Google tries to corral its employees after ugly internal debates

The new rules are a marked departure from Google's unrestrained culture that, along with the workplaces of its Silicon Valley neighbors, was once held up as a model for corporate America

Google has long prided itself on a workplace culture in which employees are encouraged to speak their minds and engage in philosophical debates.

But now the company, stung by recent controversies, is trying to rein in its famously freewheeling employees. On Friday, Google issued new workplace guidelines that ordered its staff to refrain from insulting one another, from making misleading comments about the company and from “disrupting the workday to have a raging debate over politics or the latest news story.”
 

“Our primary responsibility is to do the work we’ve each been hired to do, not to spend working time