Ex-Google staff says he was denied promotion for being a ‘white man’

Google’s former employee and tech celebrity, Shaun Maguire has blasted the company, alleging racial discrimination during his work days. Maguire now works with Sequoia Capital, a venture capital firm that has helped build Silicon Valley giants such as Apple, Google etc.
Taking to X(formerly Twitter) on Friday, Maguire alleged that while working at Google he was told he can’t be promoted for being a white man. He made the revelation in reply to his earlier post in December, last year.
In December 2023, Maguire had asked his followers: “Should I go public with the story about the time I was told I can’t be promoted for being a white man?”
Replying to his post on Friday, he wrote: “F**k it, This happened at Google. That company is an absolute trash can dumpster fire”.
Maguire has claimed that his supervisor at Google told him “you’re one of the highest performing people here but I can’t promote you right now because I have a quota”.
“I’m really not supposed to tell you this. It could get me fired. But you’re one of the highest performing people here but I can’t promote you right now because I have a quota. My hands are tied. You’ll get the next slot. Please be patient. I’m really sorry,” Maguire quoted his supervisor as saying.
ALSO READ| Nikki Haley’s last chance against Donald Trump? Why South Carolina GOP Primary 2024 means so much to Nikki Haley
Meanwhile, Google has rejected Maguire’s claims. “The founders and Board have never spoken to [Google Ventures] about personnel matters. Shaun is a talented investor and we wish him well at Sequoia, but decisions about his promotion and career advancement at GV not once ever involved consideration of his race or gender,” a Google representative said as quoted by the New York Post.
Responding to Google rejecting his claims, Maguire writes that nobody from the company has reached out to him for his side of the story.
“Google is denying this happened but nobody from the company has reached out to me for my side of the story. Honestly, pathetic. I don’t want any compensation. I just want you to fix these problems, especially if you’re going to lead in AI,” posted Maguire.
Recently, Google has also come under fire over its AI model named Gemini. The text-to-image generation feature of its Gemini AI chatbot has been criticised for inaccuracies and bias. “We’re aware that Gemini is offering inaccuracies in some historical image generation depictions,” said Google.