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Women at Microsoft shared reports of sexual harassment of coworkers and external partners, often ignored by managers and human resources, according to a Quartz report.
On March 20, an employee sent an email to other women in the company asking for advice on advancing the chain after six years without promotion. This has resulted in dozens of stories of discrimination and harassment, for example a woman being told to sit on the lap of a colleague or a woman playing a technical role whose contribution to a The project was limited to booking meeting rooms, booking dinners and writing minutes. Quartz checked the content of the discussion thread with company employees and reviewed more than 90 pages of emails.
In many cases, employees report reporting events to their line manager or HR, but only to reject or ignore these complaints. For example, they are considered "simply flirting" or ignored for lack of evidence.
One respondent greeted the thread, writing, "This thread has allowed scabies to settle in. Collective anger and frustration are palpable, a wide audience is listening now, and you know what? I'm good at it."
Microsoft Human Resources Manager Kathleen Hogan responded to e-mails on March 29th. She stated that she would investigate the complaints and invite anyone who has had such experiences or had their complaints rejected by management or human resources to contact her directly.
The company issued a public statement attributed to Hogan:
I have discussed this topic with the SLT team (Senior Leadership Team) today. We are dismayed and sad to hear about these experiences. It is very painful to hear these stories and know that anyone is facing such behavior at Microsoft. We must do better.
I would like to offer anyone who has had such humiliating experiences, including those who have felt dismissed by management or human resources, to send me an e-mail directly. I will personally review the situation with my team. I understand the devastating impact of such experiences and the SLT wishes to be informed of such behavior, and we will do everything in our power to stop it.
As mentioned earlier in the thread, Lindsay-Rae (our Chief Diversity Officer) will be hosting sessions the week of April 22 to ensure feedback is clear and clear, and to identify initiatives or programs to follow. / stop / start based on the contribution of this community. Invitations to these sessions will be sent to all women's community groups next week, will be able to accommodate multiple time zones and will join Lindsay-Rae by Erin Chapple; Co-Exec Sponsor of the women's community at Microsoft. Although I want to create a forum for the community on the wire, I also read and share the comments that, for us, to solve this problem as a business, the burden does not rest solely on us, women .
Although some of these words are very discouraging, I am proud and encouraged to see people empowered to speak up, to say that this is not fair and to unite for change. Thank you.
In 2015, Microsoft was sued by an engineer for allegedly discriminatory practices. She was joined by two other women and the three claimed class action status. In March this year, documents filed under this action alleged 238 cases of sexual harassment, discrimination and underpayment between 2010 and 2016. Of these, 108 were sexual harassment complaints and 118 were sex discrimination complaints. . In addition, the lawsuit states that Microsoft ruled that only one of the 118 complaints of sex discrimination had merit. The complainants asserted that the Microsoft investigation team in charge of handling these complaints had systematically decided that no company policy had been violated, even though this same team had been raped. agreed that the harassment had indeed taken place.
The women had hoped to represent some 8,000 Microsoft employees, past or present. However, last June, the judge presiding over the case denied them class action status in a decision. The president said he did not identify any common Microsoft policies that could be behind their experiences. The decision was appealed in January of this year and arguments should be heard by the end of 2019 or early 2020.
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