It’s no secret that Google has some serious internal problems with systemic racism and sexism, but it has now emerged that when employees report incidents of discrimination in the HR workplace, they are often greeted with this puzzling response: receive therapy.
This is appropriate for nearly a dozen current and former Google employees who have spoken with NBC News, including two prominent black women, Timnit Gebru and April Curley, whose shady removals last year earned Google a widespread condemnation.
Gebru, who was the co-leader of Google’s Ethical Artificial Intelligence team, says she was fired after criticizing the company’s diversity protocols and trying to lead management to censor critical research into Google products. Before leaving, Gebru told NBC that he had repeatedly raised concerns about how women had been abused at Google. But when human resources specialists responded to her complaints, they simply encouraged her to seek mental health resources.
“They say, ‘Well, if there’s something wrong with you, here are all these therapy resources,'” Gebru told reporters. “And I would answer that no support system will get rid of Google’s hostile work environment. I have friends. I’m going to the dance. I already have hobbies and therapy. ”
Curley was quietly fired from her role as diversity recruiter in September. A On Twitter the revelation of his cessation and the detailing of his experience with the blatant racism in Google’s culture later went viral. In the six years since, said she reported two managers for abusing her and her team and faced a push to speak, which included a $ 20,000 pay cut in 2019, along with a warning officially on her work performance. When HR told HR about his concerns, instead of addressing the inappropriate behavior of his colleagues, they suggested take medical leave to take care of her mental health on NBC.
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Nine other current employees and former Google employees with whom the press spoke said they had similar experiences after reporting HR to sexual harassment resources and racist comments. They also received the same suggestion – to take sick leave to address their mental health – when expressing concern about alleged retaliation or advocating for equal pay among black and white Google employees. Another 12 current and former Google employees confirmed to NBC that this is a common practice in Google’s human resources department.
Of the workers who opted to take sick leave, several said they had returned to find out they had new managers or had been transferred to other departments. Because Google links promotions and grows to management performance reviews, these employees claimed they missed opportunities because their new managers didn’t know them long enough to properly assess their performance.
A current employee who spoke to NBC on condition of anonymity said he reported a manager who dismissed concerns about Google’s failure to address widespread racial disparities in the workplace. When the employee, a woman of color, complained to HR, they suggested either training the manager about where they went wrong or taking medical leave and receiving mental health treatment.
“It simply came to our notice then. I wasn’t shocked to hear it before. I watched other leaders in the organization take these mental health leaves and then disappear, “she told reporters. “It was clear they weren’t going to take me seriously.”
Claire Stapleton, a former employee who organized an release in 2018 to protest the way Google handled allegations of sexual assault and harassment, she said she complained that she was demoted after the HR protest and was told to try careful techniques to improve her relationship with her manager. Their other suggestion? You guessed it: to tyou have medical leave to work on her mental health.
Google did not immediately respond to Gizmodo’s request for comment. In a statement to NBC, the company said it is committed to supporting its employees who come to workplace abuse:
“We have a well-defined process for how employees can raise their concerns and we are working to be extremely transparent about how we handle complaints. All concerns reported to us are rigorously investigated and we take firm action against employees who violate our policies. ”
Google declined to comment on the NBC report, but said the company offers employees a number of ways to raise concerns and investigate all retaliation reports.
“If an employee wants to explore a leave of absence or have a job at work, the Google Benefits team will work with the individual on the next steps,” a company spokesman said.
Google poured hundreds of millions of dollars in diversity efforts over the years. But so far, the results have been sad, going by the company diversity reports. (Correctly, its Silicon Valley competitors I wasn’t too hot either). Between 2019 and 2020, the percentage of black employment at Google increased by less than 1%, while the percentage of Latin American and Native American employment actually decreased. Last month, the company agreed to pay $ 3.8 million to address allegations of “systemic compensation and employment discrimination” by more than 5,000 Asian women and engineers.
Google recently announced that it is launching new procedures for managing sensitive employee outflows and reviewing its diversity policies, according to Axios. The decision came after an internal investigation into Gebru’s shooting, the results of which Google declined to disclose. Based on these latest allegations, however, Google has a lot of work to do. Can I suggest therapy? Maybe then Google management can manifest some diversity policies with teeth.