Former Google Executive Sues Company for Discrimination Against Men
A former high-ranking Google employee has filed a lawsuit against the tech giant, alleging that it discriminates against men in the workplace.
Marco Meier, who served as a “Global Business Leader” and “Head of Industry-Media Platforms,” claims in his lawsuit that he and other male employees were subjected to discrimination. The suit specifically accuses Marta Martinez, Google’s Managing Director of Sales, of making discriminatory statements including, “The women on my team have better leadership skills and are better prepared,” and “men are too aggressive and competitive.”
Meier alleges that male leaders in Martinez’s department “endured a relentless campaign of hostile and disparate treatment, severe harassment, and discrimination based upon gender.” According to the lawsuit, every male team leader who reported to Martinez was systematically removed over a four-year period and replaced exclusively with female team leaders.
“Indeed, over the course of a four-year period, Plaintiff witnessed the nefarious and systematic elimination of each male team leader reporting to Defendant Martinez, all of whom were exclusively replaced with female team leaders,” the lawsuit claims. “Plaintiff and all male team leaders were continuously restricted from providing their insight during meetings, were issued lower performance reviews while female team leaders were provided with higher reviews without basis, were repeatedly denied large-scale influential projects while such projects were provided to lesser qualified female team leaders, and Plaintiffs and all male team leaders were continuously denied promotions … while female team leaders were rapidly promoted.”
Meier said he filed two gender discrimination complaints with Google, but no corrective action was taken. He was fired two months after his second complaint, after working at the company for more than 12 years.
“The accomplishments of Plaintiff were also without parallel which included closing the largest programmatic guaranteed deal in Respondent’s history with Apple,” the suit added. “All female team leaders were promoted in less than two to three years. In stark contrast, Plaintiff was finally promoted from Level 6 to Level 7 after five and one-half years while Respondent Martinez refused to promote any other male team leaders.”
The complaint further alleges that in November 2022, Google promoted 14 employees to director positions across the Americas, 13 of whom were women. According to Fox News, a Google representative said the company “hires the best people for the job.”
