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SAN FRANCISCO – At Google's weekly staff meeting on Thursday, the most important question asked by employees was to ask Larry Page, co-founder, and Sundar Pichai, general manager, about sexual harassment.
"The company's many actions clearly indicate that the protection of powerful assailants is literally and figuratively more important to society than the well-being of their victims," said the question posed at the meeting, according to those present. "What concrete and significant actions will be taken to remedy this?"
The motion was part of a spate of talk from Google employees after a New York Times article released on Thursday revealed how the company had poured millions of dollars into exit packages executives accused of misconduct and remained silent about their transgressions. In the case of Andy Rubin, creator of the Android mobile software, the company gave him a $ 90 million exit package, even after Google had concluded to the credibility of his misconduct complaint.
While technicians, executives and others criticized Google for its revelations, the actions of the Internet giant have never been more damned than those of its own employees.
The employee reprimand took place on Thursday and Friday at corporate meetings, internal discussion forums and social networks, as well as on Twitter. Jaana Dogan, who works for Google Cloud, the company's cloud computing industry, tweeted, "If you are worth millions of dollars, you should be able to show the door to authoritarian governments and perpetrators of serious crimes. . If not now, when? "
Another Google employee, Sanette Tanaka Sloan, also said on Twitter that the way Google handled Rubin's misconduct complaint was "overwhelming". She added, "We can do a lot better."
On Memegen, a Google internal photo messaging board appreciated by employees for its humor, one of Thursday's most important posts featured the GIF of a competitor delighted with the game show in a shower of confetti. Under the picture was the text "is made to sexually harass an employee," said an employee who saw the post and who asked not to be identified because she was not not allowed to speak in public.
Google employees often turn to internal messaging platforms to challenge management decisions. Employees opposed the company's decision to work with the Pentagon on artificial intelligence technology and to create a censored search engine for China. (Google has since abandoned its AI business with the Pentagon and has not introduced censored search engine for China.)
On Thursday and Friday, Google employees said they were discouraged by the way some leaders accused of harassment had been paid millions of dollars even as the company was delaying prosecution of former employees and the department. of Labor who claimed that women were underpaid. Google has stated in the past that it has found "no significant difference" in the compensation of men and women in society.
Other employees said they had tried to calculate how many hours of work would have been spent on generating the $ 90 million Rubin got in his exit package. Rubin denied any misconduct and said the report on his compensation was a "wild exaggeration".
Some Google employees said they had more questions after Pichai and Eileen Naughton, Vice President of People Operations, wrote in an email on Thursday that the company had laid off 48 people, including 13 executives, for sexual harassment in the last two years. they received an exit package.
Some workers asked for more data on the number of claims investigated and the number of credible claims before the 48 people were fired, while others questioned the system of promotion and 13 people to become harassed senior managers.
Liz Fong-Jones, an engineer at Google for more than a decade and a labor rights activist, said in a tweet that judgments about misconduct complaints may be clouded by the fact that a person's boss feels they can to afford to lose it. In the case of Rubin and others, she says, this put the spotlight on the spotlight.
"The decision maker must be Larry Page," writes Fong-Jones. "The male stops there."
At Google's employee meeting Thursday, a few hours after Google's parent, Alphabet, announced another quarter of his earnings, Mr. Page spoke with employees with Pichai and Naughton. The way they answered the employees' question was unclear, but the leaders took a conciliatory tone, according to the remarks obtained by The Times.
During the meeting, Page and Pichai did not comment on specific instances of misconduct. Pichai noted that Google had made "significant changes" in the way it handled harassment cases, according to the remarks.
"We want to get better and we want to go somewhere where it really reflects our values of respect, especially mutual respect," Pichai said.
Page said that if employees were harassed while they were working at Google, the company was not "the company we aspire to."
He also apologized.
"I had to make many decisions that affect people every day, some of which are difficult. And, you know, I think there are certainly some delays that I would have done in hindsight, "said Page. "I know it's really an extremely painful story for some of you, and I'm really sorry about it."
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