Super-woke Google told #TimesUp by indignant employees
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Google’s cuddly corporate culture just got clobbered.
The super-woke tech giant is having its own #MeToo moment.
Thousands of Google employees around the planet walked out of the company’s offices as an act of defiance meant to protest its treatment of women and alleged mishandling of sexual misconduct.
About two dozen workers, some wearing company T-shirts beneath their jackets, left the tech giant’s Montreal office and at least 100 exited the company’s Toronto office just after 11 a.m.
Protesters in a low-tech consciousness-raising exercise read stories from anonymous employees bemoaning Google’s alleged rampant sexism and corporate fumbling on the file.
“Time’s up on sexual harassment, time’s up on abusive power and time’s up on systemic racism. We are here to say enough is enough,” said a Google employee at the Toronto walkout.
“I have had to hear about and watch so many people leave the company after experiencing mistreatment and harassment and have seen women unable to get a promotion until they wither and leave.”
And, in an act of solidarity, she would not reveal where the stories actually came from.
Workers from Dublin to Tokyo also took part in the walkout.
The exercise in armchair protesting came in the wake of a New York Times story that detailed allegations of sexual misconduct against a handful of Google employees including Android software creator Andy Rubin and Richard DeVaul, a director at Google’s X lab, which has worked on the self-driving car and Internet-beaming balloon projects.
The Times said Rubin — who denied the allegations in a tweet — received a $90-million severance package in 2014 after Google concluded the allegations against him were credible.
DeVaul resigned Tuesday without severance, Google said.
Google Canada spokesman Aaron Brindle said in an email that the company employs about 400 workers in Toronto and another 100 in Montreal, meaning roughly a quarter of each office walked out. He said those who participated in the walkout would not be penalized and noted that many senior leaders took part.
In several cities, employees refused to talk with media, but in Montreal, one man, who declined to give his name, citing job security, said, “The action speaks for itself.”
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