Chatting with Angela Cornell, at Prof. Avery’s apartment, opened my eyes to a side of the work place that I had not heard about. Anti-sexual Harassment movement’s have been on the rise since the #MeToo movement. I had not realized this movement was effecting workplaces too. Cornell told us about the recent Google Walkout. Google employees all over the world walked-out of their offices to protest the recent actions of Google. Google has recently released a high level employee as a result of workplace misconduct. However, the employee was released with a very nice severance package.
As most of us are going to enter the workplace soon, Cornell reminded us to read out legal agreements with our employers before signing them!
One of my dream companies to work at would be Google. When I read in the news about the Google walkouts and found out about the Andriod creator was let go with a $90 million exit package, I was really sad. I expected better. It also highlights the big problem in society where we are more lenient to extremely talented people. We forgive geniuses for their indiscretions because of their genius.
The cynic in me wonders if the walkout changes anything. Yes, it was a very loud statement, but I doubt people quit Google over it. Until there are real consequences, like not attracting top talent which will never happen, corporations can still continue their behaviors.
I understand why people were shocked, but also understand the dilemma that Google executives probably needed to go through to release one of their most talented employees. The tech industry is interconnected, and getting a negative word-of-mouth review from one of their top-tier employees could severely affect developments as well as the future hiring of talented employees.
While the #Metoo movement is an important societal phenomena that should be understood, understanding the dilemma behind Google’s executives is a necessary chain of thought.
Looking at the issue from multiple perspectives is an essential way to understand Google’s true thoughts. Google is not anti #MeTOO, they just needed to protect and respect the previous creations from one of their top developers.