Former Google employee, Claire Stapleton, has spoken out against the company, stating that her perspective on the tech giant soured over the 12 years she worked there. During a New York Times podcast First Person, Claire Stapleton claimed that she was hired to help manage the company’s corporate image, both internally and in the media. She joined Google in 2007 but moved to the company’s New York office in 2012. She claimed that Google was like a « paradise » when she started off at the company.  However, she grew disillusioned with the company over the years, particularly after she moved to the company’s New York office. Stapleton claimed that Google treated its contractors as « second-class citizens. » 

Later in 2018, Stapleton helped organize a protest 2018, walking off the job with about 20,000 Google workers in response to the company’s handling of sexual harassment allegations. She believed the walkout would help Google reposition itself in the right direction. But shortly after, there was a restructuring of her role at the company which led to her exit.

Now, nearly four years later, Stapleton sees Google’s culture as « quite grim, » especially since the company laid off about 12,000 employees in February. She sees the layoffs as a « power grab » and « the opposite of what Larry and Sergey intended for the company, » referring to Google’s founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. She claimed that Page and Brin had a grand vision, something akin to ‘curing death. » 

Google recently conducted mass layoffs. The company removed 12,000 employees across the globe. The search giant is not the only company tech sector to have removed workforce. Amazon also removed 18,000 employees earlier this year. Meta removed 11,000 employees late last year and Twitter removed more than 50 per cent of its entire employees.