
Why I left Google - seapunk
https://twitter.com/jessiedotjs/status/1162364434846822401
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azalemeth
To save reading a twitter thread:

> When I joined Google, I fell in love with the company immediately. I was
> excited to come to work, not just for the technical challenges, but because
> I really felt I was making a difference and working for the good guys. >I
> spent 20% of my week working on an app that helped people find lost loved
> ones after natural disasters. I spent more free time speaking to students
> about technology and diversity. For an entire school year, I taught CS
> classes twice a week at a local low income high school. > The company was
> open. We had a weekly meeting called TGIF where anyone in the company could
> ask questions of, and raise concerns with, the execs. We got real answers.
> >At the time, Rachel Whetstone was a VP at Google and you knew when she
> answered your question at TGIF, you were going to get an honest and sincere
> answer with a clear plan to fix things and no excuses. Rachel Whetstone left
> Google in 2015.

>In 2017, Google bid for Project Maven, a contract with the US Government that
would incorporate AI into drones. "When Google won the Maven contract in late
September, the company opted not to say anything at all—even to its own
employees." > I joined Google because we were the good guys. Building AI for
weapons isn't a good guy thing. So they didn't tell us.

> In 2018, it came out that Google had been planning to relaunch in China with
> censored search, a project known as Dragonfly.

"The engine would blacklist search terms like 'human rights' and 'student
protest,' and would produce government-controlled results for 'air quality.' "
> This project was kept secret internally as well. Can't let the employees
know we're not the good guys.

>In 2018, it came out that "a woman who worked for Google had accused Android
cofounder Andy Rubin of coercing her to perform oral sex in a hotel room".
Rubin had been let go with a $90 million severance package. > The company's
goodbye email included:

"I want to wish Andy all the best with what’s next. With Android he created
something truly remarkable — with a billion-plus happy users."

> "After Mr. Rubin left, the company invested millions of dollars in his next
> venture."

>There's some controversy over the payout and if it was necessary or not. But
there's no two sides to investing in his next company. He sexually assaulted
an employee and we continued to work with him. > "The story didn't stop at
Rubin. Another high-performing executive, Amit Singhal, the former head of
Google Search, was given a multimillion-dollar exit package after a female
employee accused him of groping her at an off-site work event." > "A third,
Richard DeVaul, allegedly told a female job candidate that he was in a
polyamorous relationship during her interview and invited her to meet him at
Burning Man, where he asked if he could give her a massage." DeVaul was not
fired.

>The coverups surprised me as much as the sexual assault and harassment. We
didn't do stuff like this here. We hired good people and didn't let people get
away with stuff like this. We cared about making a safe environment for women,
just look at all our diversity initiatives. > And we definitely didn't cover
it up. But we had hidden Project Maven and Dragonfly from employees, why not
this?

>Again and again, we asked the execs for answers. The answers became less
sincere. Questions were dodged. We were given corp speak and sometimes actual
lies. > On November 1, 2018 I walked out with twenty thousand other employees
around the world. In New York, there were so many of us I couldn't get
anywhere near close enough to hear the speakers. > That week, I and a few
other female engineers were invited to a meeting with a VP of my org. One
woman talked about how she felt confident coming out of the walkout. That she
felt the company had really come together and she was so proud to be at
Google. >We all disagreed. Later in the meeting, it came out that she was not
an engineer but was actually part of HR.

>In December 2018, one of the walkout organizers, Meredith Whitaker "was told
she would have to leave the Google Cloud organization, where she had worked
for three years." > Another organizer, Claire Stapleton, "was told that her
role at YouTube would be “restructured” and she would lose half her reports
and responsibilities."

>They held a retaliation sit in in New York where we listened to their stories
and the anonymized stories of others who had experienced retaliation. > This
was the last straw for me. After Dragonfly and Maven, I no longer trusted the
company to make ethical decisions.

>After many reports of sexual harassment and assault by VPs with high exit
packages, I no longer believed we had employees' best interests in mind,
especially those of minorities. >And after the retaliation faced by walkout
organizers, I no longer believed I could do anything about it. >I set my
LinkedIn to "open to offers" the day the retaliation stories were published. I
started interviewing soon after and submitted my resignation in July. >I have
so much love for what Google used to be and that's why I stayed for so long.
Maybe they can be that again, but I'm not going to work for a company I don't
believe in while I wait to find out.

------
kerng
Yeah, Google sure is going downwards. It was such a great place at one
point...

