Dozens of Google employees fear retaliation for reporting workplace harassment despite the company's promise to overhaul its sexual misconduct policies and support those who come forward.
Retaliation Culture Continues At Google
According to former and current employees, Google continues to conceal rather than confront issues, including sexual harassment and workplace security, especially when high-ranking managers and high-risk projects are involved.
Recode has obtained previously-unpublished internal documents that detail how 45 employees were pushed out, demoted, or placed in less desirable projects after filing complaints with human resources. The majority of the retaliation claims were related to discrimination and harassment by managers or colleagues. Meanwhile, six employees who previously complained about sexual harassment said they experienced retaliation for coming forward.
The other cases involved complaints about work culture, code reviews, and unethical workplace behavior.
The employees revealed that after raising their concerns internally to human resources or their managers, they faced indirect punishments such as getting negative performance reviews, being dropped from their projects, and demotion. The employees also said that the investigations often dragged for weeks, forcing them to continue working with their harassers.
Several complainants said that they faced mental health issues after experiencing retaliation.
In a statement to Recode, Google Vice President of People Operations Eileen Naughton defended how the company handles reports of harassment and misconduct.
"All instances of inappropriate conduct reported to us are investigated rigorously, and over the past year we have simplified how employees can raise concerns and provided more transparency into the investigations process at Google," said Naughton. "We work to be extremely transparent about how we handle complaints and the action we take."
Google Employees Stage Walkout Against Sexual Misconduct
In November, thousands of Google employees around the world walked out in protest of how the company handles sexual misconduct. The backlash was prompted by a report from The New York Times which revealed that Google paid millions of dollars to executives who were accused of sexual harassment.
In an e-mail sent to employees, CEO Sundar Pichai, apologized for the company's shortcomings and promised to make some changes on how claims of workplace misconduct are handled.
"We'll give better support and care to the people who raise them," the e-mail reads. " And we will double down on our commitment to be a representative, equitable, and respectful workplace."
