Trump supporters are in the U.S. Capitol Police armored vehicle while others take over the steps of the Capitol on Wednesday, January 6, 2021, while Congress works to certify the votes of the electoral college.
Bill Clark | CQ-Roll Call, Inc. | Getty Images
GitHub, Microsoft’s code-sharing site for software developers, said on Sunday that the company’s head of human resources resigned after an investigation into the company’s dismissal of a Jewish employee found “significant errors of judgment and procedure” .
On January 8, GitHub fired one of its employees after he expressed concern for colleagues in Washington DC when a crowd of protesters supporting President Donald Trump invaded the U.S. Capitol. The dismissed official told TechCrunch in an interview published on Friday that he made a comment on Slack saying “be safe, bro, the Nazis are close by”.
Colleagues at GitHub raised concerns about why the company fired the employee immediately afterwards, according to a statement by director of operations Erica Brescia. After an independent investigation, the company found “significant errors of judgment and procedure” in relation to the employee’s dismissal, Brescia said.
“Our HR chief took personal responsibility and resigned from GitHub yesterday morning, Saturday, January 16,” Brescia said in a blog on Sunday. The company did not disclose the name of the head of human resources who resigned, but Carrie Olesen ranked first.
A supporter of President Donald Trump carries a Conferderate battle flag on the second floor of the U.S. Capitol, near the Senate entrance, after breaching security defenses in Washington, January 6, 2021.
Mike Theiler | Reuters
A company spokesman was not available for comment. Brescia said that GitHub “immediately reversed” its decision to separate from the employee “and is in communication with its representative”.
“We want to say publicly to the employee: we sincerely apologize,” said Brescia.
The company’s CEO, Nat Friedman, acknowledged in the post that the violent crowd includes “white Nazis and supremacists”.
On Wednesday, FBI spokeswoman Christina Pullen said in a statement that a man who was photographed in the riot wearing a “Camp Auschwitz” shirt was arrested, NBC News reported. A rioter photographed carrying a Confederate battle flag in the corridors of the Capitol was also arrested the following day.
“Employees are free to express concerns about Nazis, anti-Semitism, white supremacy or any other form of discrimination or harassment in internal discussions,” said Friedman in a statement.