Go read this report about a Google contractor who claims he was fired for calling out cult activity, Google is known for its affectionate — and at times cryptic — company culture, yet one wouldn’t think an actual cult running things in the background. All things considered, one Google contractor claims that’s exactly the case, as detailed in this unusual report from The New York Times.
Kevin Lloyd, a contractor recruited to function as a video maker for Google Developer Studio (GDS), alleges at least 12 individuals from a dark strict order work for GDS and hold an inappropriate degree of impact over the workplace. Lloyd claims he was wrongly fired for calling out the gathering’s behavior and has documented a lawsuit against Google and his contracting agency ASG for unfair termination, retaliation, emotional misery, and failure to safeguard him against discrimination.
The strict gathering being referred to is known as the Fellowship of Friends. According to the Times, the Fellowship “accepts higher cognizance can be achieved by embracing expressive arts and culture” and has a compound spanning 1,200 acres in Oregon House, California. The gathering has even turned into the subject of an investigative Spotify podcast that vows to reveal its “dark insider facts.”
Long-term Fellowship part Peter Lubbers leads GDS and has welcomed on various other Fellowship individuals, including video maker Gabe Pannell, the Times notes.
However, things get considerably more bizarre than that — the Times’ report indicates Fellowship individuals hold jobs at Google’s company occasions, “working registration work areas, taking photographs, playing music Pokémon Snap for N64, giving massages and serving wine.” Google also allegedly purchases the wine served at these occasions from a winery show to an individual from the Fellowship. In addition, Lloyd’s suit claims Google paid for a “state-of-the-art sound framework installed in the Oregon House home of one Fellowship part who worked for the team as a sound planner.”
The Times says it corroborated a portion of these allegations after speaking with eight current and former Google workers, as well as by taking a gander at openly available records, including a rundown of Fellowship individuals, occasion photographs, and spreadsheets reporting occasion spending plans.
Another contractor, Erik Johanson, let the Times know that Google’s partnership with ASG enabled the GDS team to welcome more Fellowship individuals ready, as contractors are employed “with far less examination and a far less rigorous on-boarding process.” The Alphabet Workers Union (AWU) has also called out managers’ potential abuse of Google’s contracting framework in a thread on Twitter.
The FoF’s impact could also be proven by the statement of another contractor, Erik Johanson, who told the New York Times that Google’s partnership with ASG enabled the FoF individuals inside the GDS team to carry a greater amount of its individuals into the company.
Johanson said that FoF individuals that want to become contractors are employed “with far less investigation and a far less rigorous on-boarding process.
What The Fellowship of Friends Is
The FoF is a gathering established in 1970 by Rober Earl Burton, a former San Francisco Bay Area teacher. A gathering accepts “higher cognizance can be achieved by embracing expressive arts and culture” and that it is available to anyone keen on “seeking after the spiritual work of awakening.”
The strict group claims to have as many as 1,500 individuals around the world, with 500 or 600 in and around its 1,200-acre compound in Oregon House.
Individuals are typically expected to give 10% of their month to month earnings to the organization.