Ex-Googler On Discrimination: 'Speaking Up Didn't Fix A Damn Thing'

Ex-Google engineer Erica Baker fought back against discriminatory employment practices when she organized the creation of a spreadsheet of her co-workers’ salaries to encourage transparency. Google’s management was obviously displeased and punished Baker, who is a black woman, by withholding peer bonuses — but didn’t withhold the bonuses from her white male colleague who also helped organize the effort. She gained deserved recognition when she published an essay on her experience as a black woman at Google on Medium. She also shared her story on Twitter.

On Saturday, Baker, who has since joined Slack as an engineer, took to the social media site again to respond to messages she’s received from other dissatisfied Googlers. The message was bleak.

“Speaking up didn’t fix a thing, but it made me feel better. I didn’t feel complicit in my own unhappiness there anymore,” she said. “So there’s my advice, advice seeking Googlers: leave. It’s a hard thing to wrap your head around. The idea will take some getting used to… You CAN leave. You do not have to subject yourself to unhappiness and mistreatment. I promise you this: there is life outside of corp.”

After Baker’s first series of tweets, a Google spokesperson responded:

“Our policy is not to comment on individual or former employees, but we can confirm that we regularly run analysis of compensation, promotion, and performance to ensure that they are equitable with no pay gap. Employees are free to share their salaries with one another if they choose.”