January 28, 2023
MANHATTAN, NY—A Google executive claims he was fired from the tech giant for rejecting the advances of a female boss during a company dinner party.
Ryan Olohan, 48, accuses Google and top executive Tiffany Miller of firing him after Miller allegedly groped him at a Chelsea restaurant back in December 2019 and told him she knew he liked Asian women, according to a federal lawsuit filed November 30.
Miller is the director of Google’s programmatic media and allegedly rubbed Olohan’s abs, complimented his physique, and told him her marriage lacked “spice,” reports The New York Post.
The drunken encounter happened at a company party at Fig & Olive on West 13th Street shortly after Olohan was promoted to managing director of food, beverages, and restaurants, which allowed him to join the new management team that included Miller at Google’s Manhattan offices.
When Olohan initially reported the incident, his coworkers chalked up the behavior to “Tiffany being Tiffany,” court documents say.
Olohan, a married father of seven, reported the incident to Google’s human resources the following week, and an HR representative “openly admitted…that if the complaint was ‘in reverse’—a female accusing a white male of harassment—the complaint would certainly be escalated,” explained the lawsuit.
Miller then allegedly began retaliating against Olohan after he made the complaint by criticizing him and reporting him for “microaggressions,” and later escalated the harassment during a Google-hosted December 2021 event, where a drunk Miller lambasted Olohan in front of his colleagues.
The drunken outburst got so bad, Miller was encouraged by her colleagues to move to the other end of the table. She later apologized, yet drunkenly berated Olohan again during a company get-together at a karaoke bar in April 2022, reports The Post.
Miller mocked Olohan for liking Asian women because he’s married to one, yet refused the advances of Miller—who is also Asian.
The lawsuit claims Google was aware of Miller’s continued harassment, which stemmed from his rejection of Miller’s sexual advances, yet took no action.
Instead of addressing the ongoing harassment by Miller, Olohan’s supervisor pressured him to fire a male employee to make room for a woman because there were “obviously too many white guys,” the lawsuit claims.
A month later, Olohan was fired, ending his 16 years of employment at the tech giant. The company told him he wasn’t being “inclusive.”
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