Singaporean tech executive in US accuses ex-employer Meta of racial discrimination
Asian Americans are "stereotyped as the worker bee, unsuited for leadership", says Ms Vaishnavi Jayakumar in her complaint against Meta.
Ms Vaishnavi Jayakumar (left) has accused Meta Platforms of racial discrimination when she was an employee there. (Photo: AFP)
Davina Tham
11 Jul 2023 07:49PMBookmark
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SINGAPORE: A Singaporean tech executive in the United States has accused Meta Platforms, owner of Facebook and Instagram, of racial discrimination that cost her promotions and work opportunities.
Ms Vaishnavi Jayakumar, 36, joined Meta as Instagram's head of safety and well-being policy in January 2020, after stints at Google and Twitter.
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In a LinkedIn post last week, Ms Jayakumar said that in June she received "what I believe to be a retaliatory termination at Meta disguised as a mass layoff", after filing a complaint about her treatment.
CNA understands that her complaint of racial discrimination, filed with the California Civil Rights Department, has been recommended for investigation.
The California Civil Rights Department is the state agency charged with enforcing California's civil rights laws, including protection from unlawful discrimination in employment.
If civil rights violations are found, the department usually requires parties to go to mediation. It may file a lawsuit against the violating party if the dispute is not resolved through mediation.
In documents seen by CNA, Ms Jayakumar described a pattern of alleged discrimination by white supervisors who denied her leadership opportunities despite her work performance.
Despite receiving good performance reviews, Ms Jayakumar "crashed against the bamboo ceiling – the resistance to Asian American leadership that pervades Silicon Valley and is especially entrenched at Meta", the complaint read.
This purportedly started after she sought promotion in November 2021, and included "an effective demotion" by being placed under another employee, and exclusion from key opportunities that "would have typically been in her scope".
In one instance, Ms Jayakumar said that she was excluded from the recruiting process for a director position despite being the most tenured policy member of her team.
She was purportedly told that she was not allowed to apply for the role. A white woman with "nine years less experience" than Ms Jayakumar was subsequently hired as the director.
On another occasion, Ms Jayakumar said she was not given the opportunity to be an expert witness in youth well-being in a legal case as "she was deemed not to be a good fit to be the public face of the company".
This was despite her having "the most relevant experience". "Public testimony is well-known to elevate an employee's visibility – key to advancement at Meta," the complaint read.
The opportunity was given instead to another less experienced white employee "with no knowledge of the case", and then purportedly cited as a reason for this colleague to be promoted.
Ms Jayakumar's supervisor also purportedly reassigned much of her work to the promoted colleague, "including the network, relationships, analyses, and documentation ... built up over three years".
"Time and again, white supervisors excluded Ms Jayakumar from opportunities to represent and lead, while less-experienced white women were given headcount, made workstream leaders, included in leadership teams, advanced to represent Meta in key visible roles, and otherwise supported in their career advancement," the complaint read.
"The pattern of discrimination experienced by Ms Jayakumar mirrors that faced by the broader Asian American community: Others make assumptions about what work Asian Americans are suited for. Asian Americans are unsupported in the workplace in taking on leadership opportunities.
"Instead, they are stereotyped as the worker bee, unsuited for leadership."
Ms Jayakumar’s complaint also cited a 2022 study by Ascend, a global network of Asian and Pacific Islander professionals, which found that 49 per cent of Meta’s workforce is Asian but only 25 per cent of its executives are Asian.
After firing more than 11,000 employees, or 13 per cent of its workforce at the end of 2022, Meta in March slashed another 10,000 roles in another round of mass layoffs.
CNA has contacted Meta for its response to the allegations.
