Employee at Google-owned firm says boss branded her a 'fat elephant'

Non-binary woman working at Google-owned self-driving car firm says boss branded her a ‘fat elephant,’ hurled PEANUTS at her and endangered her by forcing car she was piloting to make emergency stops

• Amanda Watson claims that when she returned to work she was subjected to ‘cruel and appalling bullying’ 
• She returned to her job at Waymo in April 2022 after a year of medical leave connected to a three-day kidnapping ordeal 
• Watson claims a supervisor altered her employment record to strip her of credentials she had ‘worked tirelessly to obtain’

An ex-employee of Google’s autonomous car company has filed a lawsuit claiming her bosses called her a ‘fat elephant’ and threw peanuts at her.

Amanda Watson claims that when she returned to work at Waymo contractor Transdev Alternative Services her boss disclosed her confidential medical information related to a violent kidnapping.

The non-binary woman returned to her job at Waymo in April 2022 after a year of medical leave connected to the three-day ordeal.

Her lawsuit at the San Francisco County Superior Court states that she realized that Transdev had informed her colleagues about her experience after suffering ‘cruel and appalling treatment’.

Watson, an Autonomous Vehicle Trainer, worked with the company’s autonomous cars as Waymo tested and refined their software on city roads, according to the lawsuit.

Amanda Watson claims that when she returned to work at Waymo contractor Transdev Alternative Services her boss disclosed her confidential medical information related to a violent kidnapping

Her lawsuit at the San Francisco County Superior Court states that she realized that Transdev had informed her colleagues about her experience after suffering ‘cruel and appalling treatment’

She claims that a female co-worker told her that she had ben held hostage too, which Watson ‘found alarming’ because she expected her ‘traumatic medical information’ to be kept private.

The same co-worker was put in charge of her training to get her back up to speed after her leave, but made several comments mocking cancer patients despite Watson telling her she had several relatives die from the illness.

Watson made a formal complaint to her supervisor about the ‘awful training experience’ but claims in her lawsuit that the supervisor who handled the complaint was ‘close personal friends’ with the person who made the comments.

Court documents show that Watson was ‘brutally bullied, harassed and retaliated against’ by the two women.

Her supervisor reportedly demoted Watson to manually driving the autonomous cars, damaging Watson’s chances for promotion, the lawsuit alleges.

Watson also claims that the supervisor altered her employment record to strip her of credentials she had ‘worked tirelessly to obtain’.

After that specific incident, the two women walked to an elevator together, with the supervisor telling Watson ‘Don’t worry, we will take the elevator, I’m fat, too.’

She then looked her ‘up and down with disgust’, with Watson saying that her two tormentors would throw peanuts at her while she was working, and call her a ‘fat elephant’.

Watson worked with the company’s autonomous cars as Waymo tested and refined their software on city roads, according to the lawsuit

The lawsuit also states that during in-car training exercises the supervisor is able to create phantom objects to test a car’s response.

She claims that several times a day the supervisor would ‘place multiple children around (Watson’s) car, which would cause the car to short-circuit and place (Watson) in danger.’

It goes on: ‘On several occasions, the vehicle (Watson) was operating would swerve and almost hit another car because it thought there were children around the car.’

Watson claims that the supervisor was ‘possibly trying to injure’ her and make her look bad to Transdev.

The company is able to monitor the drivers’ actions with audio and video through the employee’s work phone.

The lawsuit also states that during in-car training exercises the supervisor is able to create phantom objects to test a car’s response

Watson also claims that the same monitoring capability allowed the same supervisor to spy on her as she was in the bathroom.

Workers are able to notify their supervisors when they take breaks sot they stop listening and recording the employee through their work phone.

Employees are able to see when their managers are actively listening, something Watson claims her supervisor did despite being asked to stop.

Watson was ‘shocked and humiliated that anyone would so egregiously invade her privacy like that,’ the lawsuit alleges.

She claims that she had multiple meetings with management and human resources, and described the incidents as ‘outright bullying’.

But Transdev allowed the purported behavior to continue for months while Watson ‘hopelessly suffered constant abuse,’ the lawsuit alleges.

Watson claims she was left no choice but to resign in August last year.

Source: Read Full Article