Google workers worldwide march in support of women.
Thousands of workers worldwide protest Google’s response to sexual misconduct
In a coordinated protest of what they say is a lax approach to sexual misconduct complaints, thousands of Google employees marched Thursday along the Embarcadero in San Francisco; at company headquarters in Mountain View; and as far afield as Hyderabad, India; Singapore; London; Tokyo; Toronto; and Dublin, Ireland.
The walkouts came in response to recent revelations of big payouts and light treatment given to company executives accused of bad behavior at the workplace. The most prominent case was the departure of Andy Rubin, creator of the Android mobile operating system. He left Google in 2014 following an investigation into a relationship with a female subordinate, the New York Times reported, and collected a payout of $90 million. (Rubin has disputed the reports, claiming “numerous inaccuracies” and “wild exaggerations about my compensation.”)
Hundreds of employees at Google’s San Francisco office walked out around 11 a.m. on Thursday, gathering at Harry Bridges Plaza outside the Ferry Building to call for an end to sexual harassment and pay inequity at the company.
Speakers shared stories of harassment that colleagues had submitted, and the crowd chanted “Women’s rights are worker’s rights” and “Equal pay for equal work.”
Cathay Bi, a product manager at Google who led the chants, said she
had experienced sexual harassment at the company.
“I did not feel safe talking about it,” Bi said. That feeling, she said, prompted her to participate in the walkout. She said she wanted to take a stand, despite fears of retaliation: “I said to myself last night that I hope I still have a career in Silicon Valley after this.”
Jenny Brown, an employee at Google, participated in the walkout in San Francisco. She held a sign: “I reported and he got promoted.”
Brown said she was sexually harassed by a superior at Google who was subsequently promoted twice.
“My performance (reviews) has been nothing but negatively impacted by it,” Brown said. She was heartened by the reaction to a New York Times report that detailed Google’s history with harassment complaints: “There’s a new community forming at Google and it’s good.”
In a demonstration of the company’s freewheeling culture, which is unusually tolerant of internal dissent, Google CEO Sundar Pichai has said he supports the walkouts.
“Employees have raised constructive ideas for how we can improve our policies and our processes going forward,” Pichai said in a statement. “We are taking in all their feedback so we can turn these ideas into action.”
Google has previously endorsed employee walkouts to protest government policies on immigration. But its approval of the Thursday walkout amounts to an unusual act of corporate self-criticism.
In Mountain View, hundreds of employees poured into the main courtyard at the Googleplex, the company’s headquarters campus.
“I think this was the $90 million straw that broke the camel’s back, to be honest,” said Google employee Ceily O’NeilHart, an organizer of the walkout in Mountain View, referring to Rubin’s reported payout. “But there are so many stories that we’ve heard for so long and it’s time for action and change, real change.”
O’Neil-Hart said the protesters were seeking an end to clauses in employment contracts that require arbitration for disputes related to sexual harassment; a commitment to pay equity; and an employee representative on the company’s board of directors.
More than 60 percent of Google offices had some workers participate, she said.
“We do feel heard,” she said. “And we look forward to seeing action.”
The walkouts began at 11 a.m. local time in Singapore and Tokyo and circled the globe, ending with the protests in San Francisco and Mountain View.