Professionalism, Ifeoma Ozoma and Pinterest

Introduction

Ifeoma Ozoma, currently serves as the Director of Technology Policy at Kapor Center, is a board member at TechEquity Collaborative, and the Founder and Principal of Earthseed, a consulting firm supporting individuals on issues surrounding public policy and communications[1]. Ozoma’s professional journey illustrates the core principles of professionalism and ethical responsibility through her experience working at Pinterest, and her career progression past it.

Ifeoma, born in 1991 to Nigerian immigrants, graduated from Yale with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science in 2015. Post-graduation, Ozoma worked in big tech at Google, before moving to Facebook, and then Pinterest from July of 2018 to May of 2020 according to her LinkedIn. Her work focused on public policy and worked as a Public Policy and Government Relations Associate at Google and a Policy Programs Associate Manager at Facebook. At Pinterest, she was hired as a Public Policy and Social Impact Manager, working to “manage global and state public policy partnerships, content safety initiatives, and external engagements[1].”

Discrimination and Inequality at Pinterest

During her time at Pinterest, Ozomoa realized that another colleague, Aerica Shimizu Banks, as well as herself were being undercompensated according to Pinterest’s job descriptions[2]. Both Banks and Ozoma had been robbed of $64,000 from their salaries, and a stock grant of 33,675 shares, amounting to 2.5 million dollars over a four year period. Ozoma approached Human Resources (HR), citing Pinterest’s formal job documents to argue for a salary increase based on her duties. HR pushed back, claiming her lack of 15 years of experience, despite job duty being the sole criteria of the documents. Despite her own attempts, Ozoma hired a lawyer to negotiate with Pinterest. Ozoma cited Pinterest’s formal documents that her current work aligned with work 2 levels above her and 5 months later, Pinterest promoted her by only 1 level. Ozoma had no additional work which confirmed that she was already doing senior level work[3].

The final straw was that another employee leaked internal documents along with her phone number, photo, and her name to a far-right group, leading to her personal information appearing on extremist websites which prompted death threats and random people showing up at her house. She wanted preventative measures and her personal information scrubbed from the internet; Pinterest only offered her one of their security officers to go with her to her home. Ozoma eventually requested help from her former colleagues at Google and Facebook to hire a news intelligence agency to scrub her information[3].

In May of 2020, Ozoma filed a complaint under the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing act and resigned, eventually reaching a settlement with Pinterest and signing a non disclosure agreement[4]. Although Ozoma’s approach toward fixing her pay disparity took the expected professional channel of having conversations with her manager, human resources, and other internal contacts, she was instead silenced and penalized for raising her concern. Ozoma’s “professional approach” exemplifies how professional expectations sometimes fail the people, especially minorities, that help build organizations, prioritizing institutions instead.

Breaking Point and Violating NDA

In June of 2020, during the Black Lives Matter Movement, companies including Pinterest expressed their solidarity. Pinterest’s CEO shared, “This is not just a moment in time. With everything we do, we will make it clear that our Black employees matter, Black [Pinterest users] and creators matter, and Black Lives Matter.” Ozoma, who faced discrimination first-hand at Pinterest, broke her NDA in a series of tweets criticizing Pinterest over hypocrisy in the treatment her and coworker received and their public statement, “What a joke.” she stated[5].

Pinterest's Response

Pinterest responded to the allegations stating how they “conducted a thorough investigation when they were raised” and were confident they were “treated fairly”[5]. It added how it is “advancing work in inclusion by taking action” within the company and the platform. In that same week, Silbermann acknowledged that some of Pinterest’s “culture is broken” and that he was “embarrassed” that he did not understand the “depth of the hardship and hurt” his employees went through[6]. Ozoma mentioned how she saw “genuine contrition” and “reparation” from others during the BLM movement and hopes “Pinterest takes this opportunity to express” their solidarity and follow through by committing to taking action[5].

Misconduct and Reform at Pinterest

In this case, Pinterest had many ethical misconducts firstly, with their misuse of NDAs. The Standard NDA practice is for protecting confidential information and trade secrets. but it was used so that Ozoma could not talk about the discrimination she faced during her time at Pinterest[7]. They also breached Anti Discrimination Codes as Ozoma was being paid less than others who had the same role. Also, they didn’t follow Non-retaliation principles when. She was given a poor performance review despite bringing up an ethical concern and finally they failed to uphold Employee Safety when Ozoma was doxed by her coworker. In December of 2020, after a multitude of lawsuits against Pinterest by shareholders and employees, they pledged 50 million dollars to overhaul its corporate culture and promote diversity. This was done to resolve the allegations that they had discriminated against women and people of color. Under the settlement, an audit committee of the board would oversee the changes they made to create these equal opportunities[6].

Ozoma’s Efforts to Address Discrimination

After leaving Pinterest, Ozoma founded Earthseed, a consulting firm specialized in tech accountability and public policy, trying to help enterprises with regulations and prioritizing ethical practices in the industry[8]. She also created the Tech Worker Handbook, giving tech workers guidance to deal with unjust situations and targets those that want to speak out publicly about such issues, usually against the employer’s interests[9]. Her goal with the handbook was to make workers more prepared to face scenarios with great risk. She emphasizes that the journey in making tech companies be more accountable and transparent is a long one, but it still requires continued attention.

Silenced No More Act

In 2021, Ozoma co-sponsored the Silenced No More Act in California. It was signed into law in October 2021 and effective Jan 22. This changed how NDAs are used in the workplace. NDAs were originally used to protect trade secrets but now silence workers[10]. Employers are using these agreements to hide unlawful conduct discrimination and harassment based on specific characteristics. This leaves workers having to choose between keeping their job and speaking the truth. This act, however, prevented companies from using NDAs to restrict workers from discussing any discriminatory or unlawful experience they had after leaving the company. It built on the STAND (Stand Together Against Non-Disclosure Act) from 2018 that came as a result of the #MeToo movement to support the publicizing of sexual harassment concerns[11]. The Silence No More Act expanded on the STAND act by increasing protections to allow all forms of discrimination and harassment to be spoken out against, based on the CA Fair Employment and Housing Act that prevents harassment and discrimination based on protected characteristics such as race, disability, color, age, or sex. Before the act was made into law, Pinterest mentioned they would abide by its terms whether the act was passed or not[10]. Ozoma was able to transform her experiences into a meaningful systemic change through this. “Tens of millions of people will be silenced no more, and I can't imagine a better way to have turned pain into progress.” said Ifeoma Ozoma.

Broader Effects in the Tech Sector

Ozoma also partnered with organizations such as Whistle Stop Capital, Minderoo Foundation and OpenMIC to form the Transparency in Employment Agreements Coalition (TEA)[12]. The TEA coalition’s goal was to expose tech companies using concealment clauses like NDA’s and the risks associated with them to investors/employees. They partnered with shareholders of major companies to file proposals and demand reports on the use/risks of concealment. Many companies went under reform as a result.

Salesforce agreed to extend the Silenced No More Act protections to all their US employees. Microsoft also said they would stop using concealment clauses after engaging with the coalition. The coalition also asked Apple for a written form of protection for employees to speak out on workplace issues[13]. Apple initially refused saying they didn’t use any clauses that silenced workers, but there had been reports of discrimination and harassment from employees. Using concealment clauses restricts diversity and transparency for workplace conditions from investors. Eventually, this led to Apple agreeing to stop enforcing concealment clauses.

Conclusion

Often times, professional expectations often fail the people, especially minorities, that help build organizations, prioritizing institutions instead. In Ozoma's case, although she used the appropriate professional channels to raise a concern regarding discrimination she was facing, she was shut down, and her safety was also put in danger. Ozoma left Pinterest, building a bigger movement towards fighting against discrimination, giving every professional tools to protect themselves from inequality through her work building Earthseed, the Silenced No More Act, and the Tech Worker's Handbook.

References

• ↑ a b LinkedIn. (n.d.). Ifeoma Ozoma – LinkedIn profile. https://www.linkedin.com/in/ifeomaozoma/
• ↑ Min, J., Espada, M., Shah, S., & Zorthian, J. (2021). Pinterest Paid Its Most Senior Woman $22.5M for Gender Discrimination. There’s a Lot More to the Story. TIME Magazine, 197(13/14), 52–61.
• ↑ a b Bort, J., & Rogers, T. N. (2020, June 24). The two Black employees who took on Pinterest explain why they quit, their fight for pay, the death threats, the private investigator: 'It was a torturous experience'. Business Insider. https://www.businessinsider.com/two-black-former-pinterest-employees-discuss-their-fight-for-pay-2020-6
• ↑ Woo, E. (2021, November 29). Tech Activist Helps Others Sound Alarm On Employers. New York Times, B1(L). https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A684117481/UHIC?u=viva_uva&sid=bookmark-UHIC&xid=debfa95e
• ↑ a b c Ranosa, R. (2020, June 17). Pinterest vows to improve D&I after backlash from former staff. HCAMag. https://www.hcamag.com/us/news/general/pinterest-vows-to-improve-di-after-backlash-from-former-staff/225520
• ↑ a b Duffy, K. (2020, December 15). Pinterest has paid $22.5 million to settle a gender discrimination suit from former executive Francoise Brougher, who claimed she was fired after speaking up. Business Insider. https://www.businessinsider.com/pinterest-francoise-brougher-gender-discrimination-suit-coo-2020-12
• ↑ Paul, K. (2021, May 10). She broke her NDA to speak out against Pinterest. Now she’s helping others come forward. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/may/10/pinterest-discrimination-ifeoma-ozoma-nda
• ↑ LinkedIn. (n.d.). Ifeoma Ozoma – LinkedIn profile. https://www.linkedin.com/in/ifeomaozoma/
• ↑ Tech Worker Handbook. (n.d.). TechWorkerHandbook.org.
• ↑ a b Paul, K. (2021, October 8). California companies can no longer silence workers in victory for tech activists. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/oct/08/california-companies-can-no-longer-silence-workers-in-victory-for-tech-activists
• ↑ Silenced No More. (n.d.). Silenced No More. https://silencednomore.org/
• ↑ Floberg, D. (2022, July 12). Pulling Back the Curtain on Concealment Clauses. Open MIC. https://www.openmic.org/news/2022/7/6/pulling-back-the-curtain-on-concealment-clauses
• ↑ Open MIC. (2021, September 16). Shareholders tell apple: Using employment agreements as gag orders to hide discrimination and harassment is bad for workers and bad for business. Open MIC. https://www.openmic.org/news/2021/9/16/shareholders-tell-apple-using-employment-agreements-as-gag-orders-to-hide-discrimination-and-harassment-is-bad-for-workers-and-bad-for-business

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