Former High-Level Google Employee Sues, Claims Discrimination Against Men

A male employee of Google who stated he served in such high-capacity jobs as “Global Business Leader” and “Head of Industry-Media Platforms,” has sued the company, alleging he and other male employees were discriminated against because they were men.

The suit from former employee Marco Meier accuses Marta Martinez, the Managing Director of Sales for Google, of making statements such as, “The women on my team have better leadership skills and are better prepared,” and “men are too aggressive and competitive.” The suit alleges that Meier and all the male leaders in Martinez’s department “endured a relentless campaign of hostile and disparate treatment, severe harassment, and discrimination based upon gender.”

“Indeed, over the course of a four-year period, Plaintiff witnessed the nefarious and systematic elimination of each male team leader reporting to Defendant Martinez, all of whom were exclusively replaced with female team leaders,” the suit states.

“Plaintiff and all male team leaders were continuously restricted from providing their insight during meetings, were issued lower performance reviews while female team leaders were provided with higher reviews without basis, were repeatedly denied large-scale influential projects while such projects were provided to lesser qualified female team leaders, and Plaintiffs and all male team leaders were continuously denied promotions … while female team leaders were rapidly promoted,” the suit claims.

Meier contended that he had submitted two detailed complaints of gender discrimination to Google, but no corrective action was taken or investigation conducted. Instead, he claims he was fired two months after his second complaint was closed after having worked at Google 12 and a half years.

“The accomplishments of Plaintiff were also without parallel which included closing the largest programmatic guaranteed deal in Respondent’s history with Apple,” the suit claims. “All female team leaders were promoted in less that two to three years. In stark contrast, Plaintiff was finally promoted from Level 6 to Level 7 after five and one-half years while Respondent Martinez refused to promote any other male team leaders.”

“Specifically, in or around November 2022, Defendant Google promoted fourteen employees in the Americas to Director positions. However, 13 of the promotions were provided to female employees.”