@EricaJoy's salary transparency experiment at Google

EricaJoy@EricaJoy

a thing bothered me yesterday and it's still bothering me today and so now i want to tell a story.

Fri, Jul 17 2015 16:24:14

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https://twitter.com/EricaJoy/status/622079372367781888

— EricaJoy (@EricaJoy)Fri, Jul 17 2015 16:24:14

EricaJoy@EricaJoy

One Sunday, some former coworkers & I were bored, talking about salaries on the internal social network instance. A spreadsheet was created.

Fri, Jul 17 2015 16:42:21

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https://twitter.com/EricaJoy/status/622083928715735040

— EricaJoy (@EricaJoy)Fri, Jul 17 2015 16:42:21

EricaJoy@EricaJoy

we put our salaries in the sheet, realized that it was created on a public to the world spreadsheet, so I copied it to internal.

Fri, Jul 17 2015 16:43:32

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https://twitter.com/EricaJoy/status/622084230391029760

— EricaJoy (@EricaJoy)Fri, Jul 17 2015 16:43:32

EricaJoy@EricaJoy

I then put a form on it and posted the link to the form and the spreadsheet on my internal social network account. It took off like wildfire

Fri, Jul 17 2015 16:44:10

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https://twitter.com/EricaJoy/status/622084387270582272

— EricaJoy (@EricaJoy)Fri, Jul 17 2015 16:44:10

EricaJoy@EricaJoy

It got reshared all over the place. People started adding pivot tables that did spreadsheet magic that highlighted not great things re: pay.

Fri, Jul 17 2015 16:45:50

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https://twitter.com/EricaJoy/status/622084807158185985

— EricaJoy (@EricaJoy)Fri, Jul 17 2015 16:45:50

EricaJoy@EricaJoy

I did some general housekeeping stuff to the sheet (normalizing the gender field where it could be, exchange rate stuff, that sort of thing)

Fri, Jul 17 2015 16:46:29

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https://twitter.com/EricaJoy/status/622084969410629632

— EricaJoy (@EricaJoy)Fri, Jul 17 2015 16:46:29

EricaJoy@EricaJoy

More reshares. More people adding pay. It became a thing.

Fri, Jul 17 2015 16:47:33

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https://twitter.com/EricaJoy/status/622085240882794498

— EricaJoy (@EricaJoy)Fri, Jul 17 2015 16:47:33

EricaJoy@EricaJoy

I was invited to talk to my manager on Mon or Tues. Higher up people weren't happy. She wasn't happy. Why did I do it?

Fri, Jul 17 2015 16:48:20

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https://twitter.com/EricaJoy/status/622085435452358657

— EricaJoy (@EricaJoy)Fri, Jul 17 2015 16:48:20

EricaJoy@EricaJoy

"Don't you know what could happen?" Nothing. It's illegal to retaliate against employees for sharing salaries. "Wellll.... ... ..."

Fri, Jul 17 2015 16:49:17

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https://twitter.com/EricaJoy/status/622085675223924737

— EricaJoy (@EricaJoy)Fri, Jul 17 2015 16:49:17

EricaJoy@EricaJoy

Meeting ended. Sheet kept going. People were thanking me for it. They were also sending me peer bonuses.

Fri, Jul 17 2015 16:50:11

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https://twitter.com/EricaJoy/status/622085900936179712

— EricaJoy (@EricaJoy)Fri, Jul 17 2015 16:50:11

EricaJoy@EricaJoy

here's how peer bonuses work @ former co: If you did something good, someone peer bonuses you, you get $150 net in your next paycheck.

Fri, Jul 17 2015 16:51:17

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https://twitter.com/EricaJoy/status/622086177416318976

— EricaJoy (@EricaJoy)Fri, Jul 17 2015 16:51:17

EricaJoy@EricaJoy

An important thing I learned during that time: peer bonuses are rewarded at managers discretion. My manager was rejecting all of them.

Fri, Jul 17 2015 16:52:10

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https://twitter.com/EricaJoy/status/622086400372924416

— EricaJoy (@EricaJoy)Fri, Jul 17 2015 16:52:10

EricaJoy@EricaJoy

Wasn't sure if this would be good for the company. Wanted to see what the outcome was. Mind you once a PB is rejected, that can't be undone.

Fri, Jul 17 2015 16:52:42

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https://twitter.com/EricaJoy/status/622086534129299456

— EricaJoy (@EricaJoy)Fri, Jul 17 2015 16:52:42

EricaJoy@EricaJoy

Meanwhile, one of the other people involved, a white dude (good friend I won't name, he can name himself if he wants), was also getting PBs.

Fri, Jul 17 2015 16:53:30

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https://twitter.com/EricaJoy/status/622086738253459456

— EricaJoy (@EricaJoy)Fri, Jul 17 2015 16:53:30

EricaJoy@EricaJoy

His weren't getting rejected. I told him mine were. He was pissed. Wanted to tell everyone what was happening. I declined.

Fri, Jul 17 2015 16:53:56

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https://twitter.com/EricaJoy/status/622086845204017152

— EricaJoy (@EricaJoy)Fri, Jul 17 2015 16:53:56

EricaJoy@EricaJoy

A smattering of people knew what was going on. Backchannels being what they are at former co. (lol IRC #yallknowwhoyouare), it got around.

Fri, Jul 17 2015 16:55:26

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https://twitter.com/EricaJoy/status/622087224343957505

— EricaJoy (@EricaJoy)Fri, Jul 17 2015 16:55:26

EricaJoy@EricaJoy

Rejecting PBs was so unheard of, ppl didn't know it was possible. There was outrage when they found out. Shock that I wasn't talking abt it.

Fri, Jul 17 2015 16:55:59

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https://twitter.com/EricaJoy/status/622087363037036545

— EricaJoy (@EricaJoy)Fri, Jul 17 2015 16:55:59

EricaJoy@EricaJoy

Meanwhile, spreadsheet still going, getting spread around, pointed questions being thrown at mgmt about sharing salary ranges (hahah no).

Fri, Jul 17 2015 16:56:56

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https://twitter.com/EricaJoy/status/622087599360872449

— EricaJoy (@EricaJoy)Fri, Jul 17 2015 16:56:56

EricaJoy@EricaJoy

Most people agreed that it was A Good Thing. PBs kept rolling in. Rejections kept rolling out.

Fri, Jul 17 2015 16:57:25

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https://twitter.com/EricaJoy/status/622087721910022144

— EricaJoy (@EricaJoy)Fri, Jul 17 2015 16:57:25

EricaJoy@EricaJoy

One PB eventually got approved. Way after everything died down. Because the person worded it in a way that was vary vague.

Fri, Jul 17 2015 16:57:45

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https://twitter.com/EricaJoy/status/622087804592324608

— EricaJoy (@EricaJoy)Fri, Jul 17 2015 16:57:45

EricaJoy@EricaJoy

Any that were outright about the spreadsheet got rejected. 7 total in the end I think?

Fri, Jul 17 2015 16:58:11

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https://twitter.com/EricaJoy/status/622087915535994880

— EricaJoy (@EricaJoy)Fri, Jul 17 2015 16:58:11

EricaJoy@EricaJoy

Higher ups still pissed. Some I used to support as an exec tech would pointedly not interact w/ me anymore. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Fri, Jul 17 2015 16:59:40

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https://twitter.com/EricaJoy/status/622088287071551488

— EricaJoy (@EricaJoy)Fri, Jul 17 2015 16:59:40

EricaJoy@EricaJoy

Before I left, about 5% of former co. had shared their salary on that sheet. People asked for & got equitable pay based on data in the sheet

Fri, Jul 17 2015 17:00:26

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https://twitter.com/EricaJoy/status/622088482266025984

— EricaJoy (@EricaJoy)Fri, Jul 17 2015 17:00:26

EricaJoy@EricaJoy

The world didn't end. Everything didn't go up in flames because salaries got shared. But shit got better for some people.

Fri, Jul 17 2015 17:00:58

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https://twitter.com/EricaJoy/status/622088614269161472

— EricaJoy (@EricaJoy)Fri, Jul 17 2015 17:00:58

EricaJoy@EricaJoy

I explicitly gave ownership of the sheet to someone else before I left so it couldn't be taken over by mgmt when I was gone (can happen).

Fri, Jul 17 2015 17:01:42

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https://twitter.com/EricaJoy/status/622088800974417920

— EricaJoy (@EricaJoy)Fri, Jul 17 2015 17:01:42