It’s no secret that Google has some serious internal issues with systemic racism and sexism, but now it emerges that when employees report incidents of discrimination in the workplace to HR, they are often confronted with this staggering response: Get therapy.
That’s according to nearly a dozen current and former Google employees they spoke to NBC News, including two prominent black women, Timnit Gebru and April Curley, whose shadows condemned Google last year.
Gebru, who previously led Google’s ethical artificial intelligence team, claims she was fired after criticizing the company’s diversity protocols and management’s efforts to censor criticism of Google’s products. Before she left, Gebru told NBC that she had repeatedly expressed concern about how women are being abused at Google. But when human resource specialists responded to her complaints, they simply encouraged her to seek resources for mental health.
“It looks like, ‘Well, if there’s something wrong with you, then all these therapy resources,’ Gebru said. ‘And I would answer that no amount of support system will get rid of Google’s hostile work environment. I have friends. I’m going to dance. I already have hobbies and therapy. ”
Curley was quietly fired from her role as diversity recruiter in September. A Twitter thread publicizing her revelation and exposing her experience of blatant racism throughout Google’s corporate culture later went viral. During her six years there, she said she reported two executives for allegedly abusing her and her team, and that they spoke out because they included a $ 20,000 reduction in 2019, as well as a formal warning about her performance. When she told HR about her concerns, instead of addressing her co-workers’ inappropriate behavior, they suggested she is taking medical leave to be prone to her mental health, according to NBC.
G / O Media can get a commission
Nine other current and former Google employees the store spoke to said they had similar experiences after reporting sexual harassment and racist remarks to HR. They also received the same proposal – to take medical leave to address their mental health – when expressing concern about alleged retaliation or advocating for equal pay among Google’s white and black employees. Twelve other current and former employees of Google have confirmed to NBC that this is common practice at Google’s human resources department.
Of the workers who chose to take medical leave, several said they had returned to see that they had new managers or that they had been reassigned to other departments. As Google commits promotions and increases management performance ratings, these employees claim to have missed opportunities because their new managers did not know them long enough to adequately measure their performance.
A current employee who spoke to NBC about the condition of anonymity said she reported to a manager who expressed her concern about Google’s failure to address widespread racial differences in the workplace. When the employee, a black woman, complained to HR, they suggested that she should coach the manager about where they went wrong, or take medical leave and get mental health treatment.
It felt diminished. I was not shocked because I had heard it before. “I watched as other leaders in the organization took these mental health leaves and then disappeared, ‘she said. “It was clear they were not going to take me seriously.”
Claire Stapleton, a former employee who organized an outing in 2018 to argue about how Google has handled allegations of sexual assault and harassment, said she was demoted to HR after the protest and was told to use techniques to improve her relationship with her manager. Their other proposal? You guessed it: to ttakes 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 was committed to supporting its employees who come forward about workplace abuse:
‘We have a well-defined process of caring for employees and we work to be extremely transparent about handling complaints. All concerns reported to us are carefully investigated and we take action against employees who violate our policies. ”
Google declined to comment on several allegations in the NBC report, but said the company offers a variety of ways to worry employees and that it is investigating all retaliatory reports.
“If an employee wants to investigate leave or a job, Google’s Benefits team will work with the individual on the next steps,” a company spokesman said.
Google crashed hundreds of millions of dollars has made diversity efforts over the years. But so far the results have been sad by the company diversity reports. (In all honesty, its competitors in Silicon Valley did not get too hot or). Between 2019 and 2020, the percentage of black rent at Google increased by less than 1%, while the percentage of rent in Latino and Native Americans actually declined. Last month, the company agreed to pay $ 3.8 million to resolve allegations of “systemic compensation and discrimination on hire” by more than 5,000 women and Asian engineers.
Google recently announced that it is introducing new procedures for dealing with sensitive employees’ exits and reviewing its diversity policies Axios. The decision comes after an internal investigation into Gebrus’ firing, the results of which Google did not want to disclose. However, based on these latest claims, Google has a lot of work to do. Can I suggest therapy? Maybe Google’s management can do it manifest some diversity policies with teeth.