Mountain View, California-based headquarters of Google. Photo: Shutterstock.com

In-house leaders might learn from the story of an ex-Google legal department employee who detailed how she was treated after the tech giant's human resources department discovered that she was having an extramarital affair with her boss.

Jennifer Blakely, a former senior contracts manager for Google, wrote in a piece that Medium published Wednesday that she was forced to leave the legal department for a position in sales. Out of her element, she struggled and "became depressed at work" before finally quitting. 

Her transfer to sales occurred after she gave birth to the son of David Drummond, then the chief legal officer at Google, according to Blakely. Drummond, now the CLO of Google parent company Alphabet Inc., made more than $47 million last year. 

David Drummond.

As Jaime Klein, founder and president of Inspire Human Resources, read Blakely's account of her experience at Google, she couldn't help but fit the narrative into a familiar pattern: Another company had turned a blind eye to the misdeeds of "high talent" and in doing so undermined employee policies from the top down.  

"These high talents. It's these coveted individuals. These subject matter experts. These people we can't lose," she said. "I see companies consistently making exceptions for them. Until we stop making exceptions and create rules that apply to everyone, these things will continue to happen." 

Klein added that more often than not the executive gets to stay while the "person who already didn't have the power and is already feeling like the victim" is transferred and "now doesn't have access to the same career potential and compensation." 

If an employee is moved to a different department because of a workplace relationship, the company should at least ensure that the employee's salary and compensation opportunities remain unchanged, Klein said. 

"If you're eligible for a $100,000 salary and a $50,000 bonus because you're really good at legal and you get moved to sales, best-in-class companies say behind the scenes that we're going to keep your compensation whole even though you're new to sales," she added. "There are creative ways that companies can handle these things." 

According to Blakely, Google initially had a policy that discouraged direct-reporting-line relationships, but later implemented an outright ban on them, which she said was in effect when she gave birth.

A Google spokesperson declined to comment but noted that Drummond, who did not respond to an interview request, had apparently issued a statement to BuzzFeed late Thursday. 

"It's not a secret that Jennifer and I had a difficult break-up 10 years ago. I am far from perfect and I regret that," he stated.  

He went on to write that he "never started a relationship with anyone else who was working at Google or Alphabet. Any suggestion otherwise is simply untrue." He added that he knows Blakely "feels wronged and understand that she wants to speak out about it. But I won't be getting into public back and forth about these personal matters."  

Many companies, especially tech firms, have had policies that discouraged, rather than banned, sexual relationships between supervisors and subordinates, Klein noted. 

"What has happened is that organizations where there was pride in spending more time at work than at home, like high tech, a lot of those companies had these policies," she said. "But since the fall of 2017, I have seen an uptick in those policies being refreshed to be more black and white." 

It was in the fall of 2017 that "Today Show" host Matt Lauer was fired over sexual misconduct allegations—a pivotal point in the #MeToo movement and one that bucked the trend of firms shielding high talent. 

"That was the first time I saw this sea change," Klein said. "[NBC] decided that there was more risk to retain him." 

Aside from having clear policies in place that ban direct-reporting-line relationships—and having executives that actually follow those policies—companies need to provide employees with strong options for reporting misconduct, whether it be to a third party, such as a dedicated ombudsperson or through a 1-800 hotline. 

"The best thing you can do is create multifaceted reporting so people can speak their truth. People speaking their truth brings about change," Klein said. "We're at a moment in time when the amnesia has cleared. People are not keeping secrets anymore." 

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