Go read this report about a Google contractor who claims he was fired for calling out cult activity

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

One wouldn't think of an actual cult running things behind the scenes at the company that is known for its close-knit culture. According to a report from The New York Times, there is a claim that is true.

Kevin Lloyd claims that at least 12 members of an obscure religious sect work for GDS and hold an inappropriate level of influence over the work environment. According to Lloyd, he was wrongly fired for calling out the group's behavior and has filed a lawsuit against the company and his contracting agency for wrongful dismissal, emotional distress, and failure to protect him against discrimination.

The fellowship of friends is a religious group The fellowship believes higher consciousness can be achieved by embracing fine arts and culture and has a compound in California. The group has become the subject of an investigation by the streaming service.

Peter Lubbers is a long time member of the fellowship and has brought on a number of other members.

The Times reported that members of the fellowship hold roles at the company events, including taking photographs, playing music, and serving wine. The winery that serves wine at these events is run by a member of the fellowship. Lloyd's suit claims that a sound designer who worked for the team as a sound designer was paid to install a state-of-the-art sound system in the Oregon House home.

The Times spoke with eight current and former employees of the company, as well as looked at publicly available documents to corroborate some of the allegations.

The GDS team was able to bring more fellowship members on board as contractors are hired with far less scrutiny and a far less rigorous on-boarding process according to another contractor. The AWU called out the potential abuse of the contracting system by managers in a thread on the social networking site.

Lloyd claims he was fired after complaining about the religious group. Lloyd claimed that he was discriminated against at the company and that he was fired because of his performance.

The full story can be found in the report by The New York Times. Lloyd wrote about the experience in his own words in a post on Medium.