A Salesforce manager says she quit over 'countless microaggressions and inequity' at the $219 billion cloud software giant (CRM)

<p><img src="https://static5.businessinsider.com/image/5c0034664b676b01503b6e10-2400/benny.jpg" border="0" alt="Marc Benioff" data-mce-source="Kimberly White / Stringer"></p><p></p><bi-shortcode id="summary-shortcode" data-type="summary-shortcode" class="mceNonEditable" contenteditable="false">Summary List Placement</bi-shortcode><p>Salesforce is facing renewed criticism over its diversity and inclusion efforts from a senior manager who quit over what she described as "countless <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/microaggression-unconscious-bias-at-work-2018-6">microaggressions</a> and inequity" during her time at the company.&nbsp;</p><p>Cynthia Perry, who was a senior manager in the design research and business technology innovation division, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6763264995485728768/">said in a resignation lettersent to company leadership on February 4th, and posted to LinkedIn </a>on Fridaythat the company's motto of "Equality for All" doesn't reflect the reality of working at the $219 billion cloud software giant, particularly for Black employees.</p><p>"I am leaving my job at Salesforce because of countless microaggressions and inequity. I have been gaslit, manipulated, bullied, neglected, and mostly unsupported...the entire time I've been here," Perry wrote in her resignation letter, which she redacted to avoid publicly naming specific people. "Salesforce, for me, is not a safe place to come to work."</p><p>Perry started at Salesforce in December 2018 as a lead design researcher before leaving the company earlier in February as a senior manager in design research. She said in her LinkedIn post that she does not have a new job lined up.</p><p>Salesforce said it doesn't comment on matters pertaining to individual employees, but told Insider that "equality is one of our highest values and we have been dedicated to its advancement both inside and outside of our company since we were founded almost 22 years ago."</p><p>Perry's letter, <a href="https://www.protocol.com/enterprise/salesforces-benioff-diversity-inclusion-woes">first reported by Protocol,</a> is one of the rare cases of a Salesforce insider publicly criticizing the company's approach to diversity and inclusionechoing concerns raised by some current and former employees, who <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/salesforce-office-of-equality-tony-prophet-struggled-get-results-2020-11'r=teezr">recently told Insider that there is a gap between the way Salesforce speaks about equality, diversity, and inclusion and what some employees actually experience</a>.&nbsp;</p><p>"I'm disappointed because this company sets an expectation that Equality is a value, that you stand with the black community, that you can show up and be your whole self at work," Perry wrote. "Words must be followed up with action. And if they can't be, then there should be no words. There is a really big gap from how Salesforce portrays itself and the lived experience I had working at this company."&nbsp;</p><p>Salesforce has been a vocal advocate for social change, proactively <a href="https://www.salesforce.com/news/stories/2020-salesforce-equal-pay-update/">closing gender and racial pay gaps</a> and hiring a chief equality officer in 2016. However, it has struggled to make progress to improve its diversity, with <a href="https://equalitydata.herokuapp.com/">low percentages of employees from underrepresented groups</a> counted among its workforce.</p><p>Black employees make up 3.4% of its US workforce, compared to 2% in 2015, showing moderate progress. Meanwhile, Latinx employees make up 4.5%, just inching up from 4% in 2015. At leadership levels, people of color are underrepresented as well, with Black representation clocking in just slightly above 2% for US execs at and above the VP level. To be sure, however, Salesforce's diversity stats are similar to those of peers like Google and Microsoft, and the tech industry as a whole has been <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tech-executives-racism-diversity-black-lives-matter-protests-2020-6">grappling with abysmal diversity stats</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p>Perry decided to share her resignation letter and experience to help others who may be dealing with similar issues in their own workplaces, she told Insider. Perry said that there was no one single incident that sparked her resignation, but that microaggressions in the workplace can roll up over time.</p><p>"It's not this like a one-time thing that happens," she said. "It's a lot of small things, not feeling psychologically safe, and that people are still expected to show up and do their work when the company isn't protecting them."</p><p>In her letter, Perry said she used some company-provided resources to resolve the problems she had at the company. One was Warmline, a hotline Salesforce launched last year for employees from the Black, LGBTQ and other underrepresented communities to raise workplace problems confidentially. She praised the Warmline program in her resignation letter, but said ultimately, she decided to leave.&nbsp;</p><p>Salesforce has previously admitted its progress on diversity and inclusion has been slow and that there's more work to be done. "We would be the first to acknowledge that there is much more work to do, and there are places where we could have gone faster in hindsight," Salesforce chief equality officer <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/salesforce-chief-equality-officer-no-longer-reports-directly-to-benioff-2020-11#:~:text=Now%2C%20in%20the%20wake%20of,Hyder%2C%20Salesforce's%20chief%20people%20officer.&amp;text=Those%20duties%20were%20added%20to,chief%20equality%20and%20recruiting%20officer.">Tony Prophet</a> recently told Insider.&nbsp;</p><p>From Perry's perspective, recognizing the gap is the key to closing it, such that Salesforce's rhetoric better reflects its employees' experiences in working there.</p><p>"Because the company believes that they are further along than they are it makes it harder for people who are having a hard time to really feel heard or understood," she told Insider.&nbsp;</p><p><em><strong>Got a tip'</strong>&nbsp;Contact this reporter via email at&nbsp;<a href="mailto:pzaveri@businessinsider.com">pzaveri@insider.com</a>&nbsp;or Signal at 925-364-4258. (PR pitches by email only, please.)&nbsp;</em></p><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/salesforce-diversity-senior-manager-resignation-inclusion-inequity-2021-2#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-myths-debunked-wuhan-china-2020-2">Epidemiologists debunk 13 coronavirus myths</a></p>
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