Google's employee-run email list tracks bias, sexual harassment complaints

At most companies, if you think you’ve witnessed sexual harassment, sexism, bigotry or racism, there’s one way to get it addressed: going to human resources. "Yes, at Google" tracks allegations of unwelcome behavior at work in an attempt to make the company more inclusive, said the employees, who did not want to be named because they were not authorized to speak about internal company matters. Since starting in October, more than 15,000 employees -- Usually, the people in the complaints are not named, though one submission described an instance when, during a large company meeting in late April, Alphabet Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt allegedly interrupted Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat when she had a question addressed to her, which the post categorized as a "gender-related" complaint. Google, along with other tech companies, is facing growing pressure from diversity advocates and the media to change the gender and racial makeup of its workforce, which is largely white and Asian men. Google management doesn't control or influence the content, though the list's organizers sometimes ask teams or particular employees to respond to an item before publication, according to a person familiar with the list who was not authorized to speak about it.  In February, former Uber engineer Susan Fowler wrote a widely read blog post detailing alleged sexual harassment and other mistreatment at Uber (in response to Fowler's allegations, Uber is conducting an internal investigation into its workplace culture). The message was accompanied by this note from the newsletter operators: “Per the Employee Relations Team, this is an example of the kind of issue that we need and want to look into as this behavior is unacceptable and contrary to our Code of Conduct and Policy Against Harassment.” "A male Googler drank excessively at an offsite event and touched a few different female Googlers in a manner that made them uncomfortable, made inappropriate comments, and followed two women back to their hotel room and told them 'I'm following you,'" the email said. Another: Coworker to me: 'You know why the schools in Pleasanton are so good, right? Because of all the Chinese people.' One employee said that the hairdressers who work at the Google campus sometimes say, I've never encountered hair like yours before, which the employee said comes across as code for 'I'm not trained to cut the hair of people of your race.' Cappelli, the management professor, said that despite the risks that such a list poses, a collection of complaints from employees is also a valuable resource for management -- especially about sensitive topics that employees may be reluctant to talk about.