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Female Engineer Sues Tesla, Describing a Culture Of 'Pervasive Harassment' (theguardian.com)

A female engineer has spoken out about a discrimination lawsuit against Tesla that she filed last year. AJ Vandermeyden, 33, has accused Tesla of ignoring her claims of "pervasive harassment" and says she has suffered "mental distress" and "humiliation." From a report on The Guardian: Vandermeyden, 33, shared her story with the Guardian at a time when Silicon Valley is reeling from the explosive allegations of former Uber engineer Susan Fowler. Offering a rare public account of discrimination from a tech worker who remains employed at her company, Vandermeyden said her dedication to Tesla motivated her to advocate for fair treatment and reforms -- despite the serious risks she knows she faces for going public. "Until somebody stands up, nothing is going to change," she said in a recent interview, her first comments about a discrimination lawsuit she filed last year. "I'm an advocate of Tesla. I really do believe they are doing great things. That said, I can't turn a blind eye if there's something fundamentally wrong going on." Vandermeyden began at Tesla in 2013 and was eventually promoted to a manufacturing engineering position in the general assembly department, which consisted mostly of men and where she was paid less than male engineers whose work she directly took over, according to her complaint.

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  1. Let's take a second and think about this. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    "which consisted mostly of men and where she was paid less than male engineers whose work she directly took over" This seems to imply this just because she is a woman, I'm a dude and I've been in this position myself, hell I've even been in a engineering management position and made less than the guys I was in charge of of.

    Sure this all could just be because she's a woman, but there is at least a real possibility that there were other reasons contributing to her situation.

  2. Two things I don't understand by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    1) Why does everyone keep calling her Susan Fowler? She's married now, it's Susan Rigetti - but I guess they don't want people looking up that name and associating this whole incident with her husband's "computer company"

    2) This is not the first time she's made headlines with attention-grabbing claims. A few months ago there was a story about her making the rounds on how she'd moved from studying math at a 6th-grade level to doing graduate-level quantum mechanics in just 18 months. I don't want to cast doubt on her current claims, but this previous story is highly incredible, to say the least.

  3. Re:let's not prejudge either side. by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 2, Informative

    "No we have no evidence Musk is a rapist. Yes I know he's got a penis, that is not evidence."

    In California, possession of a penis without a valid marriage license is prima facie evidence of being a harasser. Given a marriage license, conviction requires in addition the sworn testimony of a SJW.

  4. Looks like its a legal specialty now by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    >Therese Lawless, Vandermeyden’s lawyer,
    > who represented former Reddit CEO Ellen Pao in her high-profile discrimination lawsuit against venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

    Well, we know how that turned out for Ellen.

    >Vandermeyden recently took out a hefty loan to buy the cheapest version of the Model S Tesla car and has a reservation for the upcoming Model 3

    So after launching a potentially very expensive lawsuit you decide to get a "hefty" loan and buy a Model S? Huh.

  5. Re:Huh? Harassment? by HornWumpus · · Score: 2, Informative

    Yeah, they just accidently walk around with their tits half hanging out.

    Women _want_ to be pursued, but only by the one man they are sending 'fuck me' signals to, not the rest of you nerds. Cat called/hollered? Not usually, but sometimes definitely, especially when young and insecure.

    You realize that stick on perky nipples (to be stuck onto the outside of Bras) are a thing?

    Have you ever noticed the unique body language of women with nice big tits when frustrated? They stand on tiptoes then let themselves drop down onto their heels, usually with a verbal 'herrup'. To make their boobs jiggle and get what they want from nearby men.

    Women will absolutely complain about 'being asked out'. 'Be attractive, don't be unattractive': Is the key to not being charged with sexual harassment.

    --
    John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
  6. Re: She is not an "Engineer". by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Most replacements make less than the person they replace. Often the new person has less experience doing that specific task.

  7. This whole summary is misleading... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    This whole summary is misleading.

    • She's not a engineer, she worked on the assembly line.
    • She's upset that men were promoted to certain positions when she wasn't. She said she was the only woman working on the assembly line, so logic would dictate that if 99.9% of the people working with her were men, chances are pretty good someone will get promoted to a position you wanted.
    • She leaked information to the media, so is she really surprised the company doesn't want to promote her when she goes around doing that. My work places had a NDA I had to sign, I'm surprised she wasn't required to sign one.
    • The sexual harassment claim was all summed up to one event where some men were up on a platform and whistled and "cat called" when her and another lady walked by. While the action is inappropriate, I can't see it meriting a law suit.
    • She transferred from the assembly line to sales.

    From the little information that is provided as proof of her claims, sounds more like a employee upset about not getting promotions and trying to get money out of the well known company.

  8. Re:Shop mentality vs office mentality by Archfeld · · Score: 5, Informative

    I was working in a print shop many years ago, and as far as I was aware there were only 2 of us in the area, both guys, and we were telling blond jokes. An hour or so later my companion and I were summoned to the department directors office and told that we had been the subject of a sexual harassment complaint for telling inappropriate joke at work. A women had let herself in the back door and was literally stealing special forms paper and had overheard us telling the jokes and complained to management. We, both guys were forced to take a sexual harassment education class and issue a formal apology to a woman who was then fired for stealing supplies. The bottom line is it is not how you intend the joke or to whom you are directing it to, but how anyone who hears it interprets it, whether you intended them to hear it or not.

    --
    errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
  9. Women's privilege by Sqreater · · Score: 3, Informative

    This seems just another case of a women who has had a lifetime of women's privilege deference and accommodation running into the hard truths of equality in a tough work environment. The courts will probably force the feminization of the work environment--women's privilege at work once again. The result, of course, will be the destruction eventually of an aggressively creative and forward pushing company.

    --
    E Proelio Veritas.