5 ms·

I know a girl at a Fortune 500 company (not a dev) who was in corporate sales. She went with a more experienced sales person (a guy) who took her and the client

I know a girl at a Fortune 500 company (not a dev) who was in corporate sales. She went with a more experienced sales person (a guy) who took her and the client to Hooters. No joke. This is like 2019 so in full swing Me Too movement. When she reported it she was immediately put on a PIP for bad performance. Then she was really dressed down privately by her boss for bringing it up. She taped the convo (legal in her state). Even presented with that evidence they fired her. They went to the EEOC to protest. The EEOC said that there's almost nothing you can do. So, regardless she hired a lawyer. It wasn't the money it was the fact she was fired despite reporting this (and having good sales numbers). She spent 2k out of pocket. They said "No we aren't gonna settle". Finally they offered to pay her lawyers fees. She said no and that she was going to finance a movie (low budget but who cares) of what happened to her and form a support group. And talk with ProPublica about the company. Over 3 hours they negotiated until they gave her a bit under half a million. The only way to really get justice is just to do things like that I guess. Reporting it has the opposite effect. Eventually many of the other guys involved were let go.

askonomm 3y ago
Glad she got something for that awful treatment. But the thing is, this sort of thing doesn't really scale. A lot of (most?) people don't have the time/resources to attempt any of this and are too afraid to have a future job call the previous job and hear negative feedback because of the retaliation, thus hindering future employment prospects. The whole thing is extremely against the employee. And the companies know this. That 1 person a year that has the balls to retaliate and who the company has to eventually settle with is effectively just a cost of doing business, and so nothing changes. I once worked for a crypto startup that turned out to build a ponzi scheme. I of course quit, and asked for my due money from paychecks not paid yet. No money to be seen. I reported the startup to the police, but the police didn't seem all too interested for doing anything about it. I then threatened the startup with going to the local business news outlet and reporting my story, to which they finally responded with and gave my missing money, but the thing is - I had talked to the business outlet, and they also didn't care about the story. I was bluffing and just got lucky. And as far as I know they continued with their business just fine.
- DoesntMatter22 3y ago
  It definitely doesn't scale. And if this is before Me Too then she doesn't get anything either. But, idk what else you can do. I'm glad she got some good money out of it but as you said for most people it's not possible. Most people who even have the money don't want to risk it, they just move on.
1letterunixname 3y ago
The problem is the lawsuit payday only works once. Regardless about how horrible an employer is, it marks someone as perpetually radioactive from being hired anywhere else.
- DoesntMatter22 3y ago
  Not really. How would future employers know? Part of their deal entailed the company would not say anything negative to any company looking to hire here in the future. Even if you file a lawsuit against a company they aren't going to generally say "Well, they filed a lawsuit against us". They generally don't say anything disparaging unless you are dealing with a mom and pop type of company.
  - pjmlp 3y ago
    Off the record conversations when doing background checks, this is one reason why companies never let anyone know why they weren't chosen.
  - lazide 3y ago
    A standard HR background check is looking for lawsuits from potential employees. No one wants to hire persistent litigators.
    - DoesntMatter22 3y ago
      One time is a persistent litigator? A EEOC claim is private BTW. Tl
      - lazide 3y ago
        For many HR departments? Absolutely.
        DoesntMatter22 3y ago
        Sure they'd reject her but you calling her a "persistent litigator" doesn't make any sense.

askonomm 3y ago

Glad she got something for that awful treatment. But the thing is, this sort of thing doesn't really scale. A lot of (most?) people don't have the time/resources to attempt any of this and are too afraid to have a future job call the previous job and hear negative feedback because of the retaliation, thus hindering future employment prospects. The whole thing is extremely against the employee. And the companies know this. That 1 person a year that has the balls to retaliate and who the company has to eventually settle with is effectively just a cost of doing business, and so nothing changes. I once worked for a crypto startup that turned out to build a ponzi scheme. I of course quit, and asked for my due money from paychecks not paid yet. No money to be seen. I reported the startup to the police, but the police didn't seem all too interested for doing anything about it. I then threatened the startup with going to the local business news outlet and reporting my story, to which they finally responded with and gave my missing money, but the thing is - I had talked to the business outlet, and they also didn't care about the story. I was bluffing and just got lucky. And as far as I know they continued with their business just fine.

DoesntMatter22 3y ago
It definitely doesn't scale. And if this is before Me Too then she doesn't get anything either. But, idk what else you can do. I'm glad she got some good money out of it but as you said for most people it's not possible. Most people who even have the money don't want to risk it, they just move on.

1letterunixname 3y ago

The problem is the lawsuit payday only works once. Regardless about how horrible an employer is, it marks someone as perpetually radioactive from being hired anywhere else.

DoesntMatter22 3y ago
Not really. How would future employers know? Part of their deal entailed the company would not say anything negative to any company looking to hire here in the future. Even if you file a lawsuit against a company they aren't going to generally say "Well, they filed a lawsuit against us". They generally don't say anything disparaging unless you are dealing with a mom and pop type of company.
- pjmlp 3y ago
  Off the record conversations when doing background checks, this is one reason why companies never let anyone know why they weren't chosen.
- lazide 3y ago
  A standard HR background check is looking for lawsuits from potential employees. No one wants to hire persistent litigators.
  - DoesntMatter22 3y ago
    One time is a persistent litigator? A EEOC claim is private BTW. Tl
    - lazide 3y ago
      For many HR departments? Absolutely.
      - DoesntMatter22 3y ago
        Sure they'd reject her but you calling her a "persistent litigator" doesn't make any sense.