A Google executive claims he was fired for rejecting the grabby attempts of a high-ranking female boss at a lavish corporate dinner.
According to a blockbuster federal lawsuit filed Nov. 30 in Manhattan, Ryan Olohan, 48, accuses Google and one of its top executives, Tiffany Miller, of firing him after Miller touched him at a Chelsea restaurant in December 2019 and told him she knew he preferred Asian women, which Miller is.
Miller, Google’s programmatic media director, caressed Olohan’s abdomen, complimented his physique, and informed her marriage lacked “spice,” according to court documents.
According to the lawsuit, the alleged hands-on encounter occurred during a drunken company gathering at Fig & Olive on West 13th Street, shortly after Olohan was promoted to managing director of food, beverages, and restaurants and joined a new management team in Google’s Manhattan offices that included Miller.
According to court documents, while Olohan, a married father of seven, claimed he was first reluctant to discuss the incident since so many of his employees were drunk, his colleagues later explained the behavior as “Tiffany being Tiffany.”
Olohan claimed that after reporting the problem to Google’s human resources division, nothing ever came of the complaint.
According to the lawsuit, the HR representative “openly conceded… that the complaint would undoubtedly be escalated if the complaint was ‘in reverse’ — a female charging a white guy of harassment.
Olohan claims Miller started harassing him after he filed the complaint, calling him names and accusing him of “microaggressions,” but the complaint is vague on what Miller is said to have done.
The vengeance allegedly continued at a Google-hosted event in December 2021, when Miller allegedly admonished Olohan in front of his coworkers while drunk. According to the lawsuit, the squabbling was so terrible that coworkers persuaded Miller to move to the opposite end of the table.
Miller later apologized, and “despite Google’s knowledge that Miller’s persistent harassment of Olohan was motivated by his rejection of her sexual approaches, it took no action,” according to the lawsuit.
According to court documents, Miller drunkenly berated Olohan once more during a company get-together at a karaoke bar in April 2022, where she insulted him upon arrival and reiterated that she knew he liked Asian women over white women.