The guardian
She charged with discrimination over pregnancy. Now she’s struggling with Google’s army of lawyers
Chelsey Glasson claims she was discriminated against while pregnant and saw others being treated the same way. Chelsey Glasson reported pregnancy discrimination to Google. Now they are taking her to court. Photo: Courtesy Chelsey Glasson When Chelsey Glasson found out in 2019 that she was pregnant with her second child, she did not expect the first three years of her new baby’s life to be overshadowed by an epic legal battle against a billion dollar company not. The 38-year-old sued Google, her former employer, in 2020, claiming she was discriminated against while pregnant and saw others being treated similarly, and received retaliation from her manager when she talked about it. Since then, Glasson has said that the fact that her case has been won has become almost a full-time job, setting her up against a company with a worldwide army of lawyers. Despite being represented by lawyers in Washington and supported in part by a nonprofit group, the American Association of University Women, she is making an effort to prepare for her upcoming trial this year. After her two children slept, she spent the night, discovering documents and preparing for processes like her recent deposition in March. The struggle affected her children’s lives almost as much as her own, she says. ‘Even though they do not know exactly what is going on, they know that mum is not all there. They know I’m not always with them, ” she said of her two- and four-year-old children. “It’s heartbreaking to see how it affects not only the person targeted by pregnancy discrimination, but the whole family.” Glasson’s case first gained notoriety after she published a widely shared internal note titled I’ll not return to Google after maternity leave, and Here is Why, which was eventually leaked to the public. Chelsey subsequently appointed an attorney and Google responded to a small portion of her claims, but said there were no examples of policy violations. Glasson subsequently lodged a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in September 2019. After little movement over an EEOC investigation, she filed a case in July 2020. While many companies are rapidly resolving lawsuits, Google continues to aggressively deny Chelsey’s claims. . Glasson says her situation underscores how much a worker will lose if he goes with one of the largest technology companies in the world. “What’s very clear is that Google does not act on discrimination,” Glasson said. ‘It’s largely because it’s a massive organization with huge resources at its disposal to fight someone like me. It’s not a fair fight at all. ‘ ‘Pregnancy discrimination doesn’t get more blatant than that’: where the allegations began, Glasson’s fight began in early 2018, after she said she heard a director at Google who criticized a pregnant employee, and learned that the employee received negative feedback about her performance review after the announcement of the pregnancy. In line with Google’s reporting guidelines, Glasson has filed a complaint with Human Resources alleging discrimination against her colleague during pregnancy. Shortly afterwards, she says, the director began to avenge her on the report and interrogated other people to replace Glasson in her role. Glasson said HR acknowledges the retaliation but refuses to stop it. She asked the company how to face her boss when the ongoing investigation strained their relationship, and was told several times to find a therapist. ‘If you’re a victim and you’re told to go to counseling, it’s incredibly offensive. It sends a message that you are crazy and that you are inventing it all, ‘she said. A few months later, Glasson herself became pregnant and says she decided to transfer teams to escape the ongoing retaliation and harassment. But she found that her new leader made negative comments about her pregnancy-related issues, denying her the managerial role in which she was appointed. If you’re a victim and you’re told to go to counseling, it’s incredibly offensive – it sends a message that you’re crazy and that you’ve invented it all Chelsey Glasson. Photo: Courtesy Chelsey Glasson Glasson says her new boss told her five months before her maternity leave was scheduled that she would not be given any management responsibilities while pregnant due to concerns that her upcoming maternity leave would ‘stress the team’ and “Shake the boat ”. “Pregnancy discrimination is no longer blatant, and yet they told me it was happening,” she said. Glasson also says her doctor eventually ordered her to take bed rest, but that her manager encouraged her to keep working. During the investigation and the persistent outburst with her driver, Glasson Lexapro, an antidepressant, was prescribed to deal with stress and was diagnosed by her obstetrician with ‘acute stress’. On January 7, 2019, Glasson had to go to the hospital for a life-threatening medical issue related to pregnancy, which she said was caused by stress and stayed there until she gave birth to her daughter on March 8, 2019. Days later, Google asked her to leave the company in exchange for three months of her base salary. “It was a very small amount,” she said of the payout. “Especially to be asked to leave the company without health insurance, as I came out of the hospital with a newborn in hand, after coming to the hospital for months and being cured by an emergency.” In August 2019, Glasson received an e-paragraph email in response to her complaint, which had been filed more than a year earlier, saying it had found no evidence of pregnancy discrimination. “Thank you for expressing your concern,” the email said. This reaction forced her to file the lawsuit. In response to a request for comment on Glasson’s allegations, Google said it was not commenting on current affairs, but that it took these allegations seriously. “Reporting misconduct requires courage and we want to provide care and support to people who are concerned,” a Google spokesman said. ‘All cases of inappropriate behavior reported to us are carefully investigated and we have simplified how employees can raise concerns and provide more transparency in the investigation process at Google. We work to be extremely transparent about how we handle complaints and the action we take. Veena Dubal, a labor law professor at UC Hastings who offers a course in discrimination on pregnancy, said it was extremely rare for a company like Google to take an employee to court over an issue like this. “It almost looks like they’re trying to make an example of her,” she said before emphasizing that men accused of Google for wrongdoing received much better treatment than Glasson. “If you look at the way men who are accused of sexual harassment are treated, and the way a woman who claims to have been subjected to pregnancy discrimination is such a horrific example of the role of misogyny and patriarchy in these technological ventures. is.” ‘It’s not a fair fight at all’ By the time Glasson first filed her complaint, attention had only grown to the poor working conditions in the technology industry – from white-collar workers to white-collar developers and warehouse workers. . In early April 2021, the National Labor Relations Board found that two Amazon employees had been unfairly fired in retaliation for criticizing discriminatory practices internally. In December 2020, Pinterest reached a $ 22 million settlement with a female former executive on pay discrimination. Previously, two former employees, Ifeoma Ozoma and Aerica Shimizu Banks, came forward with allegations that they were being retaliated against because they were pleading for fair pay. Google, meanwhile, has continued to face claims of discrimination and retaliation. Even in the midst of her own case, Glasson has taken global action over Google’s handling of sexual misconduct and other workplace issues. In December 2020, more than 1,200 Google employees signed a letter condemning the company for allegedly firing an ethics researcher in retaliation for her criticism of Google’s diversity programs. “At the time, I could not help but wonder, ‘It’s easy to show up for something like this, but what will my co-workers actually do when they hear what’s happening to me? ‘, She said. “As I learned later, most would do little or nothing.” Still, Glasson said numerous Googlers have reached out to her in the years since her case was first revealed in the online memo. The case will now go to court in December. “A lot of them tell me ‘I wish I had the courage to fight like you’, ‘she said. ‘It’s heartbreaking because they often have a lot of shame and there’s nothing to be ashamed of. It’s such a difficult road to fight, and it’s not right for every individual. “It really takes a big toll,” she added. “I do not want to wish it on anyone.”