4 ms·

BetterWorks and CEO sued by ex-employee for alleged sexually suggestive assault

40 points by janober 9y ago

twobyfour 9y ago
This is horrific. The description of the assault made me so uncomfortable I had trouble finishing reading the article.
davidu 9y ago
The only thing worse than this accusation is the alleged coverup. Holy smokes. Also, a certain irony is that it stands in contrast to the entire point of this company.
- s3r3nity 9y ago
  Yeah - the fact that the head of People Operations attributed these complaints to "cattiness" and told the victim that she should try to be a "cool girl" was stunning to me. I guess the adage "HR is there to protect the company, not _you_" deserves repeating...
- danso 9y ago
  Based on the evidentiary claims made in the allegation, it also seems to be one of the more unambiguous cases involving Silicon Valley. The victim did everything in her power to avoid, deter, and afterwards, document the attack, including calling for help during/immediately after the attack, and filing a formal report to the "VP of People Operations" the morning after. In addition to actual witnesses of the event and her formal HR complaint, the report notes that the CEO sent out a company-wide email apologizing for his behavior. So this wasn't something that anyone in the company could be ignorant of, or dismiss as idle gossip. That no one apparently chose to speak up publicly -- about this incident or any of the other past allegations of improper culture/behavior, until the lawsuit at hand -- is some indication of the institutional barriers that victims face. If this kind of attack could be kept quiet, think of the less obviously egregious incidents of harassment that victims feel powerless to report.
ben174 9y ago
I interviewed with BetterWorks last year for four rounds of onsite interviews. This is in addition to a couple rounds of phone interviews and a quite extensive homework assignment. Everything seemed to be going well, but they ultimately ended up passing on me with absolutely no explanation. They seemed like a professional place and I didn't observe much out of the usual regarding professionalism, but I can't pretend I wasn't a bit soured by investing so much time and not getting an explanation on why they passed.
- jrubinovitz 9y ago
  Your comment seems to be 100% independent of this accusation.
  - ben174 9y ago
    Indeed. Just sharing my experience with them.
andreasgonewild 9y ago
Assholes take notice, this wave of transparency and collective action is only going to increase in strength moving forward; either turn on a dime or find another world to live in.
tylerjdurden 9y ago
This was a terrifying, sickening read. The comments by the head of People Operations (re: "cattiness", "cool girl") remind me a lot of Fowler's description of Uber HR.
danso 9y ago
Sad to see this story flagged off the front page less than an hour later. BetterWorks is a Silicon Valley startup that has substantial VC investment and it is facing a major lawsuit that threatens its business/existence. But because it involves a systematic coverup of sexual assault and harassment, rather than a data/engineering/security problems, it's not "news"?
- ben174 9y ago
  I was also surprised to see how quickly this one dropped off the front page. It was up for maybe 10 minutes, gaining very quick momentum, and then suddenly disappeared.
justboxing 9y ago
> Duggan allegedly told a female employee who complained about the lack of gender diversity on the sales staff that she should “tell recruiting we need to hire more boobies.” This made me cringe. (I'm a dude).

40 points by janober 9y ago

This is horrific. The description of the assault made me so uncomfortable I had trouble finishing reading the article.

The only thing worse than this accusation is the alleged coverup. Holy smokes. Also, a certain irony is that it stands in contrast to the entire point of this company.

s3r3nity 9y ago
Yeah - the fact that the head of People Operations attributed these complaints to "cattiness" and told the victim that she should try to be a "cool girl" was stunning to me. I guess the adage "HR is there to protect the company, not _you_" deserves repeating...
danso 9y ago
Based on the evidentiary claims made in the allegation, it also seems to be one of the more unambiguous cases involving Silicon Valley. The victim did everything in her power to avoid, deter, and afterwards, document the attack, including calling for help during/immediately after the attack, and filing a formal report to the "VP of People Operations" the morning after. In addition to actual witnesses of the event and her formal HR complaint, the report notes that the CEO sent out a company-wide email apologizing for his behavior. So this wasn't something that anyone in the company could be ignorant of, or dismiss as idle gossip. That no one apparently chose to speak up publicly -- about this incident or any of the other past allegations of improper culture/behavior, until the lawsuit at hand -- is some indication of the institutional barriers that victims face. If this kind of attack could be kept quiet, think of the less obviously egregious incidents of harassment that victims feel powerless to report.

ben174 9y ago

I interviewed with BetterWorks last year for four rounds of onsite interviews. This is in addition to a couple rounds of phone interviews and a quite extensive homework assignment. Everything seemed to be going well, but they ultimately ended up passing on me with absolutely no explanation. They seemed like a professional place and I didn't observe much out of the usual regarding professionalism, but I can't pretend I wasn't a bit soured by investing so much time and not getting an explanation on why they passed.

jrubinovitz 9y ago
Your comment seems to be 100% independent of this accusation.
- ben174 9y ago
  Indeed. Just sharing my experience with them.

andreasgonewild 9y ago

Assholes take notice, this wave of transparency and collective action is only going to increase in strength moving forward; either turn on a dime or find another world to live in.

tylerjdurden 9y ago

This was a terrifying, sickening read. The comments by the head of People Operations (re: "cattiness", "cool girl") remind me a lot of Fowler's description of Uber HR.

danso 9y ago

Sad to see this story flagged off the front page less than an hour later. BetterWorks is a Silicon Valley startup that has substantial VC investment and it is facing a major lawsuit that threatens its business/existence. But because it involves a systematic coverup of sexual assault and harassment, rather than a data/engineering/security problems, it's not "news"?

ben174 9y ago
I was also surprised to see how quickly this one dropped off the front page. It was up for maybe 10 minutes, gaining very quick momentum, and then suddenly disappeared.

justboxing 9y ago

> Duggan allegedly told a female employee who complained about the lack of gender diversity on the sales staff that she should “tell recruiting we need to hire more boobies.” This made me cringe. (I'm a dude).