From the Google employee walkout in 2018. Photo: Stephen Lam/Reuters
The Google Walkout was infamous, potentially history making. 20,000 employees walked out of their offices worldwide at the same time. They were protesting Google’s misogynistic atmosphere. A New York Times article revealed that Google gave Andy Rubin $90 million after multiple credible complaints against him. He wasn’t alone. The company treated a number of other current and former Google employees very well, despite multiple sexual harassment and assault cases against them.
In the wake of the walkout, Google finally ended forced arbitration, allowing employees to sue their harassers. However, they didn’t fire anyone who engaged in past activity, they didn’t help empower workers, and employees still felt as though Google hadn’t done enough. They continued to push Google to be better.
Apparently, Google hasn’t been happy about that. Out of the seven organizers, two have come forward reporting retaliation. Their careers and well-being are at stake because they spoke up about a culture that rewards sexual assault and harassment. They may not be alone either.
In This Article:
Demotions and Role Changes
Google’s own employees protesting the company. Photo: James Martin/cnet
Claire Stapleton has worked for Google for 12 years. Two months after the protest, Google decided to demote her. She’d no longer be the marketing manager at YouTube, and she’d lose half of her direct reports. She knew the issue wasn’t because of her performance, but was instead retaliation for helping to organize the Google Walkout. So, she took her complaint to HR.
Things got worse.
“My manager started ignoring me, my work was given to other people, and I was told to go on medical leave, even though I’m not sick.”
– Claire Stapleton
Claire hired a lawyer, and that’s when the company started taking her complaints seriously. Google conducted an investigation, found her demotion was unjust, and reversed it. However, the damage was done to her career. Her employees, manager, and other employees at Google would not see her the same.
A dozen years at Google. However, all she had to do was speak up against sexual harassment and she almost saw those 12 years go down the drain.
Meredith Whittaker leads Google’s Open Research department. Earlier this month, Google abandoned their ill-fated external AI Ethics group. For an unknown reason, this put Whittaker’s job into question. Google told Meredith that she’d have to stop working on her work on AI ethics at AI Now Institute, a research center she co-founded at NYU. Her role at Google would be “changed dramatically.”
After a single protest, Google treated a woman who brought prestige to the company like a criminal. All because she believed the company should waste millions of dollars paying off sexual abusers.
In Their Own Words
Hi all,This was a hard email to write.
Google is retaliating against several organizers.
We are among them and here is what’s happening to us:
Meredith
Just after Google announced that it would disband its AI ethics council, I was informed my role would be changed dramatically. I’m told that to remain at the company I will have to abandon my work on AI ethics and the AI Now Institute, which I co-founded, and which has been doing rigorous and recognized work on these topics. I have worked on issues of AI ethics and bias for years, and am one of the people who helped shape the field looking at these problems. I have also taken risks to push for a more ethical Google, even when this is less profitable or convenient.
Claire
After five years as a high performer in YouTube Marketing (and almost twelve at Google), two months after the Walkout, I was told that I would be demoted, that I’d lose half my reports, and that a project that was approved was no longer on the table. I escalated to HR and to my VP, which made things significantly worse. My manager started ignoring me, my work was given to other people, and I was told to go on medical leave, even though I’m not sick. Only after I hired a lawyer and had her contact Google did management conduct an investigation and walked back my demotion, at least on paper. While my work has been restored, the environment remains hostile and I consider quitting nearly every day.
Our stories aren’t the only ones. Google has a culture of retaliation, which too often works to silence women, people of color, and gender minorities. Retaliation isn’t always obvious. It’s often confusing and drawn out, consisting of icy conversations, gaslighting, project cancellations, transition rejections, or demotions. Behavior that tells someone the problem isn’t that they stood up to the company, it’s that they’re not good enough and don’t belong.
During the Walkout, we collected 350 stories. Reading them, a sad pattern emerges: people who stand up and report discrimination, abuse, and unethical conduct are punished, sidelined, and pushed out. Perpetrators often go unimpeded, or are even rewarded (Andy, Amit, “I reported, he got promoted”).
By punishing those who resist discrimination, harassment, and unethical decision making. Google permits these behaviors. This harms people inside the company, and communities outside who bear the brunt of Google’s bad choices. If we want to stop discrimination, harassment, and unethical decision making, we need to end retaliation against the people who speak honestly about these problems.
We need to push back. Here are some next steps:
1. We will be hosting a Retaliation Town Hall to share our stories, and strategize. When: Friday, April 26, 11am PT/2pm ET. Add the event to your calendar here. [The message included an internal link to a livestream of the meeting.]
2. If you’ve been retaliated against, please share your story. (If you shared your story with the Walkout form, feel free to re-share and help keep everything in one place.) The more we share with each other, the easier it will be to push back. Add yours.
Sincerely,
Meredith, Claire
Next Steps
On Friday, Meredith and Claire will host a town hall meeting for anyone at Google. Here, employees can discuss retaliation they faced as a result of participating in the Google Walkout. They can be able to share their stories and discuss ways to prevent retaliation from spreading through Google. By working together, they can prevent Google from attacking them.
It’s clear Google wasn’t willing to do enough to end their culture of misogyny and sexual harassment. They tried to silence their largest internal critics. Instead, they gave them a rallying cry.