Google employee's shocking ordeal: Fired for watching protests for just 'four minutes'

Google layoffs: A report claimed that Google did not just fire protesting employees as some others who were merely watching the protests also lost their jobs.

Google layoffs: In April, Google fired 28 employees following protests against the company's cloud computing contract Project Nimbus. The dismissed employees staged sit-in protests at Google offices in California and New York over the project with Israel. Reportedly, some employees also Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian's office and were arrested.

Google layoffs: A man walks past a logo of Alphabet Inc's Google in front of an office building in Zurich, Switzerland. (Reuters)

Google fired employee for watching protests?

But a report claimed that Google did not just fire protesting employees as some others who were merely watching the protests also lost their jobs. A former Google employee told The Verge that he was fired just for witnessing the protest and talking to protestors for just "four minutes."

What employee said on his firing as per a report?

The employee had been working as an engineer at the company for three years and was fired after watching a protest in the company, he said as per the report. Although, he claimed that he was just seeing the scene during lunchtime on the 10th floor of Google's New York office. At the time, he saw about 20 people in matching T-shirts sitting on the floor as they protested. The employee said that he did not join the protestors but spoke to other employees who were distributing flyers.

The employee said that when he returned to his work desk, he talked to them for a couple of minutes.

"I chatted with them for maybe four minutes, like, ‘Oh my gosh, you’re still sitting here! How’s it going?'" he said. After that, he left for the day but received an email from Google in the evening informing him that he had been fired.