Targeted some recent layoffs

Google targeted some recent layoffs at 'disloyal' workers, lawsuit says

By Stephen Council

A laid-off Google employee sued the Mountain View tech giant Tuesday, alleging that two of his bosses abused a company-branded apprenticeship program for personal gain and that the company then cut his position for his attempt to blow the whistle.

Leilei Shan, who goes by Sammy, accused Google of unlawful retaliation, wrongful termination, discrimination, harassment and more in the complaint, which he filed in Santa Clara County Superior Court. The brunt of his allegations circle around Vice President of Finance Engineering Jannie Affeld and engineering manager Ying Liu, two superiors who Shan said “grew increasingly hostile and abusive” after he accused them of fraud before the company’s human resources staff.

According to the complaint, Affeld collected cash donations from Google employees and the general public for her nonprofit, Innovantre, which was partnered with a half-year-long Google Apprentice program for students. Under Affeld, Innovantre had the stated mission of helping underprivileged students, but many of the students seen in the nonprofit’s work with Google’s program were from an affluent Palo Alto high school, Shan alleges. The complaint called this “clearly fraud.”

“The organization was not actually helping underprivileged students and, instead, was designed to help funnel wealthy and well-connected children, like Ms. Affeld’s, to elite schools,” the complaint alleges. Shan, per the complaint, went to HR with his concerns on Aug. 29.

Liu, per the complaint, had a child in the Google Apprentice program, as did Affeld. Shan alleges that Liu hired an unskilled vendor for Google because the worker knew Affeld closely, and when the vendor’s time at Google ended, she moved to Innovantre. Liu, per the complaint, asked Shan to come up with a “false business rationale” to retain the vendor and was often heard attributing her career growth at Google to being “loyal” to Affeld. 

SFGATE requested comment on the allegations in the complaint from Google, Innovantra, Affeld and Liu, but none replied. 

Shan’s lawyer, Stephen Ilg, wrote in a statement to SFGATE: “Upon discovering that Google executives were purportedly using a non-profit to solicit funds under false pretenses, Mr. Shan took the responsible step of reporting these concerns.”

Two days after reporting to HR, per the complaint, Shan received the first negative performance feedback review in his 13 years with the company. Less than five months later, he was laid off. After massive job cuts in 2023, Google continued to pare back its workforce this year, starting with hundreds of Bay Area layoffs in January. That’s when Shan got his pink slip, per the complaint.

Shan alleges that Affeld sorted some of her subordinates into groups: those who had provided evidence to HR against her “illegal activities” and those who “participated in her fraud” or took “major roles in retaliating against those who had spoken up.” Employees in the first group, the complaint alleges, were subjected to months of harassment and then laid off in January. The employees friendly to Affeld, Shan says, got to keep their jobs.

The layoffs in January, the complaint said, “showed a clear pattern where ‘loyal’ people were kept or even rewarded during the layoff, whereas the ‘disloyal’ ones were let go.”

Per the complaint, Google’s ethics division told Shan that Affeld did violate conflict-of-interest rules by not disclosing her involvement with Innovantre, but she was punished only with a lower performance rating.

In the complaint, Shan also alleges that Liu held Chinese employees to a different standard than non-Chinese employees and made age-biased comments about young people being more dedicated employees. He reported this to HR, who eventually said that Liu “created a culture of intimidation” and gave her a warning, per the complaint.

Shan, who was being paid $666,000 a year before the layoff, per the complaint, filed the suit seeking restitution and punitive damages.