“It was appalling last week to watch a violent mob, including Nazis and white supremacists, attack the U.S. Capitol,” Chief Executive Nat Friedman said in a statement. “That these hateful ideologies were able to reach the sacred seat of our democratic republic in 2021 is sickening. The views that propelled this attack are morally abhorrent to me personally, and, I know, to our entire leadership team and company.”

The employee, who wished to remain anonymous, told TechCrunch that when he made the comment, he had been concerned about his co-worker’s safety. In the interview he expressed doubts as to the company’s sincerity regarding its dedication to diversity, adding that he’d be “open to some form of reconciliation” but didn’t want his old job back.

“Employees are free to express concerns about Nazis, antisemitism, white supremacy or any other form of discrimination or harassment in internal discussions,” Friedman continued in his statement. “We expect all employees to be respectful, professional, and follow GitHub policies on discrimination and harassment.”

GitHub is an open-source software development platform that was acquired by Microsoft Corp. in 2018 for $7.5 billion. At the time, Microsoft was one of its biggest customers, along with Apple Inc., Facebook Inc., Google Inc., IBM Corp. The company has more than 50 million users.

Photo: Othree/Flickr

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