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UploadVR Had a 'Kink Room,' Pressured Female Employees To 'Microdose,' Alleges Lawsuit (gizmodo.com)
The virtual-reality company UploadVR is being sued by the company's former Director of Digital and Social Media for rampant sexual harassment. According to Gizmodo, "the lawsuit alleges that the company's employees and founders created a hostile work environment in which sexual harassment, gender discrimination, and retaliation occurred on a regular basis." From the report: In the suit documents, the former Director of Digital and Social Media for UploadVR claims that the office environment was a "boy's club" that employees expressly referred to as a "boy's club." From the suit: "Specifically, the male employees of UploadVR, including Mason and Freeman, would discuss their sexual exploits in graphic detail at the workplace in front of Plaintiff and other female employees. For instance, UploadVR employee [name redacted]'s sex life was a frequent topic of conversation. The other male employees would talk about how he 'refuses to wear a condom' and 'has had sex with over 1000 people.'" The documents also claim that employees were engaged in Silicon Valley's hot new trend of "microdosing" and "using Marijuana in the office." When female employees didn't want to participate, they would be ostracized by the male employees and excluded from important meetings and lunches.
This is what you get for hiring a bunch of phricks.
Don't hire women. Problems solved, and you cut 90% of your HR dept.
I'm sorry, but the subject can easily be rephrased as:
"People were talking about their sex lifes and smoking drugs. They laughed at some workers who did not participate, and some of them were women."
This would be much more neutral. But then again, I suspect that the conversavtist-feminist alliance is not interested in that, but only in presenting sex/drugs/anything-remotely-adventerous as evil. It will start with the workplace, but one day they will also try to prevent this kind of talk in close social circles. To some extent, we already see the beginnings of that.
Avantgarde Hebrew science fiction
I don't know if they've have VC funding yet, but you'd suppose that the VC's would check for this sort of thing in the due diligence phase.
"The other male employees would talk about how he 'refuses to wear a condom' and 'has had sex with over 1000 people.'"
If you have sex with more than 1000 partners, are they really all *people* to you?
-Styopa
I guess that won't go away until you fix your cutthroat job situation.
Some people will misuse *any* power they can grab at in what they perceive to be a survival struggle.
In other countries with a (for now, mind you!) less cutthroat situation, most harrasment cases do have a basis (there'll be always false positives, but human society *is* messy, and I'll take that over the situation one generation ago any time).
Fix your job situation.
Still don't know what 'microdosing' is.
I"m surprised to see people defending this behavior. If talking about sexual exploits at work is considered acceptable then society is truly going down the toilet. What a great new America you are building there.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
it's OK if you're rich and powerful.
Egos are out of control in tech. The fact that they are high all the time is most definitely reflected in their ridiculous and hair-brained ideas. It makes it that much easier to pull the rug out from inder them. A lot of new tech will fail due to their being a bunch of hateful, oblivious, drug-addled douchebags that were only suffering from adolescent superiority complexes rather than a actually ever having been all that bright in the first place. Pathetic, all of them, from top to bottom.
Hay, it's a free country. If you don't like assholes and drugs then move out of California.
Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
Folks on the red site thought I was trolling when I said that feminism considers cannabis flower a date rape drug.
Once again we have the Misogynerd Narrative in full swing, and this time it's working not only to trivialize the skills necessary to program a computer but to demonize cannabis flower.
Feminism: you have blood on your hands if you join forces with Jeff Sessions on this one. But of course you don't care, do you feminism? If it works to oppress black women, that's just fine with you. If it takes medicine out of the hands of people who need it, you've already demonstrated with trans women that's fine with you.
If I may paraphrase Azetbur: "Feminism." Why, the very name is sexist. Feminism is no more than a white upper class cisgendered woman only club.
Which is why boys need adult supervision. Men, specifically, to set an example.
A man acts with dignity, self-restraint, and consideration for others. He doesn't do shit just because the people around him are doing it, and he doesn't pressure other people do things without a good reason.
If none of that sounds like any fun, feeling obligated to impress other guys with bullshit isn't any fun either. It's a bigger, more joyless burden than acting like a grownup, you just haven't figured that out yet.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Did they also administer regular spanking for the employees? What about various other forms of submission/dominating acts you can find in a all-male sex parties in Berlin?
According to progressives, men and women are equal and interchangeable, and people shouldn't be so hung up about sex.
So, instead of complaining about "sexual harassment and gender discrimination" when men are discussing their sexual exploits and watch pornography at work, shouldn't women just join in?
You ignore that you have only the descripton and side of the women doing the lawsuit. Do you know what people do in such lawsuit? Paint all action in a certain light and hope it sticks.
Boys will be Boys and have their fun... Time to hire some men who have matured and have some respect for others I guess.. Of course, if management is full of boys instead of men.. Have fun trying to fix this.
What is this culture thing where women are treated this way? My father taught me to respect women both by respecting my mother and insisting I do the same. Come on boys, grow up...
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
'I am not a pleasure unit'. Bwahahahaha! The 60's are back as so is Flint. Hahahaha
TFA is even better than the summary - allegations of absolutely incredible misbehavior. The interesting thing is: There's not any wiggle room: the craziest allegations can be easily proven (like: sending a email around the office with your STD test results).
That said, neutral journalism it's not. The allegations are very clearly heterosexual allegations (men interested in women). So when the author writes:
the employees allegedly had a “kink room” in the office that contained a bed and was intended to “encourage sexual intercourse in the office.” Male employees allegedly used the room for its intended purpose...
then it is absolutely wrong to write that "male" employees used the room, because they will have used it together with their female sexual partners. Which makes one suspect that this is not a men-harrassing-women problem, but more generally an entirely inappropriate, sexually-loaded work environment, with both men and women acting out in unprofessional ways.
In any case, time will definitely tell, because there's no hiding some of the stuff that is alleged. Either proof exists, or it doesn't.
Enjoy life! This is not a dress rehearsal.
This has all the reading of a feminist who can't get her way and wants to cry about it. Even if the workplace was a "boys" club, you made the active choice to work there, which should void any right to later complain about it. Well I can't name a single company I've ever worked with or for that was hostile to women, I don't doubt some exist, but you end up at one of them, leave, it's simple.
Putting aside the harassment claims for a second, this sounds like what happens when you have an immature "executive team" running a company fueled by large VC investments. If a company's culture encourages a frathouse mentality, and its executives display that culture, that's exactly what regular employees will see and emulate. It goes down to the department level too - I've worked in IT departments for a number of companies, and there are always problem child departments, usually sales. Some salespeople are just walking sexual harassment lawsuits waiting to happen, and companies tend to turn a blind eye to it when they're "rockstar" salespeople. Working in software, there's just some guys you don't want to get paired with on customer visits because they're just embarrassing. Watching an overweight middle aged balding sales dude hitting on a customer's receptionist or female employees (unsuccessfully) is cringe-worthy.
I do think that years of anonymous online communication as a primary means of interaction does contribute to some of the problems. I'm a guy, and a very liberal laid-back one at that, but it would never occur to me to say or do anything unprofessional at work. I've mentioned on here in the past (and been raked over the coals for it) that people need to understand that free speech doesn't mean you can let whatever comes to your mind slip out. People need to learn impulse control, and not seeing the other person on the other end of your conversation emboldens people to say things they normally wouldn't. Look at any comments section on any online news outlet that uses Facebook logins - even with a person's name, picture and sometimes employment history written right out there, I have a hard time envisioning some people saying the things they say in a public setting.
What I think is funny is that this second tech bubble is playing out almost exactly the way the first one did. We're headed for the top -- products and services are getting wackier every day, there's a million copycats of every single idea trying to squeeze out the last few VC dollars in a space, and the investors are finally starting to shut off the money faucets. It's almost like 1999 never happened, and no one alive at that time has any memory of it. This is going to be one of many flame-out stories in the next 2 or 3 years.
> the office environment was a "boy's club" that employees expressly referred to as a "boy's club."
That's outrageous and horrible! It should be "boys' club".
I thought we just called that a Ritalin prescription.
Not Ratalin: Prozac.
They're both pharmaceuticals that adjust brain serotonin levels. Prozac is just a bit less of a sledgehammer in how it does it.
Oh, we've got that where I work too. We call it a Keurig.
Yes, but that's not micro dosing.
At least, not the way I use it...
I would wager the allegations are BS because no one, including the accuser has put a video of any of this alleged behavior on Youtube. In this day and age of video recording phones and other devices there is basically no such thing as outrageous conduct that doesn't get recorded -- especially if, as alleged, it happened regularly and repeatedly and in the presence of so many people any one of whom could have cashed in on this behavior to make $$$.
Boo hoo. One more women realizes that working for a living is rife with "hostility". Stop crying and suck it up. This is a lesson most men learn in adolescence.
You don't like the trials and stresses of a paid job? Get married while you are young. Making sandwiches and "working on your back" is comparatively low stress.
and in VR
If you see Gender Studies on their resume, you know that's a resume for the trash bin.
...who gets to dictate office culture? Don't like it? Get a job elsewhere or start your own.
Women belong at home anyway. #RepealThe19th
If I had found myself working in a company full of "bros" like this, I would be looking for a way out.
But then, I'm over 50. Way over 50. The testosterone poisoning has abated. But I do have a daughter, and
seeing women treated like that would probably cause me to drop a dime.
I would not only fire an employee that did half that shit I would also have them arrested. I would also help the prosecutors as much as I could to make sure they get maximum sentence possible. Animals like that deserve to be locked up and they can become "the bitches" and see how they like it.
Pro-Tip: If a company has a kink room, do NOT attend the team bondage meetings.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Professionalism is definitely taking a hit in tech.
Professionalism is fine everywhere else that is not San Francisco. I have worked in and with plenty of companies of all sizes outside CA and saw nothing like this.
It is about very young males being given access to a lot of money without consequence.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
breathe.... breathe.... breathe
This could apply to any non-work topic. Sex is not a special case (except for the fact that there are laws specific to sex, which is pretty outrageous when think about it). If we take the idea seriously, then people need to STFU at work about religion, politics, or even when's-your-birthday. You never really know when spouting off your opinions (or even just telling factual stories) about some topic is going to annoy someone who doesn't have any choice but to sit there and take the bullshit.
Boss doesn't understand that if you murder someone by crucifying them, they don't just "get better" three days later, and he runs his stupid mouth off about his crackpot theory around underlings who might want to just get along? That's every bit as much harassment as "locker room talk" is sexual harassment.
Yeah problem being there are those are crimes and you cannot allow that to go on in a place of business or anywhere else for that mater.
I smell a narrative. Here's the counter view for all you net neutrality proponents, Feminazi's want everyone equally as miserable as they are.
That's your right to not work there. This is still an at-will country.
"We're sexually liberated" "We're just one of the guys" "We can work in the adult entertainment industry, behind the scenes" "We're offended" "We're victims" "We're suing"
As a old white man with no hair a flabby body and poor hygiene, I find that I am discriminated against by attractive women. I want equal rights. I want to be treated just like my hard chiseled huge dick black comrades that are pulling tons of pussy. I demand equal rights and that girls stop discriminating.
is just that, free speech, if you have free speech then you are free to say anything. If you are physically attacked or threatened for what you say, they you have been subjected to censorship.
If you are in a crowded theatre, and you speak the word fire and you get done for it that's an example of censorship and a lack of free speech. It is not the boundaries of free speech, free speech is what it says.
If you are free of something then you are not beholden to limitation, if you are limited by something then you are not free of it.
Some people want to control the language of others, defining what they can and cannot say, those people are engaging in censorship and trying to pass it off as a limitation to free speech.
Mass censorship occurred in England, when the Normans invaded. The Normans outlawed a lot of Anglo Saxon words, their words of expression, they are the four letter words, they are all Anglo Saxon. They did this to control the Anglo Saxons, they didn't outlaw their own words of expression, they censored the words of those they had conquered. Incidentally, they went on to commit genocide in the North of England over the refusal by the North to pay taxation. It is still felt today, the North of England wants out of the UK.
I will end on the coal of genocide :) that's where censorship leads, and I am sure the Germans used censorship to enact the holocaust.
a hatred of men
how about Animal Office...
watch out for the guy with the red dildo...
The culture of San Francisco is extreme and perverse. There is widespread public and city government acceptance of drug use and lewd behavior. Read Yelp reviews of the Folsom Street Fair and you will learn from numerous firsthand accounts of the culture. Some extreme parents even bring their children to the sexual events and use drugs in front of them. The city is a circus and cult it seems to me.
The Harry Enfield sketch.
Senior bank manager is reading through a monthly credit card statement the size of the New York telephone directory. Shaking his head, moving his bifocals out of the way to dab his forehead with a tissue before calling up one of the account holders by telephone:
"You may be a city trader, but as your local branch manager and respected member of the community I must insist that you come down to my office this afternoon for a serious face to face chat about the sensible management of money."
City trader: "Yes, what would you like to know?"
like that episode of simpsons where homer is in a life raft and nibbles on peanuts to ration them, but instead of peanuts, its drugs...and you're at work. https://youtu.be/LvXxIOU_8T8?t...
I am pretty sure California actually has laws to criminalize stuff like that.
Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
I don't get it. Some people talk about some stuff. Some other people don't want to participate to that conversation but then get upset and sue the company?
Lets all hear one fired persons account of a story and implicitly assume it's all true untarnished by hyperbole. Don't wait for outcome of suit or production of objective evidence judge now now now in the lynch mob of public opinion.
I've been in Corporate America (IT, specifically) for 15 years now, and I've never seen anything remotely close to the kind of behavior being described here (or at Uber). Is this just a Silicon Valley thing? Or just a "these two companies" thing? I can't grasp how this kind of behavior goes unchecked for so long.
You sound like you're implying that these two opinions are equally "out of the mainstream":
- being biologically and genetically female determines whether or not you are a woman
- there's nothing wrong with raping or sexually abusing men or boys
The fact that anyone might think these two opinions are at all comparable shows something seriously sick about how far off the rails our society has gone in the past fifteen years.
I suspect the cash (upfront, and from future employment) is significantly better by not putting the video on youtube and instead saving it for the court case.
Ever notice that most of these women filing these kinds of lawsuits are women you wouldn't want to fuck in the first place?
https://www.linkedin.com/in/el...
Really?
I mean sure she might not be to your tastes personally, but she doesn't look to me like the type of person the majority would find unattractive.
All the frat house mentality and sexual harassment stuff came from the 'white collar workplace' 'frat bros' who WEREN'T on the internet, and also the (mostly ditzy and slutty) female counterparts (when they thought no guys were listening, or they considered you one of the girls...) The people online, while there were a few outliers who made socially unacceptable comments, by and far kept up the appearance of civilized conversation, even when full on clique wars were taking place and unpleasant conversations were being had on the back end (badmouthing people, sexual comments, etc. But almost NEVER around the 'plebs', had to keep up appearances after all.)
However, since Facebook took off (MySpace was the stepping stone, but the culture truly devolved once everyone standardized on Facebook/Amazon/Google/etc,) the worst of meatspace society has come to the internet and as a result of that reinforced their bad behaviors by being able to have 'safe spaces' where all their friends reinforce their worst behaviors with none of the checks and balances normally provided by dissenting voices. The current mess of American (and many foreign!) political landscapes is a result of this. It has lead to polarization of opinions and a societal inability to listen to or accept the views of others. Not that these are new issues in society, but that the internet has helped make it so that you can find ONLY likeminded individuals quite easily and filter out those you disagree with on a scale that had been impossible in the past, outside of 'engineered communities'.
You can't sign away your basic human rights.
Website Just Down For Me? Find out
Go die in a fire phuckphace
I like to think this is what Sierra was like back when they were making popular games such as "Police Quest: In Pursuit of the Death Angel"
I said *most* which is a rather key word, here.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
When I fuck her raw dog without a condom and nut in her ugly old pussy, she will be number 1001
> The reason why it's not suitable to talk about in a work environment is because it makes most people feel uncomfortable.
No. The reason it's illegal here is that consent is required or this behaviour is sexual assault.
The reason it's culturally verboten is because even the perception of an employee's livelihood being threatened ("I had to quit because of sexual harassment") is unpredictably and waveringly dangerous. Risk of lawsuits does keep some otherwise-abusers at bay, and the lawyers have actually set the culture's standard, so, great.
bonus point for this very american-perspective conversation: captcha is 'states' :)
I was expecting they had a room where they recorded VR kink. Disappointed.
... harrasing bitches... sexual stuff ! YEAH ! =D :PPPPPPPPPPPPP*****
Here is the person in question.
https://twitter.com/elizabethdscott
Just as vapid and irrelevant as you would expect a "Social Media Manager" manager at a tech company to be.
We don't. Let. Them. In... I call it F$$K CITY!
Feminazis and racists want everyone equally as miserable as they are.