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'Women At Microsoft Are Sexualized By Their Male Managers,' Lawsuit Alleges (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: According to a newly unsealed court filing, women at Microsoft who work in technical jobs filed 238 internal complaints pertaining to gender discrimination or sexual harassment from 2010 through 2016. The new document was first reported Monday evening by Reuters. The figures were revealed as part of a proposed class-action lawsuit originally filed in 2015 (Moussouris v. Microsoft). The female plaintiffs argue that the company's internal rating system discriminates against women and disfavors professional advancement for women.
As part of the class certification process and civil discovery, Microsoft handed over years of records to the plaintiffs' lawyers. In the Monday-released filing, which was originally submitted to the court in October 2017, Moussouris' lawyer, Michael Subit, wrote that "Microsoft's Culture is Rife with Sexual Harassment" before continuing: "Company records indicate that women at Microsoft are sexualized by their male managers and coworkers, leading to a substantial number of incidents of alleged sexual harassment, and even several incidents of sexual assault, that often go unpunished." Specifically, Subit continued, Microsoft's internal unit (known as "ERIT") received 108 complaints of sexual harassment filed by female US-based technical employees, 119 complaints of gender discrimination, eight complaints of retaliation, and three complaints of pregnancy discrimination. Out of all of the claimed instances of gender discrimination, Microsoft's internal investigation only found that one such complaint was "founded."
As part of the class certification process and civil discovery, Microsoft handed over years of records to the plaintiffs' lawyers. In the Monday-released filing, which was originally submitted to the court in October 2017, Moussouris' lawyer, Michael Subit, wrote that "Microsoft's Culture is Rife with Sexual Harassment" before continuing: "Company records indicate that women at Microsoft are sexualized by their male managers and coworkers, leading to a substantial number of incidents of alleged sexual harassment, and even several incidents of sexual assault, that often go unpunished." Specifically, Subit continued, Microsoft's internal unit (known as "ERIT") received 108 complaints of sexual harassment filed by female US-based technical employees, 119 complaints of gender discrimination, eight complaints of retaliation, and three complaints of pregnancy discrimination. Out of all of the claimed instances of gender discrimination, Microsoft's internal investigation only found that one such complaint was "founded."
the fastest way to get microsoft to correct their sexist and discriminatory behavior is to inform them Google or Apple have created a cloud-based system of equality that operates as a SAAS/FAAS service with integrated tenant metering and billing.
once thats done, all you need to do is wait 4 years for Microsoft to unveil their much less popular version of the same thing and viola! you've eliminated up to 40% of the sexism and somehow managed to introduce a misandric version of Clippy....
Good people go to bed earlier.
238 complaints is, based on Microsofts current employee count of around 124,000, one complaint per 521 employees. Over a 6 year period. While a zero rate would be nice, I don't think that's too bad either.
Plus we seem to be getting to that stage where some people consider allegations to be enough that action simply has to be taken, screw the investigation and screw the evidence. An allegation has been made, so punishment must be enacted.
While a world where women are considered a lesser species is certainly a world that needs to be eliminated, a world where mere allegations are enough is not the world we should be aiming to replace it with.
Victims and "professional" victims, not SJWs. Specialized feminists infiltrators for targets "hard" to crack.
"Its interesting that these same men feel threatened when a woman gets a chance to retaliate against unfair treatment."
It is also interesting that anything less than preferential treatment is "discrimination" to feminists/sjw's.
When even a false accusation can ruin your life, career, etc- of course men will pushback against this stuff. That goes double when there are ZERO consequences for knowingly filing a false complaint.
I have attended sexual harassment classes. They almost always make things worse.
The typical problem is described by the words "sexualized their male managers".
It indicates a huge abuse of the english language, and makes sexual harassment MORE likely, not less. A literal explanation of the meaning is "make sexual". That's simply not true - the men are not taking asexual creatures and making them more sexual.
Instead, the author is trying to say that the men have no respect for the women and are sexually harassing them. But instead of taking the time to say it clearly, they take a shortcut. But the short cut sounds STUPID to the target market. The evil men do not think their behavior is inappropriate and when you use this short cut, they do not understand what you are saying.
It's the liberal equivalent of saying "I have a black friend". It makes the speaker look stupid rather than convincing people of the truth.
excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
If you truly believe you have been the victim of "gender discrimination or sexual harassment" in the workplace there are people you can talk to about that in order to have it investigated and, perhaps, action taken. And these people don't work for Microsoft.
(EEOC and the Department of Labor, for a start)
Damn you.
"The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old......They literally know nothing." - Ben Rhodes
The solution is very simple: have a uniform dress code. No makeup, no cleavage.
Women go through tons makeup every year, have boob jobs, lipo and gym memberships to look good. But once a guy looks, he's sexually harassing her.
Total bullshit. You wanna look good? Fine, do it outside of the office. You wanna look good in the office? Fine, but don't complain if I enjoy the eye candy.
And don't get me wrong, if there is actual sexual harassment, the guy should be fired. But I've seen way too many crybabies wearing a wide belt^W^W short skirt, while complaining about male attention in the office.
238/6 years is 40 a year.
Microsoft has 124,000 employees, 25.8% that are women.
So 31,992 women with 40 complaints a year. so .1% of female employees file a complaint each year. I suspect that is probably less than the industry norm.
And because of that you're going to see a dramatic decrease in the number of women hired in tech.
Women are sexualized by males. Everywhere. All the time.
It's fun watching you be butt hurt again and again and again by the evil President Trump's victory.
Sexual harassment is subjective. So is "sexualization".
Grabbing someone or asking for sexual favors or making a comment like "Women can't drive or whatever" is pretty clear.
But if I were a manager and "joe" was great at printer interfaces and "Jane" was great at UI and assigned work accordingly, would that be a problem?
Now, if "Jane" said, "Hey, I'd like to learn how to do printer interfaces, can I get assignments for that?" And I responded, "No, girls can't do printers." then OK I agree.
In my years, I've seen waaay too much read into people's reactions and I"ll take these things with a truck load of salt.
I've seen a lot. White guys who want to blame Black guys for no reason and other times, the Black guys was just unreliable.
And I've seen managers play along with the guys who don't like folks......
So, my point is .... you want to prevent all of this and make it fair? Good fucking luck.
Shut up SJW.
Proud neuron in the Slashdot hivemind since 2002.
Why is that only a problem when it affects women?
Nobody cares that men are often disincentived in joining fields like childhood education, and nursing. If we care about a gender not being given a fair shot at joining certain fields, let's apply those rules to *ALL* instances, not just certain ones that fit an ideological narrative while excluding other instances.
I've seen women hitting on women subordinates, to the point where HR was needed to get involved. Think about that.
Now that's equality.... /s
Well, I think it's interesting that so many guys like yourself feel threatened when a man questions a woman's accusation.
Almost like you've got something to prove to women in general. What a shame (about your feeling of impotence).
How about we simplify this a bit... "'Women Are Sexualized By Men"
Focusing on some specific example is really pointless, isn't it? Women eye men, men eye women, that's how it works.
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
I still think it's a terrible injustice that there are so few female garbage collectors. Where's the feminine outrage that driving garbage trucks is primarily a male-dominated job?
-=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
> First poster to mention SJW gets smacked
That would be you.
> Nothing more ridiculous than fat, well-paid white men
The first person to make a racial comment - also you. The first person to disrepair and insult people based on their gender? You. Just put get it over with an put on your KKK hood already since you clearly have no shame about being a racist and a bigot.
My ghillie suit is going to see a lot more use at the office...
I think the only significant cause of decreasing women in tech is destruction of the patriarchy (so to speak). The cultures where women are well-represented in tech (like China or India or the US until about 30 years ago) are very patriarchical, where fathers tell their daughters what job to have.
In more feminist cultures where women get to do whatever they want, it should be no surprise that tech is less attractive to women than it is to men. People have to get used to the idea that when given the choice, people may not always chose what you would prefer.
dom
Honestly, this lawsuit has little to no merit. 125000 employees and there are less than 300 complaints in total over 7 calendar years. That's not a systemic problem. It's a greedy lawyer hoping for a settlement... who forgot Bill Gates was at Harvard studying law.
Actually, men are incentivized to take up nursing as a career. There are perennial complaints of too few male nurses. But of course, you are a knee-jerk asshole who never actually talked to a nurse.
Loss
By 2.86 million
if not for the EC....the will of the majority as in Just powers from the consent of the governed.
Bullshit. If they're not reported how do you know?
You make it up. That's how.
If there are complaints about not enough male nurses, then they are far quieter and far less numerous than the myriad of people filling the airwaves and internet with constant endless moaning about "inequality" in male dominated fields.
The Navy uses (used?) the traffic light system - so if she says 'Yellow light' it means that you are edging on the unacceptable and should tone it down, change topic or whatever as you're making her uncomfortable. 'Red light' means you are being completely unacceptable and you should stop and walk away. And of course, 'Green light' means that your advances are welcome and please proceed.
Navy Traffic Light System
Perhaps this would help simplify things as unsocial geeks may not see or understand non-verbal communication that indicates that the other person is uncomfortable with the interaction.
you relies there MIGHT be less women in tech because they keep being fed the line that they will be treated bad. (most geeks only care about your work not what you look like.) So any woman who was remotely interested in tech thinks "well I would like to work in tech but its sexist I think I will study veterinary medicine instead." Seriously who gives a crap what chromosomes code monkey has just as long as they get the job done.
Sexualizing people that is. Unless Microsoft is hiring neuters and surgically altering them to have sex organs the article doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
Easier solution is to split departments by sex like in sports or past century schools.
Then you can guarantee company gender parity rules, enforce objetive performance retribution and shoot dead in their tracks any intergender sexual discrimination complaints.
And as a bonus no more thermostat wars.
You are almost right. They aren't a lot quieter, but the media isn't interested in promoting the issue. That is who is being quiet on the subject.
There is a significant amount of discrimination toward male nurses. Attitudes of "you can't trust them" with children or female patients. Those attitudes, by the way, are from both genders -- this isn't "women keeping the man down". So despite all of the incentives there are more female nurses than male. And yet, there are a lot of male doctors. And hospital administrators. And orderlies.
The nursing field is rife with problems ranging from sexual abuse (not necessarily by males) to drug abuse to rank incompetence. Where I live the state nursing group has a newsletter where every nurse who has been disciplined is named and shamed (I've been surprised by both the number and severity of offenses). And yet...
Unless you know someone in the field (my wife is a nurse) you aren't likely to know about these issues because the press isn't interested in airing them.
Everyone's crime is nobody's crime.
Are "Micro" and "Soft"
Is seems that everyone is discriminating against everyone. How about we let women in Microsoft who feel sexualized and discriminated start their own software company? Call it Themyscirasoft. Find out if patriarchy is really getting you down. Same for black-only company, LGBTQ only company (won't you still have to deal with sexual harassment though?) and so on. You will obviously have to let straight white dudes also have their own company - can't expect them to give up working because others want their own space. But if, as people keep saying, diversity is good for business, diverse companies will succeed and become the norm. They will also be free to achieve whatever diversity ratios they want - hire this many men, that many women, this many latinos... - rather than having to try to dance around the rules. And, since their employees have other choices free of racism/sexism/transphobia/etc, these diverse companies will be very proactive at not allowing these things to happen. It seems to me that all current laws do is keep us in limbo, with everyone grousing of being discriminated against and how great life would be without all this nonsense. So lets move on already, we can pass new laws.
Honestly, this lawsuit has little to no merit. 125000 employees and there are less than 300 complaints in total over 7 calendar years. That's not a systemic problem. It's a greedy lawyer hoping for a settlement... who forgot Bill Gates was at Harvard studying law.
What it probably is a a few bad managers. Let's face it, half of all managers are below average, and some much more so. Some of those are going to be douchebags. Where it will be Microsoft's problem is if they the issues were reported, and actionalble, but no action was taken.
Alex Jones is smarter than to question the holocaust. Dude will rant for hours on interdimensional psychic space vampire pedophiles, but Alex does not fuck with Jews.
We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
Just say you were harassed or or discriminated against or "sexualized" and Ca-Ching!
Easiest money you could ever make.
Or maybe I'm just being cynical?
> Nothing more ridiculous than fat, well-paid white men complaining about other people asking to be treated fairly.
But it's okay for *you* to discriminate, and fat shame?
If you said that sort of thing about women, there would be outrage.
Now who is not treating people fairly?
If there's money in it, why not?
Even if the money isn't direct. There is all sorts of preferential treatment that you can get by complaining.
The squeaky wheel gets the grease.
I don't know that having uniforms really helps all that much. Sure it can cut out people dressing outside of the norms to some degree. However it doesn't do anything about some people filling out a uniform in much more appealing ways than others, or some people finding something arousing about practically anything. You could pretty rapidly end up at the point that everyone is wearing a burka, and I'd bet even then you'd still have some part of the group acting like lecherous idiots. The problem is in people having wildly different social expectations. The more diverse your group of people the broader the risk of those differences causing strife. Sometimes those differences will be clearly expected and others will be quite surprising. The trouble usually starts though when people refuse to act like adults and won't try to control their own behavior once they know that it causes someone else undo stress.
It is also interesting that anything less than preferential treatment is "discrimination" to evangelicals/white men.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
Wrong. There's been plenty of programs to get more men into nursing, at least. I don't know about other female-dominated fields.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
You gave a correlation. That doesn't imply causation. Moreover, US fathers did not tell their daughters what job to take about 1988.
One possibility is that patriarchal countries tend to impose codes of conduct that may stop bad behavior, so there's less informal discrimination and harassment. I don't think you really know what women will choose, given a level playing field.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
I still think it's a terrible injustice that there are so few female garbage collectors. Where's the feminine outrage that driving garbage trucks is primarily a male-dominated job?
The old excuse was that far fewer women had the necessary upper body strength to manhandle full trashcans all day. (See what I did there?) But even that excuse is now gone, with garbage trucks equipped with robot dumpers. Make way for the female garbage collectors! Liberté, égalité, fraternité! Woops, uh, Liberté, égalité, sororité!
No. I got that from the FBI "personal crime interview" comparison published in 2005