Oregon House, California — In a small town at the foot of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, a religious group called the Fellowship of Friends has set up an elaborate 1,200-acre site full of art and ornate architecture.
Religious denominations, more than 200 miles from their fellowship base in Oregon House, California, believe that embracing art and culture can help them become more conscious and build a foothold within Google’s business unit. I am.
Fellowships in business units were rare, even in Google’s bohemian office culture, which encourages employees to share their thoughts and carry out their projects. According to a lawsuit filed by former Google video producer Kevin Lloyd, 34, as many as 12 fellowship members and close relatives work at Google Developer Studio (GDS) to produce videos that showcase the company’s technology.
Many others staffed company events, worked at registration desks, took pictures, played music, provided massages, and provided wine. According to the lawsuit, for these events, Google regularly purchased wine from the Oregon House Winery, which is owned by a member of the Fellowship.
Mr Lloyd claimed he was fired last year because he complained about the influence of religious denominations. His case also nominated Advanced Systems Group (ASG), a company that sent Lloyd to Google as a contractor. Most Google Developer Studios, including many members of the Fellowship, joined the team as contractors through ASG.
A lawsuit filed by Lloyd in the California Superior Court in August accuses Google and ASG of violating California’s employment law, which protects workers from discrimination. It is in the discovery stage.
The New York Times confirmed many of the proceedings’ allegations through interviews with eight current and former employees of the Google Business Unit, as well as a search of publicly available information and other documents. These included a Fellowship of Friends membership list, a Google spreadsheet detailing the event’s budget, and photos taken at these events.
“We have long-standing policies for employees and suppliers to prevent discrimination and conflicts of interest, and we take them seriously,” Google spokeswoman Courtney Mencini said in a statement. “It is against the law to seek the religious affiliation of those who work for us or our suppliers, but of course we will thoroughly investigate these allegations of irregular or improper contracting practices. Policy violations. If we find evidence of, we will take action. “
In a statement, ASG President Dave Van Hoy believed that his company “identifies all races, religions, genders, and above all, the principles of openness, inclusiveness and equality for indiscriminate people.” Said that.
“We continue to deny plaintiffs’ unfounded allegations and look forward to proving themselves in court soon,” he added.
Founded in 1970 by former San Francisco Bay Area school teacher Robert Earl Burton, the Fellowship of Friends states that it is an organization “available to anyone interested in pursuing the spiritual work of awakening.” increase. It claims to have about 500 to 600 members in and around the Oregon House grounds, with 1,500 members worldwide. Members typically need to donate 10 percent of their monthly income to the organization.
Burton taught on the basis of a fourth method, a philosophy developed in the early 20th century by a Greek Armenian philosopher and one of his students. They believed that higher consciousness was possible while most people lived their lives in a state of “awakened sleep.” Taking advantage of what he described as a visit from the angelic incarnation of historical figures such as Leonardo da Vinci, Johann Sebastian Bach, and Walt Whitman, Burton made a true by accepting art. I taught you that you can achieve consciousness.
Fellowships performed opera, theater and ballet in a complex in Northern California, an organization called Apollo. I ran an acclaimed winery. And art collected from around the world, including over $ 11 million in Chinese antiques.
“They believe that in order to achieve enlightenment, they should be dressed in what is called a higher impression, what Robert Burton believed to be the best of his life,” a podcast about fellowships. Said Jennings Brown, a journalist who recently produced.revelation.. Burton described Apollo as the seed of a new civilization that would emerge after the global apocalypse.
The fellowship fired in 1984 when a young man, a former member of the organization, filed a $ 2.75 million lawsuit alleging that he was “forced and illegally sexually seduced by Burton.” In 1996, another former member filed a lawsuit accusing Mr Burton of sexually illegally committing sexual misconduct with him when he was a minor. Both proceedings were settled outside the court.
That same year, Fellowship sold a collection of Chinese antiques at auction. After the chief winemaker left the organization in 2015, the winery Production stoppage.. Greg Holman, President of Fellowship, declined to comment on this article.
Google Developer Studio is run by Peter Lubbers, a longtime member of the Fellowship of Friends. He is listed as a member in the July 2019 Fellowship Directory acquired by the Times. Former members confirm that he participated in the fellowship after moving from the Netherlands to the United States.
At Google, he’s a director, usually a rung under the vice president of Google’s management team, and usually receives top 6 or bottom 7 digits of annual compensation.
Previously, Lubbers worked for the dispatching company Kelly Services. Lloyd’s lawyer, M. Catherine Jones, won a similar proceeding against Kelly Services in 2008 on behalf of Linnoyes, who claimed that her company did not promote her because she was not a member of the fellowship. I did. A California court has given Noyes $ 6.5 million in damages.
In an interview, Noyes said Lubbers was one of a large delegation of Dutch fellowship members who worked for the company in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
According to a recently deleted LinkedIn profile, Lubbers worked as a software developer at Kelly Services before working for Silicon Valley software giant Oracle. He joined Google in 2012 and initially worked on a team that promoted Google technology to external software developers. In 2014, he helped create GDS, which produced a video promoting Google developer tools.
Kelly Services refused to comment on the proceedings.
Under Lubbers, the group brought in some other members of the fellowship, including a video producer named Gabe Pannel. A 2015 photo A post on the internet by Mr. Panel’s father shows Mr. Lovers and Mr. Panel, along with Mr. Burton, who is known within the Fellowship as a “teacher” or “our beloved teacher.” The recently deleted photo captions call Mr. Panel a “freshman.”
Erik Johansen, a senior video producer who has worked at Google Developer Studio through ASG since 2015, said team leadership abused the hiring system to hire workers as contractors, reflecting the allegations in the proceedings.
“They were able to hire people with a much more rigorous onboarding process, with much less scrutiny than if they were brought in as full-time employees, so they themselves very quickly. I was able to promote my purpose, “he said. “It meant that no one was looking very carefully when all these people were brought from the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.”
After applying for a job, Lloyd said he had two interviews with Panel and reported directly to Panel when he joined the 25 Bay Area Video Production Team within GDS in 2017. He soon noticed it. Almost half of this team, including Lubbers and Pannelll, came from Oregon House.
According to the lawsuit, Google paid to install a state-of-the-art sound system in the home of one fellowship member, Oregon House, who worked on the team as a sound designer. Lover’s challenged the claim in a telephone interview, stating that the equipment was old and would have been thrown away if the team hadn’t sent it home.
The daughter of the sound designer also worked as a set designer on the team. Additional fellowship members and their relatives were hired as staff at Google’s events, including photographers, masseurs, and Lubber’s wife and son, who worked as DJs at company parties.
According to people familiar with the proceedings and issues, the company frequently served wine from Grant Marie, an Oregon House winery run by a member of the Fellowship who previously managed the Fellowship winery.
“My personal religious beliefs are deeply rooted and private,” Lubbers said. “In every year of my tech industry, they haven’t played a role in hiring. I’ve always played my part by hiring the right people for the situation. That’s right for the job. Is to hire a vendor. “
He said ASG, not Google, hired a contractor for the GDS team, adding that “inviting people to apply for those roles” is a good thing. And in recent years, he said, the team has grown to more than 250 people, including part-time employees.
In a telephone interview, Panel said the team brought workers from “a circle of trusted friends and family with a very talented background,” including graduates from the University of California, Berkeley.
According to the lawsuit, in 2017 and 2018, Mr. Panel participated in a drunken video shoot and sometimes threw things at the presenter when he was dissatisfied with the performance. Mr Panel said he didn’t remember the case and didn’t hear what he did. He also admitted that he had a problem with alcohol and asked for help.
According to the lawsuit, after spending seven months at Google, Mr. Panel became a full-time employee. According to his LinkedIn profile, he was later promoted to Senior Producer and then to Executive Producer. This has also been removed.
Mr Lloyd drew much of this to the attention of managers within the team, he said. However, according to his proceedings, Lubbers is a strong Google figure and Lloyd could lose his job, so he was repeatedly told not to pursue this issue. He said he was fired in February 2021 and was given no reason. Google, Lubers and Panel said they were fired due to performance issues.
Lloyd’s lawyer, Jones, argued that the relationship between Google and ASG allows fellowship members to join the company without proper scrutiny. “This is one of the methods the fellowship used in the Kelly case,” she said. “They can go through the door without the usual scrutiny.”
Lloyd seeks damages for tort, retaliation, failure to prevent discrimination, and intentional mental distress. But he said he was worried that Google had paid for his friend’s fellowship by making a lot of deals with the members.
“If you notice this, you will be responsible,” Lloyd said. “You can’t look away.”
