Last week, a Google employee posted an internal memo on a company forum for new and expectant mothers titled, “I’m Not Returning to Google After Maternity Leave, and Here is Why.”
The employee, who was also a manager at the company, alleged that she faced discrimination and retaliation for being pregnant, especially after requesting an early maternity leave due to potentially life-threatening complications with her pregnancy.
Her memo was read by more than 10,000 Google employees before it was leaked to Motherboard, where the nearly 2,300 word-long post was published, but with personal information redacted including the employee’s name.
Motherboard coincidentally broke the story on the two year anniversary of another Google employee’s memo that went viral, arguing that men were better engineers than women and the company should steer clear from diversifying.
If you’re pregnant or a mother who has faced workplace discrimination, how did you handle the situation? If you reported the incident to upper management, how was it received?
Call us to share your experiences and questions at 866-893-5722, or comment below.
With guest host Libby Denkmann
A spokesperson for Google sent the following statement to Motherboard TV:
“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.”
Guests:
Jason Koebler, editor-in-chief of VICE's Motherboard where he has been following the story; he tweets
Ramit Mizrahi, employment lawyer with Mizrahi Law in Pasadena and chair of the California Lawyers Association’s Labor and Employment Law Section where she represents employees exclusively; she tweets