5 ms·

Female engineer sues Tesla, describing a culture of 'pervasive harassment'

134 points by DrNuke 10y ago

berry_sortoro 10y ago
Here we go again.
janywer 10y ago
“Most of my clients come in and say, ‘human resources isn’t helping me. They’re just protecting the company.’” Once again, that is HR's job. They're not there to protect you, they are there to protect the company from lawsuits.
- empath75 10y ago
  Well. In the most cynical sense, yes, but in a properly functioning company, those shouldn't be competing functions.
  - rarec 10y ago
    Shouldn't is a funny idea, as is properly functioning. HR should never be considered "on your side." It's hardly considered cynical to presume a subsection of a company to care more for the company's than an aggrieved employee who would likely stir up trouble. If this behaviour is as rampant as it seems to be, what incentivization reinforced it? More of a tangent thought, but if this keeps occurring what is causing the disparaging treatment?
  - meej 10y ago
    No. Organizations that protect employees do exist, they're called unions.
    - cholantesh 10y ago
      Unfortunately, it seems that the organizational culture in NA (and in South Asia, from my friends and family that work there) is extremely union hostile.
      - meej 10y ago
        It is, though that wasn't always the case in the US; at their peak a third of workers belonged to a union. And it is unfortunate, because workers in strongly unionized industries enjoy higher wages even if they do not belong to the union. The decline of unions in the US has gone hand in hand with the rise in inequality. A lot of the jobs that US politicians talk about bringing back were union jobs, but even if it were possible to bring those jobs back, I don't think they're talking about bringing back the unions.
- jhgjklj 10y ago
  This is a common mistake by new recruits. Human in HR some how associated with Humanity which is not the case.
- JohnJamesRambo 10y ago
  Sounds like they did a bad job of it. Sweeping things under the rug usually does that.
- devoply 10y ago
  If H/R was doing its job it would've tried to lessen the harassment. Protecting from lawsuits means keeping people from getting harassed which is itself illegal. That's the best way to protect the company from lawsuits. Probably one of the worst ways is to try to blame the victim, or trying to suppress their complaints. This often ends badly for everyone involved.
empath75 10y ago
I'm glad she sued and stayed with the company. That takes guts. I hope all the people who wanted those women to sue Uber are going to stand behind her when the all the negative consequences of suing start coming her way.
- jhgjklj 10y ago
  Just another thought. She moved from engineering(manufacturing) to purchase, sound like not much opportunities available.
jhgjklj 10y ago
Hypothesis thinking from first principles. In the department of manufacturing the productivity is directly correlated with followup which is directly correlated with insane work hours which suits men better than women which correlates with hike.
- erikpukinskis 10y ago
  > insane work hours which suits men better than women My girlfriend earned 23 hours of overtime this week. I am on HN naked in bed at noon on a Tuesday.
  - Philipp__ 10y ago
    Haha, man, you made my day! :)
nocomments 10y ago
Currently, all chief executive positions are held by men at Tesla, and out of more than 30 vice-presidents, only two are women, she added. “It’s shocking in this day and age that this is still a fight we have to have.” - Isn't this simple probability or law of numbers because your company has less female employees. I work in a tech company which has healthy amount of female employees and guess what we have lots of female executives too.
- agd 10y ago
  It difficult to determine causality in these scenarios. Does your company have more female employees because female executives have created a less misogynistic, more welcoming culture? Or does it have more female execs because it has more female employees?
- slurple 10y ago
  Women are promoted into management at much lower rates then men are in many industries, which ends up in underrepresentation at the highest levels. https://www.ellevatenetwork.com/articles/7823-lecturing-men-about-diversity-doesn-t-work-this-does https://www.ellevatenetwork.com/articles/7823-lecturing-men-...
  - dkonofalski 10y ago
    Women also apply for management at lower rates, though. The whole ecosystem is unbalanced and not in their favor.
    - contingencies 10y ago
      I wonder if flatter organizations with broader company decisions made through collaborative online discussion (ie. not face to face) would help? Obviously someone still has to make the call, but at least it lets people put their reasoning out there without dealing with the inefficiencies of meetings and the unequal opportunity they tend to entail for input.
  - returnbuyer 10y ago
gdulli 10y ago
> protected a repeat offender because he was a "high performer" When will people realize that any definition of "performance" that excludes a requirement to treat others with respect is uselessly narrow?
- dkonofalski 10y ago
  When money stops being the driving motivation for the majority of people. As long as brute capitalism is rewarded, you're going to see this type of occurrence.
sevensor 10y ago
Manufacturing can be a pretty rough environment. The factory where I used to work drew the line at porn, more or less, but casual racism, sexism, and all the 'phobias were rampant. Our director of HR was let go for sexual harassment. Edit: Should clarify that the fact that this is normal for manufacturing in no way excuses it, and I support this lawsuit.

134 points by DrNuke 10y ago

Here we go again.

“Most of my clients come in and say, ‘human resources isn’t helping me. They’re just protecting the company.’” Once again, that is HR's job. They're not there to protect you, they are there to protect the company from lawsuits.

empath75 10y ago
Well. In the most cynical sense, yes, but in a properly functioning company, those shouldn't be competing functions.
- rarec 10y ago
  Shouldn't is a funny idea, as is properly functioning. HR should never be considered "on your side." It's hardly considered cynical to presume a subsection of a company to care more for the company's than an aggrieved employee who would likely stir up trouble. If this behaviour is as rampant as it seems to be, what incentivization reinforced it? More of a tangent thought, but if this keeps occurring what is causing the disparaging treatment?
- meej 10y ago
  No. Organizations that protect employees do exist, they're called unions.
  - cholantesh 10y ago
    Unfortunately, it seems that the organizational culture in NA (and in South Asia, from my friends and family that work there) is extremely union hostile.
    - meej 10y ago
      It is, though that wasn't always the case in the US; at their peak a third of workers belonged to a union. And it is unfortunate, because workers in strongly unionized industries enjoy higher wages even if they do not belong to the union. The decline of unions in the US has gone hand in hand with the rise in inequality. A lot of the jobs that US politicians talk about bringing back were union jobs, but even if it were possible to bring those jobs back, I don't think they're talking about bringing back the unions.
jhgjklj 10y ago
This is a common mistake by new recruits. Human in HR some how associated with Humanity which is not the case.
JohnJamesRambo 10y ago
Sounds like they did a bad job of it. Sweeping things under the rug usually does that.
devoply 10y ago
If H/R was doing its job it would've tried to lessen the harassment. Protecting from lawsuits means keeping people from getting harassed which is itself illegal. That's the best way to protect the company from lawsuits. Probably one of the worst ways is to try to blame the victim, or trying to suppress their complaints. This often ends badly for everyone involved.

empath75 10y ago

I'm glad she sued and stayed with the company. That takes guts. I hope all the people who wanted those women to sue Uber are going to stand behind her when the all the negative consequences of suing start coming her way.

jhgjklj 10y ago
Just another thought. She moved from engineering(manufacturing) to purchase, sound like not much opportunities available.

jhgjklj 10y ago

Hypothesis thinking from first principles. In the department of manufacturing the productivity is directly correlated with followup which is directly correlated with insane work hours which suits men better than women which correlates with hike.

erikpukinskis 10y ago
> insane work hours which suits men better than women My girlfriend earned 23 hours of overtime this week. I am on HN naked in bed at noon on a Tuesday.
- Philipp__ 10y ago
  Haha, man, you made my day! :)

nocomments 10y ago

Currently, all chief executive positions are held by men at Tesla, and out of more than 30 vice-presidents, only two are women, she added. “It’s shocking in this day and age that this is still a fight we have to have.” - Isn't this simple probability or law of numbers because your company has less female employees. I work in a tech company which has healthy amount of female employees and guess what we have lots of female executives too.

agd 10y ago
It difficult to determine causality in these scenarios. Does your company have more female employees because female executives have created a less misogynistic, more welcoming culture? Or does it have more female execs because it has more female employees?
slurple 10y ago
Women are promoted into management at much lower rates then men are in many industries, which ends up in underrepresentation at the highest levels. https://www.ellevatenetwork.com/articles/7823-lecturing-men-about-diversity-doesn-t-work-this-does https://www.ellevatenetwork.com/articles/7823-lecturing-men-...
- dkonofalski 10y ago
  Women also apply for management at lower rates, though. The whole ecosystem is unbalanced and not in their favor.
  - contingencies 10y ago
    I wonder if flatter organizations with broader company decisions made through collaborative online discussion (ie. not face to face) would help? Obviously someone still has to make the call, but at least it lets people put their reasoning out there without dealing with the inefficiencies of meetings and the unequal opportunity they tend to entail for input.
- returnbuyer 10y ago

gdulli 10y ago

> protected a repeat offender because he was a "high performer" When will people realize that any definition of "performance" that excludes a requirement to treat others with respect is uselessly narrow?

dkonofalski 10y ago
When money stops being the driving motivation for the majority of people. As long as brute capitalism is rewarded, you're going to see this type of occurrence.

sevensor 10y ago

Manufacturing can be a pretty rough environment. The factory where I used to work drew the line at porn, more or less, but casual racism, sexism, and all the 'phobias were rampant. Our director of HR was let go for sexual harassment. Edit: Should clarify that the fact that this is normal for manufacturing in no way excuses it, and I support this lawsuit.