More than 1500 Google employees, around the world, are planning to walk out of their respective Google offices today, to protest against Google’s handling of sexual misconduct within the workplace, according to the New York Times. This is a part of the “women’s walkout” that was organized by more than 200 Google engineers, earlier this week as a response to Google’s handling of sexual misconduct in the recent past, that employees found as inadequate.
The planning for the walkout was done last Friday, where Claire Stapleton, product marketing manager at Google’s YouTube created an internal mailing list to organize the walkout according to the New York Times. As the walkout was organized, more than 200 employees had joined in over the weekend, which has since grown to more than 1,500.
The organizers took to Twitter, yesterday, to lay out five demands for change within the workplace.
The protest has already started at Google’s Tokyo and Singapore office. Google employees and contractors, across the globe, will be leaving work at 11:10 AM in their respective time zones.
Here are some glimpses from the walkout:
A view of the crowd earlier today at Google Redwood City #googlewalkout pic.twitter.com/O8VI1ZoClT
— Google Walkout For Real Change (@GoogleWalkout) November 2, 2018
#GoogleWalkout in Sydney today #Sydney pic.twitter.com/FeC66j1OoM
— Emma Thomson (@EmmaThomson2) November 2, 2018
Google NYC showing up for #GoogleWalkout pic.twitter.com/ukfBnclZCh
— Google Walkout For Real Change (@GoogleWalkout) November 1, 2018
We’re approaching 11:10EST — first time zone to walk out of USA offices. We’re up to 47 offices participating worldwide today, including Atlanta, where this photo was taken. #GoogleWalkout pic.twitter.com/wApWY6vAvI
— Google Walkout For Real Change (@GoogleWalkout) November 1, 2018
More signs from NYC! #GoogleWalkout pic.twitter.com/dwf5acOJmL
— Google Walkout For Real Change (@GoogleWalkout) November 1, 2018
The demands laid out by the Google employees are as follows:
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The frustration among the Google employees surfaced after the New York Times report brought to light the shocking allegations against Andy Rubin’s (creator of Android) sexual misconduct at Google. As per the report, Rubin was accused of misbehavior in 2014 and the allegations were confirmed by Google. Due to this, he was asked to leave by former Google CEO, Mr.Page, but what’s discreditable is the fact that Google paid him $90 million as an exit package. Moreover, he also received a high profile well-respected farewell by Google in October 2014.
Also, the fact that senior executives such as Drummond, Chief Legal Officer, Alphabet, who were mentioned in the NY times report for indulging in “inappropriate relationships” within the organization continues to work in highly placed positions at Google and haven’t faced any real punitive action by Google for their past behavior.
“We don’t want to feel that we’re unequal or we’re not respected anymore. 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”, Stapleton told the NY Times.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai had sent an email to all the Google employees, last Thursday, clarifying that the company has fired 48 people over the last two years for sexual harassment, out of whom, 13 were “senior managers and above”. He also mentioned how none of them received any exit packages.
Sundar Pichai, Google’s CEO, further apologized in an email obtained by Axios this Tuesday, saying that the “apology at TGIF didn’t come through, and it wasn’t enough”. Pichai also mentioned that he supports the engineers at Google who have organized a “walkout”.
“I am taking in all your feedback so we can turn these ideas into action. We will have more to share soon. In the meantime, Eileen will make sure managers are aware of the activities planned for Thursday and that you have the support you need”, wrote Pichai.
The very same day, news of Richard DeVaul, a director at unit X of Alphabet (Google’s parent company) whose name was also mentioned in the New York Times report, resigning from the company came to light. DeVaul had been accused of sexually harassing Star Simpson, a hardware engineer. DeVaul did not receive any exit package on his resignation.
Public response to the walkout has been largely positive:
All of the headlines that start with "Google CEO supports…" are focusing on the wrong thing.
What matters today is workers' voices and demands.
It doesn't matter whether management claims to support; the real test will be whether the demands are met. #GoogleWalkout
— Liz Fong-Jones (方禮真) (@lizthegrey) November 1, 2018
I'm walking out tomorrow with thousands of my coworkers because I believe it's past time for this abuse to stop. It's clear neither government nor business leaders will fix this on their own. We have to do this ourselves y'all. #googlewalkout ✊🏻✊🏼✊🏽✊🏾✊🏿https://t.co/PCtYo7Ieuk
— Amr Gaber (@amrtgaber) November 1, 2018
YES! The more the merrier. SF location is Harry Bridges Plaza 11:10AM #GoogleWalkout https://t.co/4OTS9Bu6Ne
— Stephanie Parker (@sparker2) November 1, 2018
I'll be participating in the #googlewalkout tomorrow, for a better, fairer, workplace.
— (((Lisa Hirsch))) (@LisaIronTongue) November 1, 2018
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