
UploadVR sued over ‘rampant’ sexual behavior in workplace, wrongful termination - coloneltcb
https://techcrunch.com/2017/05/15/uploadvr-sued-over-rampant-sexual-behavior-in-the-workplace-and-wrongful-termination/
======
khazhoux
I'm not so much shocked at the allegations here, but rather I'm shocked that
we exist in a universe where these things are even possible. It is literally
inconceivable to me to imagine a workplace like this. I can only barely
imagine a living/housing environment like this (but then again, I was never in
a frat, so maybe that's why?).

Talking about female coworkers? Sure, that happens.

Talk about sex at work? Sure. Not at my workplace, but ok.

Talk about rubbing one out because a coworker gave you boner? Eh.... O_o

Hell, my parents are still surprised to hear I can show up at whatever time in
the morning and leave whenever I feel like it! That's what they consider
outrageous.

~~~
CCing
I was writing exactly the same thing. I can't understand how this is even
possible.

But fuck. How fuck can you have a sex room in the office ? How can someone
have sex in the office ?

I'm seriously speechless.

~~~
toomuchtodo
Sex in the workplace is far more common then you think.

~~~
CCing
People can have sex if they want to(in theory no, on the workplace shouldn't
be allowed so openly). BUT company that offer a bed/room for sex ? this seems
to be too much.

It's a workplace, not a frat house.

~~~
nsxwolf
Might some see this as a healthy, progressive, sex-positive evolution of the
modern workplace?

~~~
s73ver
The workplace does not need to be sex positive! If anything, it should be sex-
agnostic.

------
kartan
> For example, male employees stated how they were sexually aroused by female
> employees and how it was hard to concentrate and be productive when all they
> could think about was having sex with them.

> The suit also claims that the company paid male employees more despite
> sharing the same roles and responsibilities.

This is horrible and illegal in a lot of ways. And what were management
thinking? How can anyone be productive at work with such a toxic environment?
I would just be ashamed of working in such a place. And that is part of the
problem, employees that do not fit in the company "culture" usually leave or
are fired. So the toxic environment gets perpetuated.

I work in a company with a lot of diversity, and I like it. We have only a few
female developers, as there is not so much female software engineers
graduating from university, but we have better parity in all other roles. We
have people from a lot of different nations, and English is our shared
language even that is the native tongue for just a few. I like the open,
friendly environment where people get the respect they deserve. It boosts
productivity and collaboration. I wouldn't like it any other way.

------
minimaxir
Direct link to complaint:
[https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3722345-UploadVR-
law...](https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3722345-UploadVR-lawsuit.html)

It's something.

~~~
notamy
Holy crap. This is almost unbelievable, it's so bad. How are ANY of the things
listed as complaints possibly good ideas in someone's mind!?

~~~
s73ver
Lack of separation between personal and professional life. One of the things
Silicon Valley companies have been working on doing for a while is blurring
the lines between work and not work.

------
UseofWeapons1
I respect TechCrunch's decision to not publish the plaintiff's name in the
primary portion of their article. It's easy to look up for those who have a
reason to search for it, but it's not necessary to the discussion, and could
potentially alleviate some of the social backlash (or at least issues)
associated with going to court. Employees with legitimate legal gripes against
their employers don't need to face additional barriers (such as social stigma)
to legal action.

------
atemerev
I don't understand why it even happens. With all high-profile cases in the
last few years, can people hold it for a while? Or everybody is hiring 19 year
old boys who physiologically can't?

~~~
swampthinker
I think a large part of it has to do with the fact that young college students
and/or recent graduates building startups and hitting it big with VC funding.

It's effectively giving kids that haven't grown up a large sum of money.

~~~
EliRivers
Even so, do these VCs not install any kind of adult supervision when they put
their money on the line? Sure, they don't want to just bring in their own CEO,
but a little bit of guidance along the lines of "this is a fucking workplace,
not somewhere for you to play out your immature sexual power fantasies and
jeopardise my money" would go a long way.

~~~
throwanem
Fetter one's stable of unicorns? Heaven forfend! They're such _delicate_
creatures.

------
palakchokshi
I'm genuinely interested in knowing the answer to this question: What makes
someone stay in a job after they've been asked to clean up a room where they
found underwear and opened condom packets? Especially if the top honcho was
allegedly engaged in such behavior. There is no chance the situation is going
to get better no matter who you complained to. get out now!

~~~
badosu
That's exactly what I was pondering after reading the lawsuit.

I mean, being told to be the 'mommy' of the male workers, not being supplied
with equipment in contrary to the others, having to hear directly of mentions
to threesomes and disapproval of sexual appearance, being kicked out of your
room for your boss to have sex with someone in it, being ostracized by not
using drugs at work.

Sometimes reality is stranger than fiction so I would not doubt that is true,
I am just having great difficulty to understand how such scenario would be
feasible. I mean, how could someone continue to work in a place like this for
almost a year?

------
pottersbasilisk
A "smush room" ... gross. I haven't had to deal with that kind of gross
culture since I quit an it job on wall street.

It sounds like wall street executive culture is leaking through and through
silicon valley.

------
dba7dba
Lol, I just checked UploadVR's website and a popup window used for collecting
email has following: > GET HOOKED UP

I'm not gonna even expect the accused to clean up their acts. Only way they
will learn, and teach other younger ones not to copy their acts, is for the
investors to hammer this down hard.

They only understand the all mighty dollars so they need to be dealt with
accordingly.

~~~
dba7dba
Hm, why am I voted down?

------
rsynnott
Bloody hell. This sounds like a parody of a dreadful Silicon Valley company.

~~~
ajmurmann
I think if a company like this was in the show Silicon Valley it would be
badly received because it would be too out there and unrealistic even for that
show.

~~~
s73ver
Funny story: Dan Lyons, a writer for Silicon Valley and the author of the book
Disrupted, about his experiences working at the high tech startup HubSpot,
said that he had pitched many things that he personally saw during his time
there. He was frequently shot down because they seemed too far outside
reality.

------
bluetwo
Many of the defendants are in this promo video.

[https://upload.io](https://upload.io)

------
exogeny
As mentioned on TechCrunch, Greg Gopman (dude who wrote the incredibly tone-
deaf anti-homeless piece that went viral a few years back) is named in the
lawsuit.

Shitheads gonna shit.

------
nojvek
I think VC's should just pull funding from companies that have dog-rain
management.

Sort of like the Abhishekh Guttani case. Sites like crunch base should give
them a "DO NOT FUND ASSHOLES" stamp.

------
bitwize
What sort of professional would even want to work at a company with an office
"smush room"? Before the issues of discrimination and harassment come up, the
smell of the place must be appalling.

------
gogopuppygogo
Wow. Wonder what Robert Scoble is going to say about this... He's been talking
them up recently on Facebook.

~~~
minimaxir
Scoble works (EDIT: worked) for UploadVR. [https://uploadvr.com/scoble-why-
vr/](https://uploadvr.com/scoble-why-vr/)

~~~
izakaya27
He no longer works there according to his LinkedIn, and posted this a few days
ago:
[https://www.facebook.com/RobertScoble/posts/1015527865493465...](https://www.facebook.com/RobertScoble/posts/10155278654934655)

~~~
josephpmay
I love how Scoble thinks that just because he doesn't include the company's
name means he isn't violating the non-disparagement clause

~~~
moomin
Think this case may have just rendered any damages moot, however.

------
epx
My lowpass filter makes me not to believe in this, but it's been wrong before
:(

------
projektir
It's like a different universe over there.

------
krapp
Yes, but if one _must_ have sex in the workplace, I would rather it be in a
designated area than, say, on my desk. I want to _know_ what surfaces genitals
have been pressed against and where, with a reasonable degree of confidence,
they haven't.

I'm not even hung up about the sex at all, if it's consensual you do you and
or whomever you like, but it's a matter of hygiene.

~~~
dang
We detached this subthread from
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14346328](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14346328)
and marked it off-topic.

~~~
krapp
I can understand why you would want to prune the thread but it's not off-
topic. It relates directly to the topic.

~~~
dang
I don't disagree. "Marked as off topic" also has a technical meaning here.

------
tn135
I think we should always pay attention to the other side of the story before
we buy into the allegations.

I am not playing down the possible harassment of any employee but let us not
be blinded by the allegations alone either.

~~~
cpncrunch
If it was just general allegations about sexual behaviour at the workplace, I
would be a bit skeptical. However when they provide concrete factual examples,
it seems somewhat unlikely that it would be completely made up.

------
toomuchtodo
If it's consensual and everyone is an adult, I don't see the problem. No
different than everyone having sex in the meditation room at a coworking space
(true story!).

But harassment and abuse? Do not pass go. Go directly to court and
liquidation.

~~~
mistersquid
Consent is not an issue here. Two adults can consent to have sex in the
workplace and, as a result, cause a third coworker psychological harm.

In other words, two consenting adults can create a toxic work environment,
which is why sex in the office is pretty much verboten.

~~~
CCing
Totally agree and was part of my point.

Workplace should be for work. If people want have sex, they can go at home or
at a motel.

------
d883kd8
> Male employees used that room to have sexual intercourse, which was
> disruptive and inappropriate.

With whom?

~~~
dragonwriter
Presumably, female non-employees (likely, though not necessarily exclusively,
prostitutes), at least if that room is consistent with all the other
allegations of sex involving male employees at company events.

------
Shorel
I think that a surveillance society is the only possible development that can
come from issues like this.

Instead of 'he said, she said', companies will have detailed records of
everything said by most employees.

