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Google employees push back after mishandled sexual harassment revelations

What started as a small planned protest against the company’s handling of a sexual misconduct case has expanded into a full-blown political awakening at Google. Employees who organized last week’s unexpectedly massive 20,000-person walkout at Google offices worldwide are now pushing company leadership to institute new policy changes and put in place better protections for employees.

The spark was the revelation that Android co-founder Andy Rubin was paid $90 million to leave the company in 2014, following a sexual assault allegation. Yet Google’s mishandling of the case is just the latest misstep from the search giant this year that has contributed to a widening gap of trust between executive leadership and employees. Protest organizers say they now have a template to push for more change at Google going forward.

  • Russell Brandom

    Jan 24, 2019

    Russell Brandom

    Google’s legal stance could threaten walkout organizers, activists say

    Photo by Russell Brandom / The Verge

    Less than three months after a massive employee protest, Google is facing a new outcry from workers for advancing a controversial legal argument as part of a labor lawsuit. As first reported by Bloomberg, Google lawyers have argued against a crucial precedent allowing employees to use company email and other infrastructure to circulate petitions, as part of an ongoing dispute before the National Labor Relations Board.

    Google made the argument defending anti-harassment actions by management, and says the legal filing has been over-interpreted. “We’re not lobbying for changes to any rules,” the company said in a statement. “This was a legal defense that we included as one of many possible defenses in the response to a charge.”

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  • Adi Robertson

    Nov 12, 2018

    Adi Robertson

    eBay and Airbnb will end mandatory arbitration for sexual harassment claims

    Airbnb-stock-Dec2015-verge-04

    eBay and Airbnb will both allow sexual harassment victims to take their cases to court, rather than requiring private arbitration, the companies told BuzzFeed. They’re the latest companies to drop forced arbitration clauses for sexual misconduct, following Facebook and Google — which promised changes after a massive employee protest. Several other companies told BuzzFeed that they did not have such clauses, and two others — Slack and Tesla — declined to comment.

    Airbnb issued a detailed statement about the change, which applies to discrimination claims as well as sexual harassment. “We are a company who believes that in the 21st Century it is important to continually consider and reconsider the best ways to support our employees and strengthen our workplace. From the beginning, we have sought to build a culture of integrity and respect, and today’s changes are just one more step to drive belonging and integrity in our workplace,” it reads.

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  • Adi Robertson

    Nov 9, 2018

    Adi Robertson

    Facebook is ending forced arbitration for sexual harassment complaints

    Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

    Facebook will no longer force employees to settle sexual harassment claims in private arbitration, following a similar change at Google yesterday, according to The Wall Street Journal. Facebook reportedly announced the news to employees internally today, and vice president of people Lori Goler told the Journal that it wants to “be part of taking the next step” at “a pivotal moment” in the tech industry. It also announced an updated policy on dating among employees, requiring executives to disclose any romantic relationship with another employee, even if they aren’t overseeing that employee’s work.

    Several companies — including Microsoft, Uber, and Lyft — have dropped forced arbitration clauses from sexual harassment claims. But Google’s change was particularly high-profile because it was made after an estimated 20 percent of employees participated in a mass walkout protest last week. Arbitration was just one of the protesters’ demands, and their negotiations with Google remain ongoing.

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  • Nov 9, 2018

    Mar Hicks

    The long history behind the Google Walkout

    Photo by Russell Brandom / The Verge

    Last week, tens of thousands of Google employees around the globe a took part in a largely women-led walkout, organized in response to Google’s shielding and rewarding men who sexually harass their female co-workers. Protesters held signs that said “I reported and he got promoted,” “Worker’s Rights are Women’s Rights,” and “Time’s Up, Tech.”

    The seven main organizers wrote that they were demanding “an end to the sexual harassment, discrimination, and systemic racism that fuel this destructive culture” in tech. Among their demands were an end to forced arbitration that disadvantages women who are sexually harassed and pay transparency that would ensure that women and minorities do not continue to be underpaid and underpromoted relative to their white male peers. Yesterday, Google agreed to some of those demands — most notably, allowing arbitration to be optional in cases of sexual harassment — but others are still unaddressed.

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  • Adi Robertson

    Nov 8, 2018

    Adi Robertson

    Google announces new sexual assault and harassment rules after mass protest

    Googlers protesting corporate harassment policies earlier this month in New York City.
    Photo by Russell Brandom / The Verge

    Google is announcing new policies around sexual harassment and diversity, following a worldwide employee protest last week. The new policies reflect demands from the protestors, who met with Google leadership earlier this week. “We recognize that we have not always gotten everything right in the past and we are sincerely sorry for that. It’s clear we need to make some changes,” wrote CEO Sundar Pichai in an email to employees, which he posted publicly today. The organizers of the walkout, however, say that Google “ignored several of the core demands” they’d put forward.

    Pichai wrote that Google “will provide more transparency on how we handle concerns. We’ll give better support and care to the people who raise them. And we will double down on our commitment to be a representative, equitable, and respectful workplace.” He included a summary of the new policies; Google also released a file with more details about the policies, which meet some but not all of the original demands.

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  • Nick Statt

    Nov 3, 2018

    Nick Statt

    Over 20,000 Google employees participated in yesterday’s mass walkout

    Photo by Russell Brandom / The Verge

    More than 20,000 Google employees and contractors participated in the mass global walkout yesterday to protest the company’s handling of sexual harassment allegations against top executives, according to organizers of the protest who published a Medium post this evening. As of September 30th, 2018, Google had 94,372 full-time and contract employees worldwide, meaning more than 20 percent of the entire company participated in the walkout. The event was sparked by an investigation from The New York Times that revealed how Android co-founder Andy Rubin was paid $90 million upon his exit from the company after it learned of a sexual assault allegation against him.

    “We have the eyes of many companies looking at us,” Google employee Tanuja Gupta said in New York, according to the event organizers, who have assembled under the name Google Walkout for Real Change. “We’ve always been a vanguard company, so if we don’t lead the way, nobody else will.” According to the organizers, Google employees participated primarily from the company’s US offices, but also in I offices located in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Ireland, Japan, the Netherlands, Philippines, the UK, Singapore, Sweden, and Switzerland.

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  • Casey Newton

    Nov 2, 2018

    Casey Newton

    The Google walkout offers a playbook for successful corporate protests

    Googlers protesting corporate harassment policies earlier this month in New York City.
    Photo by Russell Brandom / The Verge

    Companies are not democracies. But companies born in democracies sometimes display their values, as when social networks cite the First Amendment in drafting their policies around content moderation.

    The act of protest is not not limited to democracies, of course. And yet there was something wonderfully democratic about today’s Google walkout, in which thousands of Googlers left their desks to demonstrate against their leadership’s problems with swiftly separating sexual harassers from the company. A large group of loosely connected people, moved to common action, came together to seek redress for their grievances.

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  • Adi Robertson

    Nov 1, 2018

    Adi Robertson

    Google organizers call for new harassment policies amid mass walkout

    Googlers protesting corporate harassment policies earlier this month in New York City.
    Photo by Russell Brandom / The Verge

    Hundreds of Google employees gathered in a New York park today to protest their employer’s handling of sexual harassment, part of a worldwide protest that included events in Dublin, London, Tokyo, Berlin, and several other cities. The employees are demanding that Google create a more transparent and effective process for handling sexual misconduct — and that it improve a culture that has allegedly fostered harassment and assault.

    The mass walkout followed an explosive report that Android co-founder Andy Rubin was given a $90 million severance package after allegedly sexually assaulting a fellow employee. “This walkout is the culmination of a fast, furious week and the work of more than 1,000 people,” said Claire Stapleton, one of the organizers, to a crowd in New York’s 14th Street Park, just blocks from the Google office. “I don’t know what it will take to change the system, but I do know that we are a crazy force to be reckoned with.”

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  • Sam Byford

    Nov 1, 2018

    Sam Byford

    Google employees worldwide are walking out today to protest handling of sexual misconduct

    Google Walkout (Twitter)

    Employees are walking out of Google offices worldwide in protest today as a storm around the company’s handling of sexual harassment cases continues to gather strength. Organizers of the Google Walkout for Real Change tell The New York Times that more than 1,500 employees, mostly women, are planning to walk out from more than 60 percent of Google’s offices at 11:10AM as timezones roll around the world.

    “We don’t want to feel that we’re unequal or we’re not respected anymore,” said Claire Stapleton, a YouTube product marketing manager, to the Times. “Google’s famous for its culture. But in reality we’re not even meeting the basics of respect, justice and fairness for every single person here.”

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  • Nick Statt

    Oct 30, 2018

    Nick Statt

    Alphabet executive named in NYT sexual misconduct exposé resigns

    Alphabet executive Rich DeVaul, pictured above, has left the company following accusations of sexual harassment published by The New York Times.
    Alphabet executive Rich DeVaul, pictured above, has left the company following accusations of sexual harassment published by The New York Times.
    Photo: Alphabet

    An executive at Google parent company Alphabet’s X division has resigned after being named in a high-profile New York Times investigation into the company’s mishandling of sexual harassment claims, according to Axios. The executive, Rich DeVaul, held the title of “Director of Rapid Evaluation and Mad Science” at X, formerly known as Google X and the division responsible for Alphabet’s experimental “moonshots” projects like self-driving car unit Waymo and the Google Glass wearable headset. He did not receive an exit package of any sort, Axios reports.

    The initial investigation primarily centered on Android co-founder Andy Rubin, who an employee accused of sexual assault in 2013. After Google investigated the claims and found them to be credible, Rubin left the company, but not before being awarded a $90 million exit package. Alphabet CEO Larry Page, who was aware of the allegations and the investigation’s findings, did not disclose publicly Rubin’s reason for leaving, saying in a statement at the time, “I want to wish Andy all the best with what’s next.”

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  • Chris Welch

    Oct 25, 2018

    Chris Welch

    Google says 48 people have been fired for sexual harassment in the last two years

    Google Hosts Its Annual I/O Developers Conference
    Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

    In an email to all Google employees following today’s New York Times exposé on Andy Rubin, CEO Sundar Pichai and Eileen Naughton — the company’s VP of people operations — said the story was “difficult to read.” “We are dead serious about making sure we provide a safe and inclusive workplace,” the pair wrote in a co-signed note. The email does not attempt to refute or discredit anything in The New York Times story, which said that in addition to Rubin, Google also protected two other men accused of sexual misconduct on their way out the door with generous exit packages.

    “We want to assure you that we review every single complaint about sexual harassment or inappropriate conduct, we investigate, and we take action.” According to Pichai, 48 employees have been fired over the last two years without any kind of exit package / severance payment; 13 of them were “senior managers or above.” He also lists off steps Google has taken — in the months and years after Rubin’s departure and $90 million windfall — that are meant to provide transparency and confidentiality.

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  • Chris Welch

    Oct 25, 2018

    Chris Welch

    Google reportedly paid Andy Rubin $90 million after he allegedly coerced sex from employee

    Asa Mathat

    A report from The New York Times today has revealed new, alarming details on the circumstances that surrounded Andy Rubin’s departure from Google in 2014. The man often referred to as “the father of Android,” who is currently the chief executive officer of Essential, was asked to resign from Google by Larry Page, according to the Times.

    The company had investigated sexual misconduct claims against Rubin, which revolved around an incident in which he allegedly coerced another Google employee into “performing oral sex in a hotel room in 2013.” Despite reportedly finding the claims credible — to the point that Page decided Rubin needed to go — Google gave him a $90 million exit package. The last $2 million of that agreement will be paid out next month.

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  • Sam Byford

    Nov 29, 2017

    Sam Byford

    Andy Rubin takes leave from Essential as probe into 'inappropriate' Google relationship goes public

    Andy Rubin

    Essential founder and CEO Andy Rubin has taken a leave of absence from his new company for “personal reasons” following a report on the circumstances of his 2014 departure from Google. According to The Information, Rubin left Google shortly after an investigation found that he had maintained an “inappropriate relationship” with a woman who worked under him and filed a complaint to HR. 

    The nature of that relationship isn’t detailed in the report, and Rubin’s spokesperson Mike Sitrick denies the connection. “Any relationship that Mr. Rubin had while at Google was consensual,” Sitrick tells The Information. “Mr. Rubin was never told by Google that he engaged in any misconduct while at Google and he did not, either while at Google or since.” Rubin is said to have told Essential employees of his leave of absence on Monday after The Information informed Sitrick of its story.

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