The head of human resources at GitHub resigned due to the dismissal by the company of a Jewish employee who warned his colleagues in Washington to be careful of the Nazis.
Microsoft’s platform – which software developers use to share and collaborate on code – said its head of human resources took “personal responsibility” for the flap and resigned on Saturday after an outside investigation found failures in the manner in which the termination was carried out.
The unidentified employee was melted down on January 8, two days after he sent a slack message urging colleagues in the DC area to be careful, while Trump supporters stormed the Chapter.
“Stay safe, the Nazis are close,” the staff wrote, according to TechCrunch.
Photographs from the Capitol riots showed insurgents wearing a variety of Nazi and white supremacist symbols. For example, authorities arrested Robert Keith Packer last week, a man from Virginia seen wearing a sweatshirt with the words “Auschwitz Camp,” an apparent reference to the notorious Nazi destruction camp.
Despite this, one of the staff colleagues complained about his message, and a human resources representative claimed in the dismissal that he showed a “pattern of behavior that is not favorable to the company’s policy,” he told TechCrunch.
The dismissal of the employee triggered an adverse reaction among many of his GitHub colleagues, who distributed a letter asking the company to denounce the Nazis and white supremacy, according to Business Insider.
GitHub ordered an independent investigation on January 11 that uncovered “significant errors of judgment and procedure” in this case, said Erica Brescia, chief operating officer, in a blog post Sunday.
“In light of these findings, we immediately reversed the separation decision with the employee and we are in communication with his representative,” she wrote. “We want to say publicly to the employee: we sincerely apologize.”
GitHub did not immediately respond to an email asking if staff had returned to work there.
Brescia did not identify the human resources executive who resigned as a result of the investigation, but Carrie Olesen was listed as responsible for human resources on the GitHub website earlier this month, according to an archived version of the website. Olesen’s name did not appear on the site on Monday morning.
Brescia also acknowledged that “Nazis and white supremacists” were part of the crowd that carried out the “terrible” attack on the Capitol, which left five people dead and forced parliamentarians to hide.
“Employees are free to express concerns about Nazism, anti-Semitism, white supremacy or any other form of discrimination or harassment in internal discussions,” the Bresica blog post said.
“We expect all employees to be respectful, professional and to abide by GitHub’s discrimination and harassment policies.”