Thread by @kimballscott

This is such an important article and I want to honor all the Google employees who were brave enough to speak out. I learned a lot at Google about the power of the default and when we end the default to silence we will begin to see change. @JustWorkBook

https://twitter.com/aprilaser/status/1368586607117234180

2/ I didn't speak publicly about why I left Google & Apple & Dropbox, in part because I was so bewildered that it took a decade and writing two books to process what I experienced. I'm not sure I've finished processing. I was in denial for so long.

3/ In solidarity with @timnitGebru and the others in this article and really everywhere in tech, I'd like to say a few things. First, I’m white, and from a privileged background. That made things MUCH easier for me than for others. Still, my experience was upsetting/bewildering.

4/ Google was the best company for women to work I ever experienced. It seemed to me many leaders there were trying to get it right. AND I left Google because I was sick of sexist BS. I wasn't nearly as aware as I should have been about what was happening at the intersections.

5/ When I arrived I found the compensation system was trying to be fair. This was the first time I'd experienced that. I can't describe the relief. But there it ended. I too was never promoted in six years, despite growing revenue 10x and shrinking costs dramatically.

6/ I was told I wasn't being promoted for a series of reasons that felt irrational to me. And then when I objected, I was told I was being irrational.

7/ "You don't have a big enough span of control." In other words, I wasn't being promoted because I'd improved efficiency and kept the size of my team small while I grew revenue faster than anyone expected??? What???

8/ Someone else told meI wasn't being promoted because "Google was run like a family" and I wasn't in the family. What??? wasn't this supposed to be a meritocracy?

9/ Another exec told me I wasn't being promoted because "I had a reputation for being smart, building a really great team, and always saying exactly what was on my mind." What??? Was I being punished for the very Radical Candor that helped me achieve results??

10/ The short answer was yes. That happens to underrepresented people all the time. I explore why this happens and what to do about it in my next book, Just Work.

11/ The gaslighting did make me feel like I was the "irrational" one, not the people who were saying these things to me.

12/ I summarized the way I was treated like this: "I felt like Google was telling me they hired me because I was super qualified for my job and then telling me to sit down and shut up." Being treated that way kept me from doing my very best work.

13/ All I wanted was to do great work. All my bosses at Google wanted was for me to do great work. I never met anyone who intentionally set out to create an unjust working environment. Most execs worked really hard to create a great environment. What happened?

14/ In business, intentions don't matter. Working hard doesn't matter. Results matter. & the results for underrepresented people at Google are kinda shitty. Though perhaps not as shitty as they are elsewhere. But the fact it's worse elsewhere is not a reason to accept bad results

15/ It's important to tell these stories. And it's important to recognize that these things happen at a company that in many ways is more committed than most to rooting out these injustices.

16/ And it's important not to get discouraged by that. We are combatting pretty much all of human history when we try to create more just workplaces. And there are things all of us can do better, today, to create the kinds of working environments we all long for.

17/ One thing to do is to differentiate between the different attitudes and behaviors that combine to create workplace injustice: bias, prejudice, bullying, discrimination, harassment, and physical violations. Each demands a different response.

18/ The next thing to do is to identify our role, and understand our responsibility in that role.

19/ Leaders have the biggest responsibility: prevention. When injustices happen despite efforts to prevent them, they must respond in a way calculated to prevent the same damn bs from happening over and over.

20/ Observers must learn to become upstanders by intervening. Silent bystanders as we have seen over and over reflect and reinforce injustices.

21/ People who cause harm must learn to become part of the solution not the problem by listening and making amends.

22/ People who are harmed can choose a response. We rob ourselves of agency when give in to a default to silence. When we change the default, we'll see real change start. Admiration for everyone who had the courage to speak to @aprilaser

23/ One last thing on "choose a response." I do mean choose. If you've been harmed by workplace injustice, it's your choice and nobody else's whether you speak up. I admire the courage of those who speak up. But that does not mean those who do not speak up lack courage.

24/ Last but not least. I say this with optimism that Google is going to do better in the future. Despite my frustration I loved my time there. When I handed in my badge I burst into tears. Not pretty little tears but full on snot-running-down-the-face tears. I was sad to go!