Photo: achinthamb / Shutterstock / Twitter
This is appalling.
By Sanika Nalgirkar — Written on May 31, 2022
Problems faced by women in the workplace such as sexism, sexual harassment, and more are familiar to us all by now, but that doesn't make them any less shocking when they happen.
Over the last number of years, women have become braver about coming forward with their stories but, still, blatant sexism seems to happen right in front of us every day.
One woman shared a similar example on TikTok where she shared a video containing a screenshot of a sexist tweet by a former Google employee.
The Google employee claimed he rejected all female job applicants ‘on-the-spot.’
The woman shared a screenshot of a now-deleted tweet by a man claiming to be a former Google employee where he "joked" about being unfair to women during the hiring process for the tech company.
The tweet read, "So when I used to conduct interviews for Google, I rejected all women on-the-spot and trashed their resumes in front of them."
If that wasn’t enough, the tweet continues where the former employee further explains his sexist behavior.
The tweet further continues, "I told them, 'Go have some kids. Don't worry I'm smarter than you, I know.' Then I gave them an NP-hard problem and went home."
This last part refers to an unsolved problem in computer science.
The woman who shared the video goes on to say how common this is for women. She said, “Every day. Not all day, every day. But every day.”
The video mentions that the tweet may have been just a joke by the alleged former Google employee.
Internet users were also shocked by such comments from a Google employee.
Many people also claimed that the tweet doesn’t seem like a joke and criticized the former employee for being so blunt about his attitude.
One user commented, “I have a feeling this won’t end well for him. It shouldn’t. There’s always some truth in 'humor' like that.”
Another user commented, “There [are] so many women in higher positions than him at Google, so obviously he isn't smarter than we know.”
The woman who shared the video also talked about it more in the comments section.
She wrote, "We all know by now ‘a joke’ is never just a joke. And malicious jokes of any kind can destroy livelihoods and entire careers. But ‘it’s just a joke’, right?"
This tweet also prompted many internet users to share their similar experiences.
People who had faced similar issues with Google could relate to it and shared their experiences in the comments section.
One user wrote, “Lol, once a google interviewer just told me that I ask too many questions and that’s why I don’t belong to google.”
Another person commented, “I have interviewed for google twice, and can confirm. They ask [the most absurd] questions.”
Sexist problems treated as jokes are also a problem.
One user wrote, “When will men learn that misogynistic jokes aren’t funny. Only insecure men laugh at discrimination.”
Even if the tweet was a joke, it highlights the problems faced by women to be so common that they can be joked about.
The fact that it is joked about shows how often it happens to women and it also begs the question of whether such problems will continue and if so, will it just get worse?
Sanika Nalgirkar is a writer who covers entertainment & news, lifestyle, and pop culture topics.