In early January , Google system reliability engineerLiz Fong - Jones announcedshe was leave behind the ship’s company after 11 yr , leave behind , by her account , a half million dollars in neckcloth , to work at the inauguration Honeycomb.io . An straight-from-the-shoulder advocate for cellular inclusion and diversity , Fong - Jones renounce citing dissatisfaction with leadership around ethic of products and working conditions . She did n’t narrow down any particulars , but these issues have been the subject of recent campaigns like theGoogle walkoutover the company ’s mishandling of sexual harassment and violation cases , and protest over Google ’s involvement in aPentagon ’s AI drone program .
“ safe news show I ’ve heard all weekend . I ’m hop-skip all the jackasses that sympathize espouse her out the door . ”
“ What a part is [ sic ] shit human being . ”
Illustration: Elena Scotti (Photos: Shutterstock)
“ Malignant neoplasm eventually removed ! ”
“ It ’s a felicitous mo for Google . ”
“ I lie with you fong time , not ”
A Blind screenshotScreenshot: Gizmodo (Blind)
“ What did she do when at google ? Leader of SJWs ? ”
“ Pretty much . Good exclusion . ”
“ If you remember Google is a breeding dry land for racialism , microaggressions , and bigotry , there is no place that will be safe for you . You are a unceasing victim that needs genial supporter . ”
A Blind screenshotScreenshot: Gizmodo (Blind)
“ So .. I always wondered . What is Liz ? Is she a trans woman ? Looks like a dude . ”
“ Yes , she was a dude ”
One someone admit a link to an even more mean thread about Fong - Jones on a internet site used for harassment and doxing . ( Many of the Blind placard about Fong - Jones have been removed since they were first posted . )
A Blind screenshotScreenshot: Gizmodo (Blind)
In response to the postings , Fong - Jones , who is still hire by Google until February 1st , told Gizmodo , “ It ’s frankly shivery to know that these are some of my coworkers . And that they ’re saying out loud viciously deleterious things that they do it are n’t earmark by our workplace communicating policy . I can take unfavorable judgment , but there is a dispute between criticism and hate on the basis of my grammatical gender identicalness . ”
found in South Korea in 2014 before expanding to the U.S. in 2015 , Blind is a societal app that allows employee of certain great , mostly tech , companies to get together private anon. discussions groups that can only be accessed with account created with a company e-mail speech . There are also public , searchable Blind discussions with participants from different society . Blind claim itdoesn’t fund email addressesin its database and does n’t track data that can identify drug user . Blind ’s mission statementsays the platform was built to “ empower every somebody in the work ” and “ uplift vocalisation that have been shut up . ” But increasingly , the forums seem to be turn toxic , making some employee feel unwished-for or unsafe .
( There are two of import caveats to consider when reading anonymous Blind messages . In some cases , contractors who are not full - prison term employees are issued company email addresses . Also , employees can abide on secret forums after they have departed a society . )
Blind says it currently has more than two million user — approximately 49,200 are employees from Microsoft , 34,800 from Amazon , 13,500 from Google , and 10,500 from Facebook .
“ Facebook is skillful for many people , but it ’s not the right-hand place for me right now , ” Alpert drop a line , according to CNBC . “ I need to spend my time at a place uncoerced to push further on multifariousness and cellular inclusion . One where it ’s not hunky-dory to write on Workplace that bloodless privilege does n’t live . One where if I call out that our board has too many blank men , I do n’t get harassed by other employees on Blind with transphobic messages order I should be fired . ”
Alpert did not react to Gizmodo ’s request for comment .
Blind representative Kevin McCarthy told Gizmodo that he would not talk about the specific substance in Facebook ’s secret Blind channel tie in to Alpert , but said , “ It is unfortunate , and I ’m sad to hear that that happen . But I mean , we are actively trying to ensure that that does not happen . And I do n’t know if she know that on other societal networks as well . ”
After the report , Fong - Jones tweeted about her similar experience . “ Calling this out more explicitly : both@sophiebitsand I have been harassed with transphobic / racist slurs , rhetoric , and threat on@teamblindapp , ” she wrote . “ Neither our employer nor Blind has done anything about it . ”
https://twitter.com/embed/status/1085949152280883201
Users sound off that Google is now “ Drowning in SJW [ social justice warrior ] propaganda , ” because office “ walls are littered with SWJ [ sic ] propaganda . full art instalment are up promoting SJW propaganda . ”
Specifically , users called out Google - branded Black Lives matter shirt and the summation of tampon to all bathrooms . “ I love the motive … but why so many tampon ? I feel like a estimable investiture would be something useful like lotion . Or perhaps mints . Or possibly Reese ’s Peanut butter cups . ”
Several posts also show users , who are almost for certain Google employees , defend intimate wrongful conduct . When someone posted aNew York Times articleabout Google paying Android package developer Andy Rubin $ 90 million and go along quiet about sexual misconduct allegations against him , someone responded to the article writing , “ How can Google verify if something was coerced or consensual ? It if was consensual , then who cares . ” Someone reply , “ Spit vs Swallow ? ” Another chime in , “ Spit vs swallow vs gargle . ”
Someone take note that the tidings of Google ’s action relating to Rubin “ pisses me off . ” Then someone responded telling them , “ you suck . Leave . You wo nt be missed . ”
Another responder suggested that someone leaked the story to the New York Times because they “ get grabby , avid and wanted to get more compensated by the NYTimes . ” ( The New York Times does not pay for floor . )
Someone else added , “ If you are having a kinship with a char ( even if additional conjugal ) how could you have forced a BJ ? That sounds like BS . ”
Early on , Blind wastoutedas a platform that allows people to organize and vocalize their opinion on issues like harassment and compensation . And there are object lesson of workers being indue through the app . For representative , Korean Air employees used Blind to anonymously discuss a response to the 2014“nut rage ” scandal , when a society executive ’s girl assaulted a bunch extremity . Then , after Susan Fowler spoke out about intimate harassment and toxic polish within Uber in February 2o17 , many employees spoke aboutsimilar experiences on Blind . Uber occlude employee from using the app in the following weeks , then stopped afterBusiness Insider reportedon Uber ’s security review effort .
Many threads on unreasoning savoir-faire compensation , fellowship policy , and interviewing — as well as matter that have very little to do with workplace , likepolitics , Scotch whiskey , andloud neighbor sex .
But as unreasoning usance has become common within enceinte employment community , especially at heavy tech companies , work harassment of the kind described above is pasture up .
It ’s worth mention that near any anon. forum is pop off to engender harassment and a toxic culture . But as Fong - Jones propose , there ’s a major conflict between a forum that any troll can join and a community comprised almost entirely of your colleagues . specially when several of those colleague are sharing obscene aspect that you find threatening .
After theGoogle memo pick apart diversity effortswas come about around the company , workersreportedlyposted on unsighted their commendation or disgust with the screed . After the writer James Damore was fired by Google , the Blind app host a public canvass users from various society about the determination and of the 441 respondents who seemingly worked for Google , almost 56 per centum reportedlyvoted that Damore should not have been give the sack .
Google did not respond to a Gizmodo petition for a response to interrogation related to this write up . But in an interview , unsighted spokesperson Kyle McCarthy discuss how the fellowship curb subject matter . He say in the public forums for all user , Blind actively temper posts and checks stake that are droop by user , and removes them if the mental object violate residential district guidelines .
The rule of thumb country that harassment may include content that is scurrilous , humiliating , hurtful , “ unwanted sexualization ” or “ sexual bullying . ” The rules indicate that when “ harassment crosses the logical argument into a malicious attack it should be flag , ” but when users are just being “ mildly galling , they should be ignored . ” The rules also prohibit discrimination and hate speech , which unsighted defines as posts that advance violence against a person or group based on attributes such as race , ethnicity , religion , disability , gender , age , old hand status , sexual orientation , and gender identity .
“ We do not want masses being bully on there , ” McCarthy enunciate . “ For mass to be using it to set on specific people or just bully other people , that ’s not what this is for at all . That ’s not a sustainable way to have a community . We want people to be able to lend light to what ’s going on at the workplace . ”
He would n’t address about any of the type directly , but when asked whether Google could have asked Blind to remove the posts about Fong - Jones , McCarthy said he does n’t consider Blind received any emails from anyone at Google , “ So if it was have down , it would have been from the flags from the user , or it was droop , and we shoot it after that . ”
The organization also mechanically flags certain discriminatory words . McCarthy would not say what words , but said many are Word “ that would be harmful to the LGBTQ community . ”
Fong - Jones , who is at the remnant of her prison term at Google , is concerned about how Blind postings could dissemble other Google employees . “ I think it ’s the innovative day equivalent to graffiti of nooses in the footlocker room , ” she said . “ It ’s terrorise to anyone who ’s a gender or racial minority to see or roll in the hay about their coworkers blab out about them that way . It create a unfriendly workplace surroundings where people ca n’t do their skilful work . ”
If you have any selective information about Blind bodily function by tech ship’s company employees you ’d like to share with us , email[email protected ] .
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