Whistleblower says DeepMind waited months to fire a researcher accused of sexual misconduct

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The Financial Times reported that a former employee at DeepMind accused the company's human resources department of intentionally delaying its response to her complaints about sexual harassment in the workplace.

Julia, a former employee who goes by Julia to protect her identity, posted an open letter to Medium saying that she was sexually harassed by a senior researcher for months while working at the London-based company. She INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals

Julia got in contact with the company's HR and grievance team as early as August to outline her interactions with the senior researcher, and she raised a formal complaint in December. The researcher was dismissed in October 2020. He was given a company award even though he faced no suspension for Julia's complaint.

According to the Financial Times report, her case was not fully resolved until seven months after she first reported it. She claims that DeepMind's communications team pushed back on the Financial Times story and shortened the time it took to address it.

DeepMind argued that it was only 7 because the appeal took another 2 months and involved more rounds of interviews.

Julia believes that her case was deliberately dragged out and that DeepMind's nondisclosure policy prevented her from talking about her complaint to other employees or managers. She claims that if she spoke about it, she would facedisciplinary action. According to the Financial Times, Julia's manager forced her to attend meetings despite being aware of her report.

Julia and others offered several suggestions to improve the response of complaints and reported issues, such as doing away with the NDA policy for victims and setting a two-month time limit.

The union expressed their support for Julia in a statement, noting that the agreements they sign should never be used to silence victims of harassment or workplace abuse. There should be a global policy against this.

Laura Anderson, interim head of communications at DeepMind, acknowledged the struggles Julia went through but avoided taking accountability for her experiences. We are sorry that our former employee had a hard time with the process.

There have been concerns over the treatment of employees in the past. According to a report, DeepMind co-founder Mustafa Suleyman was placed on administrative leave for the controversy surrounding some of his projects. The company had a new employee join later that year. A report in the Wall Street Journal revealed that Suleyman was stripped of his management duties in 2019. At the time, he was investigated by Google, but it never made his findings public.

Julia said that if anyone finds themselves in a similar situation, join a union. Know your rights. Don't let them drag it out. Stay vocal. These stories are happening to your colleagues.