An open letter published last week by a former employee criticized DeepMind for stopping her from speaking to colleagues and managers soon after she started being harassed by a fellow employee.
The complaints have been an embarrassment for DeepMind, and the company says it erred in trying to keep its employee from speaking about her treatment.
Where a firm really shows it has a handle on the problem is in how it deals with complaints.
And the process of the company’s sending her notes and responding to her allegations took several months, during which time the person she reported was promoted and received a company award.
He said DeepMind, which Google bought for more than $500 million in 2014, takes all allegations of workplace misconduct extremely seriously, and that it “rejected the suggestion it had been deliberately secretive” about staff mistreatment.
Matt Whaley, a regional officer for Unite the Union, a British trade union that represents tech workers, said he had advised staff members of DeepMind on bullying and harassment issues at the division.
“They felt management would be backed up no matter what.” Whaley added that DeepMind staff were put off by the way that the division had appeared to protect executives in the past.
Here’s an example that wouldn’t have inspired confidence: In 2019 DeepMind removed its co-founder Mustafa Suleyman from his management position at the organization, shortly after an investigation by an outside law firm found that he had bullied staff.
But the ex-employee is pushing for a more radical change: ending non-disclosure agreements, or NDAs, for people leaving the company after complaining about mistreatment.
And several British universities, including University College London, pledged this year to end the use of NDAs in sexual harassment cases.
But it will make for a more honest working environment in the long run and protect the well-being of victims. High-ranking perpetrators of harassment for too long have been protected out of concern for a clean corporate image.
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