Google has long prided itself on its unconventional culture and generous perks to convey the message that the company, from its products to its ambitions, was exceptional. And for years, employees bought in.
On Thursday, however, workers of the Alphabet Inc. unit who took part in a walkout at the company’s offices around the world signaled a crisis in faith—one that, if widespread, could cause reputational harm, potentially affecting Google’s standing as an aspirational workplace, risk experts and analysts said.
“I definitely thought Google was a company that was holding itself to a higher moral standard,” said Jon Cohen, a 28-year-old Google software engineer in New York, who took part in Thursday’s protest. “The last year or so, it’s just been shown to be untrue.”
Recent employee activism at Google has been in response to a New York Times article last week, which detailed how the company protected three senior executives over the past decade after they were accused of sexual misconduct, including one who received a $90 million exit package in 2014. Google declined to comment on details in the Times story.
Employees said they were protesting a workplace culture they felt protected perpetrators of sexual misconduct. Many voiced anger and disappointment in a company they once thought was different from other big corporations.
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