MS investigating claims of sexual harassment - "at Xbox, every woman, except for 1, had been called a bitch" (Update: MS Responds)

gofreak · Apr 4, 2019

This seems pretty big. Hope I'm wrong but I've a bad feeling it might be the tip of a rather large iceberg in the industry, unfortunately, if someone started turning over enough rocks.

https://qz.com/1587477/microsoft-investigating-sexual-harassment-claims-overlooked-by-hr/

In a far-reaching email chain within Microsoft, women have shared stories of sexual harassment and discrimination, gaining notice from the company's senior leadership team, according to more than 90 pages of emails reviewed by Quartz.

The chain started March 20 when one employee asked other women at the company for advice on how to move up in the organization, after six years in the same position without seeing the possibility of advancement. Dozens of women then shared their own frustrations about discrimination and sexual harassment, detailing allegations ranging from sexist comments during work trips to being told to sit on a coworker's lap in front of a human resources leader. Another woman said on one project she was only given tasks like booking conference rooms, taking meeting notes, and making dinner reservations despite being in a technical role.

Another said that she had been called a "bitch" at work more than once, and found it was pervasive in the company. "We did a roundtables with the women when I was in Xbox core [team] & every woman, except for 1, had been called a bitch at work," the Microsoft employee wrote. "Before people say this is just an Xbox thing (as I've heard that dismissiveness way too many times within Microsoft before) the other eng [engineering] orgs where my experiences happened were Windows & Azure. This is a Microsoft thing, a common one."

Kathleen Hogan, Microsoft's head of human resources, replied on March 29 after dozens of emails had accumulated on the chain, saying that she had raised the issue with the company's senior leadership team, and would personally look into claims that were initially passed over by HR.

"I discussed this thread with the [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," Hogan wrote. "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'd read open conversations on Twitter months ago about problems with sexism at Xbox. It seems things are finally coming to a head, for the company as a whole.

Spotted via Thurrot.com

MrSaturn99 · Apr 4, 2019

One female Microsoft employee alleged that during a work trip an employee of a partner company threatened to kill her if she did not perform implied sexual acts. "I raised immediate attention to HR and management," she wrote. "My male manager told me that 'it sounded like he was just flirting' and I should 'get over it'. HR basically said that since there was no evidence, and this man worked for a partner company and not Microsoft, there was nothing they could do."

Infuriating. Hopefully this initiates change.

Dabi3 · Apr 4, 2019

carlosrox · Apr 4, 2019

....just why?

Why would you be so blatantly disrespectful?

Calling a woman a bitch in a professional setting? Just wtf.

cw_sasuke · Apr 4, 2019

This is really bad.
Phil you know what to do.

carlosrox said:
Calling a woman a bitch ? Just wtf.

Fixed.

Canucked · Apr 4, 2019

Man, this stuff can easily be waved away in a company culture. I'm in HR myself and they things people think I'm gonna be "cool with" are just absurd. Glad to hear that the right person eventually found out. Hope something happens.

True Prophecy · Apr 4, 2019

Better for this stuff to come out and address it than to keep it in the dark. It's horrible that it happens and It sounds like it's now being taken seriously.

Akelisrain · Apr 4, 2019

Holy shit, this is crazy.

Inuhanyou · Apr 4, 2019

This is a country wide issue at every corporate job and place of management. We need to start recognizing that these arent isolated incidents sooner rather than later. Its a culture of rank that allows men of power to abuse their positions in this manner

Justsomeguy · Apr 4, 2019

Gah. As an ex-Microsofty and passionate feminist, this is so upsetting to hear. In my part of the business, equality and respect ran deep and it's a message that was unambiguously and clearly repeated by the senior leadership. I hate that this kind of thing still exists anywhere. I take comfort from the fact that Satya, Kathleen Hogan et al are absolutely sincere about having genuine equality in the workplace and hope those responsible will get an unambiguous and painful message.

KillLaCam · Apr 4, 2019

If this is true that's insane that It just leaked out. I can't imagine working somewhere like that

Dreamboum · Apr 4, 2019

That's messed up. Fuck all of HR

TheKidObi · Apr 4, 2019

Damn to openly call people a bitch in a work enviroment yikes. wouldn't want to work in that kind of enviroment

severianb · Apr 4, 2019

This is hard to imagine.... until you remember all the other terrible stories from other corporations that have been proven to be sadly true.

AegonSnake · Apr 4, 2019

how does one not get fired after calling someone a bitch.

gofreak · Apr 4, 2019

Inuhanyou said:
This is a country wide issue at every corporate job and place of management. We need to start recognizing that these arent isolated incidents sooner rather than later. Its a culture of rank that allows men of power to abuse their positions in this manner

Yeah. I've been waiting for 'Me Too' to hit tech. The alleged attitude that 'oh, that's just the games division, that's the culture' makes me fear things could be particularly bad in the games industry...that even more stuff may be excused, still to this day, than in other business, because of the perceived immaturity of the business. But we'll see I guess.

Kilgore · Apr 4, 2019

Sad and absolutely unacceptable. Head of Xbox and Microsoft should take actions immediatly.

Hey Please · Apr 4, 2019

Honestly, better late than never for these things to be exposed so that it eventually effects positive change. It is more vital than ever given MS recently depicted their commitment to putting female employees and game enthusiasts at the forefront at (iirc) GDC (?) for their Xbox ecosystem.

DeathyG · Apr 4, 2019

You have to be a huge asshole to talk to women like that. And really stupid to put a good ass job in jeopardy.

I really don't get it.

Bizzquik · Apr 4, 2019

For this to take place at a company with such broad influence in the industry, this could honestly be one of the biggest news stories of the year. And it could either end up generating constructive conversation about workplace culture in games - running right along side other important ongoing workplace treatment issues - or Microsoft continues to handle this poorly and learns nothing.

I'm glad people are coming forward and it is being rightly investigated.

severianb · Apr 4, 2019

Dreamboum said:
That's messed up. Fuck all of HR

HR's job is to protect the company. They thought the lawsuits and bad PR from accused abusers would cost the company more than the same things from ignored employees. Maybe that equation will change now. There is no humanity here all of a sudden. Just a change in calculations in another souless corporation.

Deleted member 10629 · Apr 4, 2019

AegonSnake said:
how does one not get fired after calling someone a bitch.

Well, after reading that someone was 'just flirting' after threathening to kill a women for refusing to have sex with a them, that probably didnt even register.

Bad look, I hope MS can take action (they must, really) to turn this shit around.

Tom Nook · Apr 4, 2019

JustAnotherOne · Apr 4, 2019

Holy shit.

Deleted member 13645 · Apr 4, 2019

Whoa, that's a far cry from the type of environment Phil Spencer seems to want to foster based on his Ted talk. Hopefully they get that shit sorted out.

FF Seraphim · Apr 4, 2019

Another said that she had been called a "bitch" at work more than once, and found it was pervasive in the company. "We did a roundtables with the women when I was in Xbox core [team] & every woman, except for 1, had been called a bitch at work," the Microsoft employee wrote. "Before people say this is just an Xbox thing (as I've heard that dismissiveness way too many times within Microsoft before) the other eng [engineering] orgs where my experiences happened were Windows & Azure. This is a Microsoft thing, a common one."

Holy fuck. Its a MS thing?! How the fuck did it become a common occurrence to just openly call women bitches?! HOW?! This is a fundamental failure at every god damn level.

Jeffram · Apr 4, 2019

WTF, HR just ignored them?

Deleted member 10629 · Apr 4, 2019

DeathyG said:
You have to be a huge asshole to talk to women like that. And really stupid to put a good ass job in jeopardy.

I really don't get it.

That's the thing, they do it because their job won't be jeopardy for being a disgisting piece of shit (until now, I guess).

FF Seraphim said:
Holy fuck. Its a MS thing?! How the fuck did it become a common occurrence to just openly call women bitches?! HOW?! This is a fundamental failure at every god damn level.

This is more common than you think, sadly.

SilverX · Apr 4, 2019

If I heard someone calling a woman a bitch in the workplace, I'd report it myself. The guys who witnessed that and said nothing are just as guilty as the ones doing the horrible treatment. Really disgusting

AegonSnake · Apr 4, 2019

FF Seraphim said:
Holy fuck. Its a MS thing?! How the fuck did it become a common occurrence to just openly call women bitches?! HOW?! This is a fundamental failure at every god damn level.

They need to fire everyone who called anyone a bitch asap. No second chances. I dont care if Phill Spencer himself called them a bitch. Their needs to be some serious house cleaning over at MS.

thevid · Apr 4, 2019

I'm reminded of when Microsoft threw a Women in Games luncheon, and then threw a party for developers that included go-go dancers later that night. Just...how out of touch you be?

ResistCritical · Apr 4, 2019

Unacceptable, & just sad for women in this industry.

Deleted member 12352 · Apr 4, 2019

One female Microsoft employee alleged that during a work trip an employee of a partner company threatened to kill her if she did not perform implied sexual acts. "I raised immediate attention to HR and management," she wrote. "My male manager told me that 'it sounded like he was just flirting' and I should 'get over it'. HR basically said that since there was no evidence, and this man worked for a partner company and not Microsoft, there was nothing they could do."

What the actual fuck?

Iceman83 · Apr 4, 2019

If any of this pans out, all guilty parties should be fired, yes even Phil Spencer, although he's not the type so no worries.

JINX · Apr 4, 2019

That sounds fucking awful, who in the hell is hiring these HR managers.

LiK · Apr 4, 2019

Cess007 · Apr 4, 2019

Inuhanyou said:
This is a country wide issue at every corporate job and place of management. We need to start recognizing that these arent isolated incidents sooner rather than later. Its a culture of rank that allows men of power to abuse their positions in this manner

I mean, it's a problem, but this doesn't even come close to be a country or a corporate issue. I know it's pretty common to dismiss and mock harrasment issues at any level here.

The Metoo movement has just started in Mexico (specially in the Music and Entertainment business) and it's been received with a lot of disdain and rejection. Just this week we'd one big controversy with an accusation and the suicide of the accused.

On MS: I hope they handle this well and take action against this kind of behavoir.

Grouch Douglass · Apr 4, 2019

Inuhanyou said:
This is a country wide issue at every corporate job and place of management. We need to start recognizing that these arent isolated incidents sooner rather than later. Its a culture of rank that allows men of power to abuse their positions in this manner

Harassment is definitely a widespread problem, but lets not try to draw attention away from this very specific problem within Microsoft. Pressure needs to be put on them directly to address this properly and hopefully the example that will be set will also cause positive change for other companies.

Keikaku · Apr 4, 2019

Sounds like the whole HR department should be fired along with the bitch callers.

Doggg · Apr 4, 2019

If someone called me a bitch at work, I'd go ballistic. And that's without it's being used in a sexual harassment kind of way.

Deleted member 50969 · Apr 4, 2019

thevid said:
I'm reminded of when Microsoft threw a Women in Games luncheon, and then threw a party for developers that included go-go dancers later that night. Just...how out of touch you be?

I think the party was sub contracted but yeah, it was a weird thing to do or carry on with.

Inuhanyou · Apr 4, 2019

I am fully aware of this being an MS issue, its just something we have to note that i'm sure there are women who have been done horribly at Sony and Nintendo as well, we just havent heard about them. Its not just gaming either. Again, its a power structure that simply allows people to take advantage, and we need to be much stronger on combating it as a societal problem

gofreak · Apr 4, 2019

If a mod could edit the rogue ampersand out of the title - 'at Xbox & every woman' -> 'at Xbox every woman' - I'd appreciate it. Sorry about that.

Deleted member 54292 · Apr 4, 2019

Doggg said:
If someone called me a bitch at work, I'd go ballistic. And that's without it's being used in a sexual harassment kind of way.

fr

Deleted member 13645 · Apr 4, 2019

Iceman83 said:
If any of this pans out, all guilty parties should be fired, yes even Phil Spencer, although he's not the type so no worries.

He talks about trying to signal boost women in this video and make his team as inclusive as can be, so it'd be hard to imagine he had any hand in this or was even aware of it.

Deleted member 4482 · Apr 4, 2019

Hailinel · Apr 4, 2019

What the fuck.

Deleted member 10629 · Apr 4, 2019

Cess007 said:
I mean, it's a problem, but this doesn't even come close to be a country or a corporate issue. I know it's pretty common to dismiss and mock harrasment issues at any level here.

The Metoo movement has just started in Mexico (specially in the Music and Entertainment business) and it's been received with a lot of disdain and rejection. Just this week we'd one big controversy with an accusation and the suicide of the accused.

On MS: I hope they handle this well and take action against this kind of behavoir.

The whole thing has been handled disgustingly, ugh.

Iceman83 · Apr 4, 2019

Tharp said:
He talks about trying to signal boost women in this video and make his team as inclusive as can be, so it'd be hard to imagine he had any hand in this or was even aware of it.

I know. I was just making a point that no one should he immune

bcatwilly · Apr 4, 2019

Decent article from Wired on this with more from the Microsoft side - https://www.wired.com/story/microsoft-employees-protest-treatment-women-ceo-nadella/ I am definitely glad that any women who had those types of issues are willing to speak up.

MS investigating claims of sexual harassment - "at Xbox, every woman, except for 1, had been called a bitch" (Update: MS Responds)

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