EnlargeMike Mozart

Women at Microsoft have been sharing reports of sexual harassment by both fellow coworkers and external partners that were often ignored by managers and human resources alike, according to a report by Quartz.

On March 20, an employee emailed other women at the company to ask for advice on moving up the chain after six years without promotion. This brought forward dozens of stories of discrimination and harassment, such as one woman being told to sit on another coworker's lap or a woman in a technical role having her contribution to a project restricted to booking meeting rooms, making dinner reservations, and taking minutes. Quartz verified the contents of the thread with employees at the company, and it has reviewed more than 90 pages of emails.

In many cases, employees say that they reported the events to their managers or to HR, only to have those complaints dismissed or overlooked—for example, written off as "just flirting" or ignored for lack of evidence.

One respondent welcomed the thread, writing "This thread has pulled the scab off a festering wound. The collective anger and frustration is palpable. A wide audience is now listening. And you know what? I'm good with that."

Microsoft's head of HR, Kathleen Hogan, responded to the emails on March 29. She said that she would investigate the claims and invite anyone who has suffered such experiences or had their complaints dismissed by management or HR to contact her directly.

The company has issued a public statement attributed to Hogan:

I discussed this thread with the SLT (Senior Leadership Team) today. We are appalled and sad to hear about these experiences. It is very painful to hear these stories and to know that anyone is facing such behavior at Microsoft. We must do better.

I would like to offer to anyone who has had such demeaning experiences including those who felt were dismissed by management or HR to email me directly. I will personally look into the situation with my team. I understand the devastating impact of such experiences, and the SLT wants to be made aware of any such behavior, and we will do everything we can to stop it.

As mentioned earlier in the thread, Lindsay-Rae (our Chief Diversity Officer) will be setting up sessions the week of April 22 to ensure we hear and are clear on the feedback, and determine what initiatives or programs to keep/stop/start based on input from this community. Invites for these sessions will be sent to all women's community groups next week, will accommodate multiple time zones, and joining Lindsay-Rae will be Erin Chapple; Co-Exec Sponsor of the Women's Community at Microsoft. While I do want to create a forum for the community on the thread, I also read and agree with the comments that for us to solve this as a company, the burden does not reside only with us women.

While reading some of this is very disheartening, I am proud and encouraged to see people empowered to speak up, say this is not right, and stand together for change. Thank you.

In 2015, Microsoft was Read More – Source

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Ars Technica

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