It’s no secret that Google has some serious internal problems with systemic racism and sexism, but now it has come to the fore that when employees report incidents of discrimination in the workplace to HR, they are often faced with this baffling response: get therapy.
This is according to almost a dozen current and former Google employees who spoke to NBC News, including two prominent black women, Timnit Gebru and April Curley, whose bleak defeats last year yielded widespread condemnation from Google.
Gebru, who previously co-led Google’s Ethical Artificial Intelligence team, says she was fired after criticizing the company’s diversity protocols and management’s attempts to censor critical research on Google products. Before her departure, Gebru told NBC that she has repeatedly raised concerns about how women were mistreated on Google. But when human resources experts responded to her complaints, they simply encouraged her to seek out mental health resources.
“They’re like, ‘Well, if there’s something wrong with you, here are all of these therapy resources,” Gebru told the channel. “And I would reply that no support system is going to 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 dismissed from her role as a diversity recruiter in September. ONE Twitter topic revealing his resignation and detailing his experience with blatant racism across Google’s corporate culture later went viral. During his six years there, she said she denounced two managers for allegedly mistreating her and her team and faced resistance for speaking out, which included a $ 20,000 cut in 2019, along with a formal warning about her job performance. When she told HR about her concerns, instead of addressing the inappropriate behavior of her co-workers, they suggested she took a sick leave to take care of your mental health, according to NBC.
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Nine other current employees and former Google employees the vehicle spoke with said they had similar experiences after reporting sexual harassment and racist comments to HR. They also received the same suggestion – taking sick leave to treat their mental health – when raising concerns about alleged retaliation or advocating for equal pay for white and black Google employees. Another 12 current employees and former Google employees confirmed to NBC that this is a common practice in Google’s human resources department.
Of the workers who opted for medical leave, several said they returned when they found out they had new managers or were transferred to other departments. Because Google associates promotions and increases with management performance reviews, these employees claimed that they missed opportunities because their new managers hadn’t known them long enough to properly assess their performance.
A current employee who spoke to NBC on condition of anonymity said she reported a manager who dismissed her concerns about Google’s failure to address widespread racial disparities in the workplace. When the employee, a black woman, complained to HR, they suggested that she advise the manager on where she went wrong or ask for sick leave for mental health treatment.
“It seemed derogatory. I was not in shock because I had heard it before. I had seen other leaders of the organization take these mental health licenses and then disappear, ”she told the media. “It was clear that they were not going to take me seriously.”
Claire Stapleton, a former employee who organized a strike in 2018 to protest the way Google handled allegations of assault and sexual harassment, she complained about being demoted after the protest to HR and was instructed to try mindfulness techniques to improve her relationship with her manager. Your other suggestion? You guessed it: for ttook sick leave to work on his 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 report abuse in the workplace:
“We have a well-defined process on how employees can raise concerns and we work to be extremely transparent about how we handle complaints. All concerns communicated to us are thoroughly investigated and we take firm 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 for employees to raise concerns and investigates all reports of retaliation.
“If an employee wants to obtain a license or accommodation at the workplace, the Google benefits team will work with the individual in the next steps,” a company spokesman told the vehicle.
Google spilled hundreds of millions of dollars diversity efforts over the years. But, so far, the results have been disappointing, considering the diversity reports. (In all fairness, your competitors in Silicon Valley I haven’t been very hot or). Between 2019 and 2020, the percentage of hires for blacks on Google increased by less than 1%, while the percentage of hires for Latinos and Native Americans decreased. Last month, the company agreed to pay $ 3.8 million to resolve the accusations of “systemic compensation and hiring discrimination” filed by more than 5,000 Asian women and engineers.
Google said recently that it is launching new procedures for handling confidential employee exits and reviewing its diversity policies, according to Axios. The decision came after an internal investigation into Gebru’s resignation, the results of which Google refused to disclose. Based on these latest claims, however, Google has a lot of work to do. Can I suggest therapy? Maybe then Google’s management can manifest some diversity policies with teeth.