A Salesforce manager says she quit over a 'culture of rampant microaggressions and gaslighting'the second Black woman to publicly resign from the firm this month

<p><img src="https://static3.businessinsider.com/image/5f6cc5220f4d5500110321d6-2400/2019-03-07T213936Z_191221048_RC17B3B29F70_RTRMADP_3_USA-SALESFORCE-COM.JPG" border="0" alt="Salesforce Tower" data-mce-source="Brendan McDermid/Reuters" data-mce-caption="The Salesforce Tower in New York City"></p><p></p><bi-shortcode id="summary-shortcode" data-type="summary-shortcode" class="mceNonEditable" contenteditable="false">Summary List Placement</bi-shortcode><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/salesforce-diversity-senior-manager-resignation-inclusion-inequity-2021-2">Recent criticism over Salesforce's diversity and inclusion efforts</a> have continued as Vivianne Castillo, a manager in the firm's design research and innovation unit, publicly announced her planned departure at the end of February.</p><p>In a resignation note originally shared with fellow Salesforce employees in mid-February and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/posts/vccastillo_vivianne-castilloresignation-letter21521-activity-6770470033694035968-sWJR">posted publicly on LinkedIn</a> on Wednesday, Castillo wrote that she had endured a culture of "rampant microaggressions and gaslighting" as a Black woman at Salesforce.&nbsp;</p><p>The letter also said that although the $219 billion cloud software giant publicly professes to value equality, the internal reality falls short for Black employees or those from other underrepresented groups. <a href="https://www.protocol.com/enterprise/salesforce-resigned-diversity-inclusion">Protocol first reported</a> Castillo's resignation.&nbsp;</p><p>"I'm leaving because I no longer see a path forward at Salesforce. I'm leaving because I can no longer subject myself to the level of self-neglect required to endure a culture of rampant microaggressions and gaslighting that lead to the lack of psychological &amp; emotional safety that I feel and experience as a Black woman at Salesforce," Castillo wrote in her resignation note.&nbsp;</p><p>Salesforce did not respond to a request for comment. Castillo, in her LinkedIn post, wrote that she would not be commenting beyond the text of her resignation letter.&nbsp;</p><p>Castillo's letter is the second publicly-posted resignation from Salesforce in less than a month that cited culture issues and discrimination as reasons for leaving the company. Cynthia Perry, a former senior manager who also worked in the design research and innovation division, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/salesforce-diversity-senior-manager-resignation-inclusion-inequity-2021-2">posted a resignation letter in early February that cited similar concerns about Salesforce's culture</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p>Although the firm regularly touts its diversity and inclusion initiatives and hired a chief equality officer in 2016, it has struggled to actually diversify its ranks. Salesforce's <a href="https://equalitydata.herokuapp.com/">diversity stats for underrepresented groups</a> are squarely in the middle of the road for the notably homogenous tech industry.&nbsp;</p><p>Castillo wrote that she had previously advocated for "less internal inspirational marketing" and "more internal transparency and accountability" for Salesforce's diversity efforts. Her and Perry's letters both echoed concerns that <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/salesforce-office-of-equality-tony-prophet-struggled-get-results-2020-11'r=teezr">some current and former Salesforce employees recently raised to Insider</a>. The main criticism from workers centered on the gap between the way Salesforce speaks about equality, diversity, and inclusion and what some employees actually experience.</p><p>When Perry resigned earlier this month, Salesforce said that it does not comment on individual employees, but 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>In her letter, Castillo wrote that Salesforce's approach to creating a more inclusive culture and advancing equality and equity relies heavily on marketing rather than prioritizing the "experiences or voices of underrepresented minorities."&nbsp;</p><p>"In its simplest form, Salesforce has a culture that is upheld by gaslighting underrepresented minorities/groups when they call attention to inequities," Castillo said. "It is a culture fueled by manipulative marketing and anchored in little to no internal or external accountability when it comes to dealing with matters related to diversity, equity, and inclusion."&nbsp;</p><p>Castillo joined Salesforce in January 2019 as a senior design researcher and innovation consultant, moving up to a manager role in August 2020, according to her LinkedIn.</p><p>She wrote in her letter that she was well known at the company for her posts to Salesforce's internal message board, Chatter, about allyship, accountability around DEI, and the lack of transparency in Salesforce's gender pay equity initiatives. In those posts, she said, she expressed concerns about the company's dependence on employees from underrepresented groups to lead diversity and inclusion initiatives instead of the Office of Equality that Salesforce established in 2016.&nbsp;</p><p><em><strong>Are you a Salesforce employee' </strong>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-criticism-diversity-inlcusion-efforts-vivianne-castillo-resignation-2021-2#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/electric-planes-future-of-aviation-problems-regulations-2020-3">Why electric planes haven't taken off yet</a></p>
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