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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.
I'm assuming the culture at Tesla is similar to the culture at SpaceX, which is a culture of "fuck you, work 90 hour weeks because you're just here building your resume and I can work you to death if I want to", which is to say any pervasive harassment isn't a female problem, it's a cultural problem that is applied to every peon in the building. If that assumption holds true, the fact that she was paid less isn't because she's a girl, but because the market bears that salary for that position for a girl and Tesla can and will get away with anything it can to further its goals in the most cost effective way possible. Basically, it's the assassin saying "It's not personal, it's just business", which the courts tend to be okay with because it's not special treatment.
Absolutely.
The only real metric is comparing salary scale across multiple people in the same position or with the same effective job duties. If someone's role is unique then it is difficult to gauge whether or not salary is fair. If there was only one ME in this type of capacity, and a previous staff member left for a new one to be brought in then it's hard to demonstrate any particular reason for differences.
I remember Dad talking about one at his work when he was getting close to retirement- they decided to replace technical managers as they retired with non-technical managers. The technical managers came up through the technical working side of the shop and could essentially do all of the major jobs in addition to managing, and their pay was essentially the senior technical person's plus a reasonable bump up for their managerial duties. Eventually it was determined that they spent more time managing than they did directly touching technical matters, so as they retired or otherwise left they were replaced with nontechnical managers. This theoretically resulted in a cost-savings as the new managers probably made half to two-thirds the salary of the senior non-management tech staff, but caused problems when those managers could not themselves offer technical solutions when stressful periods required them to work harder, and it also pissed off technical staff by depriving them of a wrung on the org-chart. In the end I think they had to switch back to technical managers as someone finally realized that underlying understanding was necessary in order for the managers to make good decisions. Only took half a decade...
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
Note: I am pro union, and think Tesla workers are making a mistake by rejecting UAW. I also disagree with the UAWs tactics in regards to Tesla.
The UAW has been sending workers in to Tesla to incite problems and try to rally workers to unionize. Her claim may be valid, but needs thorough investigation to verify. It is entirely possible she is either a plant, or paid off by the union to make a rallying point.
By all other records Tesla pays exceedingly well, has stellar benefits, and treats workers well. Tons of overtime requirements- but that is normal in the auto industry, and Tesla pays generous overtime rates. The workers are not interested in a union because they don't need one and as such don't want the fees. This may bite them in the ass later, but for now their wishes should be honored by the union.
Agreed. Living in California. My wife is French. In her own words "most men here don't seem to have any balls" Its amazing how many guys are afraid to look at and try to interact with women (regardless if they are married or single); so many US men have been conditioned to be soft/nurturing types. And women have become conditioned to believe any male interaction is harassment. However, many women actually like guys who act like men and give women attention. Not talking about the attention from aggressive alpha-males who are macho and groping. Rather, guys who understand and appreciate that women are different than men and rejoice in the feminine side.
>Try the same thing in Montreal? "RAPE CULTURE!!!!!!!!!"
Let's be clear here - *you* can't try the same thing. You don't have the skill.
Those Cuban fellows have spent their whole lives, from long before puberty, learning how to flirt aggressively and attractively, while picking up the subtle cues that let them know when their attention isn't wanted so they can disengage gracefully and keep the door open for future possibilities. It's a dance to make the Tango look trivial in comparison, and they've been steeping in it their whole lives as a cultural pastime.
Barring phenomenal good luck, any attempt by a socially awkward geek to do the same will probably end about as well as letting a cat fly a fighter jet. Even most "players", skilled by their own countries standards, are going to look like awkward teenagers in comparison. But those players will mostly be good enough to not get called out, because they've learned at least enough nonverbal communication to determine if a woman is open to him flirting with her before he's said two words.
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
I have been working in the US for several years, and I have noticed this dangerous trend of constantly labeling as misogynist or racist behavior anything that targets a woman or a minority for things that have nothing to do with race or gender. As an outsider (I am from Europe, and worked in Asia), I can say that nowhere I have seen such an obsession with these two topics. If a white person sucks, and get fired, you talk about the actual causes of the firing. If it's a woman or a minority doesn't get hired, or get fired, it's often sexism and racism. I am sure there are real cases of racism and maybe even sexism, but this constant and indiscriminate wolf-crying is going to delegitimize real victims and actually make people hire fewer of these people.
If I were to hire in this country, I'd be damn sure not to hire a woman or a minority which had a background in social justice (even a blog post or some classes in college would be a no go). There is just a chance that the person is some sort of fanatic. It sounds awful, but from what I can tell that equates to having a ticking bomb ready to explode under my ass. I don't care what your race or your ethnicity is, if shit hits the fan bad things may happen, and the last thing I would want is to have a lawsuit for discrimination and a wave of bad publicity for my business. Aww, yes, I am a such an awful person. Well, sorry, and welcome to the real world.
I had a coworker who got in trouble with HR for making racists remarks to another Africa-American friend of his (they played football together outside of work and were joking around). The guy who called HR was a few desks down and white. Offensensitivity
Women are wonderful effect