Current and former Googlers are horrified by allegations that a top exec had a child with a fellow employee and then abandoned her
- Former and current Google employees are responding to a blog post written by a former employee that details her relationship with one of the company's top executives.
- In the post, titled "My Time at Google and After," Jennifer Blakely, who worked as a manager in Google's legal department, describes Google's "oppressive and entitled" culture that protects "elite men."
- Blakely alleges that David Drummond (currently Alphabet's senior vice president of corporate development and chief legal officer) fathered a child with her while he was married and later abandoned her, using his position of power to control the situation.
- "The fact that Drummond is still an exec at Google speaks volumes about how much it tolerates shitty behavior by its male executives," one former Google employee wrote.
- Read Jennifer Blakely's full post here.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
A former Google employee set the internet alight after she shared a detailed account of her relationship with a top legal executive at the company in a blog post on Wednesday.
In the post, titled "My Time at Google and After," Jennifer Blakely, who worked as a manager in Google's legal department, describes Google's "oppressive and entitled" company culture that protects "elite men."
She alleges that David Drummond, who is currently Alphabet's senior vice president of corporate development and chief legal officer, fathered a child with her while he was married, emotionally abused her, and later abandoned her, taking advantage of his position of power.
Drummond has not commented on the allegations. A spokesperson for Google did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.
"I lived through it first hand and I believe a company's culture, its behavioral patterns, start at the top," Blakely wrote in the blog post on Wednesday. "Rarely do we hear about what happens to women after they are forced out of their jobs but I can tell you what happened to me."
Blakely said that she was told by Google HR that she would have to leave her role in the legal department after she had the baby. By then, Google had banned relationships between those in a direct-reporting line, meaning she could no longer work in the same department as Drummond. She was moved to the sales team, despite having no experience in the sector, and ended up leaving the company because she was "floundering" at work and became "depressed," she said.
"David offered to help us out financially on a monthly basis so I could leave my job in sales," she said, writing that he subsequently abandoned her.
Blakely's allegations were first detailed in an explosive New York Times report last October which uncovered Google's history of departing executives who had faced sexual harassment claims receiving multi-million dollar payouts.
'Organize the world's women and make them universally accessible and disposable - Google according to David, Andy, Amit, Eric, Sergey, Richard'
Former and current Google employees are now responding to Blakely's blog post on Twitter.
"The fact that Drummond is still an exec at Google speaks volumes about how much it tolerates shitty behavior by its male executives," Liz Fong-Jones, a former site reliability engineer and prominent internal activist who resigned in January, wrote on Twitter.
Vanessa Harris, who is currently a product manager at Google and has been with the company for nine years, tweeted a doctored version of the company's mission statement:
"Organize the world's women and make them universally accessible and disposable - Google according to David, Andy, Amit, Eric, Sergey, Richard and the long list of execs who abuse their wealth and power for sexual favors."
Google's actual mission statement is: "To organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful."
These tweets continue:
A former Google speechwriter who had worked with some of its leading executives also got involved.
According to his current bio, Dex Torricke-Barton was Google's first executive speechwriter and worked with former CEO and chairman Eric Schmidt and current Alphabet CEO Larry Page. He did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.
He wrote: "Root and stem, the tech industry needs to rip out its abusive leaders. If Silicon Valley wants to talk about serving humanity, it needs to show some humanity."
Other employees in the tech world also chimed in:
Read Jennifer Blakely's full letter here.
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