Google staff walk out over women's treatment

What else are Google employees angry about?

Co-ordinated action of this scale is unprecedented at a Silicon Valley company, but follows a trend for increasingly impassioned employee activism.

"Women are fed up, and I don't think it's just women,” said Prof Kellie McElhaney, from the Haas School of Business.

"There are a lot of ‘manbassadors' out there who are equally as fed up and using their positions of power and voice, which can cost Google money. I think you have to hit these companies where it hurts.

"I think it empowers other Google offices when women and men are watching this happen, that they can do a similar action that's not just sitting by or making comments to one another or sharing emails."

Staff at Google offices around the world are staging an unprecedented series of walkouts in protest at the company's treatment of women.

The employees are demanding several key changes in how sexual misconduct allegations are dealt with at the firm, including a call to end forced arbitration - a move which would make it possible for victims to sue.

Google chief executive Sundar Pichai has told staff he supports their right to take the action.

"I understand the anger and disappointment that many of you feel," he said in an all-staff email. "I feel it as well, and I am fully committed to making progress on an issue that has persisted for far too long in our society… and, yes, here at Google, too."

A Twitter feed titled @googlewalkout has documented the movement at Google's international offices.

Google staff in Singapore, Zurich, London, Tokyo, Berlin and New York were among those to take part.

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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-46054202