
Startup Had ‘Masturbation’ Zone, Exec Who Took Off Pants in Meeting: Lawsuit - KKKKkkkk1
https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/08/02/her-tech-boss-took-his-pants-off-in-meeting-that-was-far-from-the-only-issue-lawsuit/
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jitix
wow this is super toxic, not to mention probably illegal. I'm surprised nobody
else spoke up before. Even as a male I'd find this disturbing and highly
dysfunctional. I can't even fathom how the plaintiff might have felt. I hope
she sues them to oblivion. Such companies don't need to exist.

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lobotryas
A culture only becomes "toxic"when it encounters someone who doesn't like it.
We would bot have had this story if Rachel was never hired in the first place.

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Spooky23
There’s no place for weird bullshit like this in business. Open display of
deviant behavior is a weird power trip on the part of whomever is in charge
that ultimately speaks more about the incompetence of the investors and board
than anything else.

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lobotryas
You may be too wrapped up in outrage to have seen my bigger point. Anyone can
come along and claim a corporate culture is toxic for virtually any reason. If
your company had a policy that gave extra breaks for people who smoked and
said people formed a clique that excluded non-smokers then you'd have grounds
to call this "toxic" and agitate for change just because you didn't smoke
yourself.

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Spooky23
When people are watching porn and jerking off in the server closet, it’s
toxic.

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fjsolwmv
Only if it's not done privately.

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dahdum
Having spent my whole career working in majority women companies, it’s
sometimes hard to picture how poor working environments can be.

Articles like this give a disturbing insight.

Important to remember that the lawsuit is just one side of the story, written
carefully by a lawyer to present the company in the worst possible light, and
likely fed to the reporter directly. I’d love to see their response.

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dantheman0207
It seems like the startup was still pretty small, but the plaintiff was hardly
the only employee there. If you're working in an environment like this, I
think you have a very real responsibility to speak up. If that doesn't work
you should leave. Anyone working in tech, especially in SV, has alternatives.
You have a moral responsibility to squash out this kind of behavior by making
it clear it's not an acceptable workplace - even (especially) if you're not
the target of harassment.

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lobotryas
You may have meant "ethical responsibility". Viewing porn as immoral doesn't
sound very 2018.

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fenwick67
The sum of the alleged behaviors here is immoral IMO. Simply watching porn is
a world apart from this situation.

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Thetawaves
The amount outright toxic comments and toxic people posting in this thread is
astounding. Seriously, boys, grow up and join the professional world.
Disgusting.

~~~
coldtea
Well, not everyone shares the anglosaxon culture of puritan shame about sex
and that it's outrageous to discuss outside the bedroom.

So a lot of stuff in the post is not about going outside some professional
limit (e.g. few would have been offended if they played with nerf guns in the
office, like tons of startups do and most are alright with -- but which a lot
of cultures would deem "unprofessional" as well, since it inherently has
nothing to do with work).

Though this does go beyond limits:

 _And the harassment escalated, she alleged. In December, English called her
into his office, shut the door and took off his pants, she claimed. Moore said
she was uncomfortable, told him his behavior was “harassment,” and asked to
leave the room, but English “would not let her” and began talking about his
ex-girlfriend’s faults, she claimed._

as it's not mere talk (which can be crude, sensual, or whatever), but actual
abuse: nobody asked to see his genitals...

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colemickens
As I was saying to your other gross, now deleted comment... Context matters.

I can talk with my friend, in great detail, about sex. Outside of work. At
work, it's inappropriate for the same reasons that talking about religion or
politics can be. It will alienate people and make them uncomfortable.

But when that extends to have masturbation rooms at work, or your superiors
bragging about how great they are at sex (lol), then it crosses a line. A
pretty obvious line, to me. Even without the boss undressing. How do you not
see that allowing the former sets the culture and leads to the latter? there
are power dynamics inherent to the workplace and sex that are undeniable and
unignorable if you care about an equal, respectful workplace.

No one anywhere has said "sex is dirty" and it strikes me as a pretty flagrant
straw man.

~~~
coldtea
> _I can talk with my friend, in great detail, about sex. Outside of work. At
> work, it 's inappropriate for the same reasons that talking about religion
> or politics can be. It will alienate people and make them uncomfortable._

In some cultures (e.g. Southern Mediterranean), people are not alienated by
talking about "religion or politics" at work either. In fact people do so
frequently.

See, not everybody shares the cultural constrains of your own culture...

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colemickens
Thanks for ignoring the entire point of my post to nitpick a single part of a
sentence to advance your same point without addressing what I said. I think
I'm done with this thread. Enough toxicity for one day.

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lern_too_spel
This Daily Beast article twice links to an article from the Mercury News and
appears to be just a rewrite of it.
[https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/08/02/her-tech-boss-took-
hi...](https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/08/02/her-tech-boss-took-his-pants-
off-in-meeting-that-was-far-from-the-only-issue-lawsuit/)

~~~
dang
Thanks. We changed the url to that from
[https://www.thedailybeast.com/startup-had-masturbation-
zone-...](https://www.thedailybeast.com/startup-had-masturbation-zone-exec-
who-took-off-pants-in-meeting-lawsuit). Calling that one a rewrite seems kind.

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id_rsa
These allegations are more severe than those in a typical sexual harassment
lawsuit. I'm interested to read their defense.

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killbrad
Everyone that enabled this behavior should be blacklisted by any and all
respectable companies and investors.

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cannonedhamster
As someone who has, on multiple occasions been required to watch pornography
as a part of my job, I cannot fathom how people think that this kind of
culture is acceptable in a workplace. It's one thing to have to deal with
sexual content, especially in mixed genders, it's an entirely different thing
to then turn your workplace into a sexual haven. Unless your job is
specifically in the sex trades, there's no reason to ever unzip your pants in
front of a co-worker male or female. Keep your privates private. If you really
feel the need to masturbate at work there are private stalls in most
workplaces that would serve this purpose just fine. The fact that this kind of
thing still needs to be said boggles my mind.

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adriansky
I'm surprised she waited that long to sue them.

~~~
lobotryas
She had to gather evidence first. If the facts are truly as the article lays
them out to be then this is a slam dunk for her legal team and a nice payday
for everyone.

~~~
fullshark
I'm not sure how she could have proof of any of the accusations beyond perhaps
crass emails as circumstantial evidence. A lot of it is the sort of stuff that
doesn't leave a paper trail, I doubt there was an official email declaring the
server area the masturbation zone, maybe there was something with a double
entendre though.

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nielsbot
When I read stories like this I amazed that anybody thinks this kind of
behavior is acceptable! It's like we live on different planets.

Ok, maybe the getting away with something so inappropriate is thrilling?

I want to understand..

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ksec
Is it because Startup these days get WAY too much money, and far too well paid
that they simply ignore all the consequences of what ever they do, as long as
they can produce hyper growth ( with no profits )?

Or may be they watched a little too much Wolf of Wall Street?

P.S I don't know if the site thedailybeast.com is reputable or not, or the
story is true or not.

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RickJWagner
Sounds terrible.

I hope the company is sued into oblivion, and the officers publicly shamed.
What an awful place.

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Spectral
This website took so long with load and was loaded with so many animated ads
and unresponsive scrolling while more ads just kept popping up slowly it's
amazingly awful how [news] sites have gotten these days to try to survive.

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lixtra
Maybe we should hear all involved sides before judging anyone.

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ipython
I’m sure the CTO has a perfectly good reason to drop his pants in his office.
Perhaps he urgently needed to urinate and his office door was the best place
to do it?

While what is alleged is over the top, it’s not all that far from what women
face in even the typical workplace. Source: my wife and first hand
observations from other coworkers.

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stealthmodeclan
"I’m sure the CTO has a perfectly good reason to drop his pants in his office.
Perhaps he urgently needed to urinate and his office door was the best place
to do it?"

Droping pant is a way to show that, we are all in the game with new tech stack
and we not holding anything back, not even our pants. In a startup, we should
do whatever it takes to succeed.

~~~
dang
We've banned this account for trolling.

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richliss
Workplace Wanking - comedy becomes reality:
[https://youtu.be/VKH9ECC_Qa4](https://youtu.be/VKH9ECC_Qa4)

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alexandernst
what the fuck did I just read?

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Markoff
the site requires switching off scripts in order to read article, there is no
way i am switching off adblocker

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jstewartmobile
Are there so few women out there that these guys can't just get a girlfriend?

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nhumrich
No girl is dumb enough to be their girlfriend.

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jstewartmobile
When it comes to what many women put up with, Stanford man-children are fairly
benign in comparison.

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electriclove
This is not a true statement

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/People_v._Turner](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/People_v._Turner)

