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Loretta Lee, a former Google software engineer who was fired in February 2016, is suing Google over sexual discrimination and several related charges. She says the company’s “bro culture” led to repeated sexual harassment, including male coworkers spiking her drinks with alcohol, asking her for a “horizontal hug” and hiding under her desk.
“Not only did Google fail to prevent severe and pervasive sexual harassment in Plaintiff’s workplace, but the repeated and awkward meetings that Human Resources forced Plaintiff to attend led her group to retaliate against her in the very way she feared,” the lawsuit states. “Google’s failure to take appropriate remedial action is consistent with its pattern and practice of ignoring sexual harassment in the workplace, making no significant efforts to take corrective action, and punishing the victim.”
A related story running today in Wired questions whether tech company recruiting practices contribute to a lack of female developers in the industry.
