What is the workplace culture at Google, how is the culture impacting employees?

The culture of Google does not seem like an acceptable one. This is because the way things are being done at their workplace has led to so much chaos and sexual harassments cases. As mentioned in the article the employees are bringing up this issue in front of the Google management but the management is not taking it into consideration that has led to this outrage. An  employee  told  a  story  about  how  she  was  sexually  harassed  by  her  colleague,  according  to  two  people  who  heard  the  speech.

The  female  employee described  going  to  human  resources  to  file  a  complaint,  but  was  disappointed  because  HR  didn’t  take  action,  the  people  said.  Her  manager  told  her  they  would  fire  the  person  responsible  if  that  person  was  less  important than  her,  the  speaker  said. He  also  said  the  company  no  longer  makes  payouts  to  employees  who  are  accused  of  sexual  harassment.

Laura  Rokitaa  31-year-old  software  engineer  who  has  worked  at  Google  for  three  years said  she  was  surprised  and  angry  after  reading  the  recent  New  York  Times  article  that  described  how  the  company  has  dealt  with  sexual-harassment  claims.  She  said  she  walked  out  Thursday  to  provoke  changes  at  the  company  and  to  support  colleagues. (onfro, 2018)

Why are the strikes at Google surprising? Why is employee activism rising at Google? 

The strikes at Google are surprising because as it is such a big company with a huge market share no one expects it to get involved in such cases. Employee activism is rising because their HR department has failed to take a preventive and curative measure. When the employees are not being heard in the organization they will go outside to protest and gain public and media support.

This is very strange because Google is supposed to have efficiently working HR departments that take special care of such cases. Moreover, the  events  were striking because they  occurred  at  a  company  that  has  been  for a long period of time considered  by many the one that makes huge efforts  to  empower  and support  employees  by providing them  generous amount of perks  and  having a  permissive  stance  towards  internal  disagreements in the organization.

Why  do  you  think  Google  put  themselves  in  a  place  where  employees  are  walking  off  the  job? 

I don’t think that Google intentionally put itself into such a position. Every firm is likely to face some management issues and Google is one of them too. Employees are the assets of every company because they are the ones who help it grow and achieve its objectives. Google being such an amazing working company in the world obviously didn’t want this to happen. Employees being dissatisfied with their company to such an extent that they go out and protests and leave jobs are a huge loss for the company.

First, its image decreases and Secondly, it will have to face the loss of lower productivity/ recruitment costs. The issue with Google is that when employees first came up the cases of misconduct it didn’t took timely action and didn’t took the matter seriously. As mentioned in the case when one employee took the issue of being mistreated to the management whose response was really discouraging that they would only take action if that employee was at a lower position then her/him.  (Minaya, 2018)

Because  Google  has  been  so  "employee  centric"  is  it  possible  that  when  something  goes  wrong,  employees  are  more  likely  to  protest?

Going for a protest is actually the last option. First the employees should try to bring the matter in front of the management of the company through proper measures then if they believe  that they are being treated unjustly they go for more serious measures that are protests. Being employee centric means that employees are treated as humans their problems and issues are heard in order to make sure that they work in good working environment. If Google had been employee centric then the issue shouldn’t have raised this much.

In that case the employees would have been heard and a sufficient solution would have been reached. In an employee centric organization employee going for protests is not likely but it’s the other way around actually that the employees are content and motivated to work with their company because they are satisfied. As mentioned in the article that there was widespread frustration and deep seated anger in the organization that had led to protests and if the matter will not be solved it may lead to harmful future for Google.

Are  employees  well  informed  enough  to  determine  if  actual  misconduct  has  occurred?

At times employees are not informed about what misconduct actually means. When an issue is that hyped up many employees might think that they too are a part of it however it can be a possibility that they are not. There needs to be rules established that should be followed by anyone who brings up the case of misconduct. Since Google too needs to make sure that if such a case rises then it serves justice to all employees.

Because they simply can’t take side of employees if they just come up and say that they have been mistreated of course some proof will have to be required. In order to make employees more informed Google can come up with the idea of hosting awareness or informative campaigns to clarify the term “misconduct”. (MacMillan, 2018)

References of the workplace culture at Google

MacMillan, D. (2018). Google to End Forced Arbitration for Sexual-Harassment Claims. Retrieved from https://www.wsj.com/articles/google-to-end-forced-arbitration-for-sexual-harassment-claims-1541696868

Minaya, E. (2018). Google Workers’ Walkout Signals Crisis of Faith in Company Culture. Retrieved from https://www.wsj.com/articles/employee-discontent-threatens-googles-reputation-1541151001

onfro, J. D. (2018, November 1). Google employees around the world are walking out today to protest the company’s handling of sexual misconduct. Retrieved from https://www.cnbc.com/2018/11/01/google-employees-walk-out-in-protest-of-sexual-misconduct-handling.html