Inside the 2018 Google Walkout: Organizer Tells How It Began

In 2018, more than 20,000 Google employees walked out to protest the company's handling of sexual harassment allegations. Claire Stapleton, then a marketing manager in New York, was one of the organizers. In an excerpt from her book Don't Be Evil, she describes how the protest came together from inside the company.

Stapleton set up an internal Google Group called womens-walk. Within days, hundreds of people had joined, posting under their real names. She sent an email asking what the group wanted to achieve, why people were participating, and when the action should take place. The first major decision came almost immediately: the walkout would be held on Thursday, November 1, 2018, just five days later and before the U.S. midterm elections, to harness the moment's anger.

Organizing took place alongside regular work duties. A project manager named Tanuja helped build an internal site and set up a 'hub and spoke' structure with local leads in each office. An engineer named Amr, who had previously organized restaurant workers with the Fight for $15 campaign, warned that Google might push back against the action. He and Meredith Whittaker, a colleague known for opposing the Maven military drone project, had been vocal critics of Google's use of AI in warfare. Whittaker argued that technology was not a neutral tool, and her public debate with internet pioneer Vint Cerf over Maven was widely remembered.

Amr was skeptical about the walkout's scale and speed, but the momentum was already strong. To better understand what drove employees, Stapleton sent out a form asking, 'Why are you walking out?' She received 350 responses. Many described abusive managers, failed HR investigations, retaliation for complaints, and pay inequity.

The excerpt shows how a simple internal forum helped transform individual anger into one of the largest employee protests in Google's history.