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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.
"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)
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.
It happens to be hardwired in the male brain and it is the central reason the human race still exist. Expecting anything else is pretty stupid. Now, a decent male is polite about it and a decent female understands and forgives the occasional mistake. Decent people of either sex seem to be getting harder to come by though.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
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.
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.
Bullshit. If they're not reported how do you know?
You make it up. That's how.
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.
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.