Google Employee Alleges Discrimination Against Pregnant Women In Viral Memo (vice.com) 345
A Google employee has written a memo accusing the company of discriminating and retaliating against her for being pregnant. According to Motherboard, the memo has been seen by more than 10,000 employees. From the report: Last week, the woman posted the memo, titled "I'm Not Returning to Google After Maternity Leave, and Here is Why," to an internal company message board for expecting and new mothers. The memo was reposted to other internal message boards and has since gone viral, multiple current Google employees in different parts of the company have told Motherboard. Since then, employees have been posting memes that have gathered thousands of likes. The memes were made in support of the woman on an internal message board called "Memegen."
In the memo, which is more than 2,300 words long, the woman says that her manager made discriminatory remarks about pregnant women. She says she reported the manager to human resources, which she alleges spurred retaliation. The woman, who was also a manager, says she eventually joined another team, but wasn't allowed to manage anyone on that team until she returned from maternity leave; she claims she was told that her maternity leave might "stress the team" and "rock the boat." She says that she and her baby had potentially life-threatening complications toward the end of her pregnancy, and that she would need to go on maternity leave earlier than expected. "During one conversation with my new manager in which I reiterated an early leave and upcoming bedrest, she told me that she had just listened to an NPR segment that debunked the benefits of bedrest," she wrote. "She also shared that her doctor had ordered her to take bedrest, but that she ignored the order and worked up until the day before she delivered her son via cesarean section. My manager then emphasized in this same meeting that a management role was no longer guaranteed upon my return from maternity leave, and that she supported my interviewing for other roles at Google." In response, a Google spokesperson sent this statement: "We prohibit retaliation in the workplace and publicly share our very clear policy. To make sure that no complaint raised goes unheard at Google, we give employees multiple channels to report concerns, including anonymously, and investigate all allegations of retaliation."
In the memo, which is more than 2,300 words long, the woman says that her manager made discriminatory remarks about pregnant women. She says she reported the manager to human resources, which she alleges spurred retaliation. The woman, who was also a manager, says she eventually joined another team, but wasn't allowed to manage anyone on that team until she returned from maternity leave; she claims she was told that her maternity leave might "stress the team" and "rock the boat." She says that she and her baby had potentially life-threatening complications toward the end of her pregnancy, and that she would need to go on maternity leave earlier than expected. "During one conversation with my new manager in which I reiterated an early leave and upcoming bedrest, she told me that she had just listened to an NPR segment that debunked the benefits of bedrest," she wrote. "She also shared that her doctor had ordered her to take bedrest, but that she ignored the order and worked up until the day before she delivered her son via cesarean section. My manager then emphasized in this same meeting that a management role was no longer guaranteed upon my return from maternity leave, and that she supported my interviewing for other roles at Google." In response, a Google spokesperson sent this statement: "We prohibit retaliation in the workplace and publicly share our very clear policy. To make sure that no complaint raised goes unheard at Google, we give employees multiple channels to report concerns, including anonymously, and investigate all allegations of retaliation."
