b*****d
发帖数: 61690 | 1 report that the company gave a lucrative exit package to a high-profile
executive accused of sexual harassment.
The tech giant is now facing pressure to take a tougher stand on harassment
and abuse in the workplace, in what could be a test of the #MeToo movement's
influence in male-dominated Silicon Valley.
The New York Times bombshell about Google's workplace culture also comes at
a difficult time for the internet search giant, which is already facing
controversy on a number of fronts.
The Times report revealed that Google had given Andy Rubin, the creator of
the Android mobile operating system, generous stock and exit benefits as it
pushed him out the door following an accusation that he coerced an employee
into performing oral sex in a hotel room in 2013.
In exchange for resigning, Google gave Rubin a $90 million severance package
, which paid him $2 million a month over four years. And the company
invested in the venture capital firm that Rubin started after his departure.
The report went on to paint a broad and troubling portrait of the company's
workplace, with other examples of Google allegedly protecting executives
facing accusations of misconduct and taking a lenient stance on high-level
executives having sexual relationships with employees.
Google’s general counsel, David Drummond, reportedly had a relationship
with an employee in the legal department and disclosed it to the company
only after they had a child together. Google transferred the employee to a
different department before she left the company. Drummond went on to be
promoted.
In another case, Richard DeVaul, an executive at Google X, invited a woman
he was interviewing for a job to Burning Man, where he tried to give her a
topless massage. The woman tried to resist his advances and ultimately
allowed him to give her a neck rub. She did not receive the job.
And, in what amounted to a mere footnote in the damaging story, the Times
reported that Eric Schmidt, who until last year was the executive chairman
of Google parent Alphabet and still holds a board seat, retained a mistress
as a consultant. Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page also both had
relationships with employees.
The report sent Google into damage control. It responded with an internal
company-wide memo assuring employees that Google takes workplace sexual
harassment seriously.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Eileen Naughton, the vice president of people
operations, said the company had made changes in recent years to crack down
on the issue.
“We are dead serious about making sure we provide a safe and inclusive
workplace,” they wrote. “We want to assure you that we review every single
complaint about sexual harassment or inappropriate conduct, we investigate
and we take action.
“In recent years, we’ve made a number of changes, including taking an
increasingly hard line on inappropriate conduct by people in positions of
authority," they added."[I]n the last two years, 48 people have been
terminated for sexual harassment, including 13 who were senior managers and
above. None of these individuals received an exit package.”
But it’s unlikely any of those people had the same stature as Rubin.
Rubin has pushed back on the Times’ story, claiming it "contains numerous
inaccuracies about my employment at Google and wild exaggerations about my
compensation,” in a statement on Twitter.
“Specifically, I never coerced a woman to have sex in a hotel room. These
false allegations are part of a smear campaign to disparage me during a
divorce and custody battle," he added. "Also, I am deeply troubled that
anonymous Google executives are commenting about my personnel file and
misrepresenting the facts.”
Mark Spund, who heads the employment law practice at Davidoff Hutcher &
Citron, said it is likely Google's board was aware of the payoffs to Rubin.
“Someone had to approve that package,” Spund told The Hill. “That was a
lot of money.”
Paying off the Android creator also likely ensured he would not go to work
for a competitor or sue for wrongful termination, which could have led to a
messy fight and invited public scrutiny of the company's workplace culture.
The Times report, though, has now put those issues squarely in the spotlight
, highlighting the issues of workplace discrimination and lack of gender
equality that many see as rampant in Silicon Valley.
"News like the @nytimes report on @google's handling of Andy Rubin and other
top execs is crushing," Sanette Tanaka Sloan, a Google designer, wrote on
Twitter.
“When Google covers up harassment and passes the trash, it contributes to
an environment where people don’t feel safe reporting misconduct,” Google
engineer Liz Fong-Jones told the Times. “They suspect that nothing will
happen or, worse, that the men will be paid and the women will be pushed
aside.”
It’s also not the first time Google has had to wrestle with these issues.
The Department of Labor has accused the internet giant of having a pervasive
gender wage gap, which Google denies.
Last year, Google faced an internal crisis when a programmer, James Damore,
circulated a memo arguing there are fewer women in tech jobs because they
are biologically predisposed toward less technical career fields.
Google fired Damore after the memo was leaked to the media. He later filed a
class action lawsuit against the company alleging discrimination against
white males.
Google also isn't alone in Silicon Valley. Ride-sharing giant Uber was also
rocked by widespread allegations of sexual harassment. The company
eventually adopted recommendations from former Attorney General Eric Holder,
who investigated the company's practices.
The harassment allegations were one of a series of controversies in 2017
that eventually led to the departure of numerous top executives, including
founder Travis Kalanick.
But for Google, the fourth-largest U.S. company by market capitalization,
the stakes are high, pulling it into a heated national debate about
accountability in the workforce.
Google has already faced tough scrutiny from Washington this year over a
number of issues.
Republicans have questioned whether the company and other tech platforms are
biased against conservatives. Google has long faced questions in Europe
about its market power, but now U.S. regulators are also taking a closer
look at the company. Trump this summer raised the possibility that Google
and other large tech companies could face an "antitrust situation."
Adding to the company's woes, last month it disclosed a security bug that
affected half a million Google Plus users.
Tech watchers said it was unclear how much of a toll the negative attention
would have on Google.
Spund downplayed the risks to Google from the New York Times report. He said
the company would have no choice but to address the matter.
“In this day and age companies have to start taking this seriously,” he
said. “I'm sure that they're taking it seriously now.”
But critics and #MeToo advocates say the problems at Google and other tech
companies will require a comprehensive approach. Following the New York
Times report, that pressure is unlikely to ease.
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Critics note that there are only two women on Alphabet’s 11-member board,
which includes Schmidt, Page and Brin.
"As much as I believe in supporting the company you work for, it's equally
important to voice what you vehemently disagree with," Sloan, the designer
at Google, said on Twitter after the Times report.
"We can do so much better."
| d******k
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