In an email sent by Google Inc, CEO Sundar Pichai to all its employees, in a response to New York Times report which was published earlier today, stating a “handful of Google executives, including Android creator Andy Rubin, were shielded by the company from sexual misconduct allegations and offered massive payouts to leave the company.”
Pichai said, “In the last two years Google has fired 48 employees including 13 top-level executives for sexual harassment and none of them got an exit package when they were let go.”
The email, which was also signed by Eileen Naughton, Vice president of people operations of Google, said: Company employees could use internal tools to report cases of inappropriate behavior anonymously.
It also said that Google has updated its policy to require all vice presidents and senior vice presidents to disclose any relationship with a co-worker regardless of reporting line or presence of conflict.
You can read the full email which was sent by Sundar Pichai and Eileen :
From: Sundar
Hi everyone,
Today’s story in the New York Times was difficult to read.
We are dead serious about making sure we provide a safe and inclusive workplace. We want to assure you that we review every single complaint about sexual harassment or inappropriate conduct, we investigate and we take action.
In recent years, we’ve made a number of changes, including taking an increasingly hard line on inappropriate conduct by people in positions of authority: in the last two years, 48 people have been terminated for sexual harassment, including 13 who were senior managers and above. None of these individuals received an exit package.
In 2015, we launched Respect@ and our annual Internal Investigations Report to provide transparency about these types of investigations at Google. Because we know that reporting harassment can be traumatic, we provide confidential channels to share any inappropriate behavior you experience or see. We support and respect those who have spoken out. You can find many ways to do this at go/say something. You can make a report anonymously if you wish.
We’ve also updated our policy to require all VPs and SVPs to disclose any relationship with a co-worker regardless of reporting line or presence of conflict.
We are committed to ensuring that Google is a workplace where you can feel safe to do your best work, and where there are serious consequences for anyone who behaves inappropriately.
Sundar and Eileen
Email sources: CNBC