Tech

KS

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I work as a data scientist at a tech company. AI hasn’t replaced this job yet, so I occasionally get recruitment messages from other tech companies on LinkedIn who are trying to hire in this field. On one such occasion, I received a message from a recruiter that described the data scientist they were looking for: “Educational background: Statistics/Machine Learning/Data Science; Should have some industry experience at least 1 year or so working in ML/DS in companies; Has done some coding in his projects (For example: hive, SQL, scala, pyspark, python, scikit, one of the tech mentioned above that is).” Upon reading it more carefully, I noticed it said “has done some coding in HIS projects.” What an unbelievably sad way to reveal the situation for many women in science and tech – that the recruiter and hiring team were already imagining a man for the job (even if subconsciously or accidentally) as they wrote up the requirements before they had even started reaching out to candidates.

Anonymous office worker

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I’ve posted a couple times before, so this is an update. I work in HR for a London tech company, and for the last 7 years I’ve been harassed, sexually assaulted, and bullied by one of the senior directors. I reported it to the CEO (as I’m Head of HR, it took HR out of the equation) back in April. Unfortunately the CEO is good friends with the senior director, which hasn’t lead to a fair and impartial process. The senior director was first told of my April grievance, in August, over dinner and drinks with the CEO. The senior director said I was lying, and proceeded to threaten a counter grievance against me for slander. He also got one of his reports to claim that I’d been bullying him (by the report excluding me from meetings, and being rude to me. Not sure of the logic there). As the senior director had said he didn’t do, the company believed him, branded me a liar, and threatened me with multiple grievances if I continued to pursue my own grievance. The senior director claimed that he and I had a quirky sexual relationship, where he could say sexual things to me. The truth was that he said sexual things to me in meetings, and I was so uncomfortable with it that I’d avoid being alone with him, and invite other people to attend with me. I’ve spent the last year wearing a rape alarm to work, just to feel safe. I did the only thing I could and found a new job. I’m currently working out my notice, on anti-depressants, anti-anxiety medication, and having to go to therapy. Meanwhile the CEO is continuing to threaten me, saying that I need to withdraw my grievance made in April (which they have never heard), or they’ll bad mouth me to my new employer. If I go through with the grievance hearing, which they’ve been diligent in telling me they don’t believe, They’ll pile up the counter grievances, and also give me a bad reference. They would like me to sign a settlement agreement for no money, in exchange for giving me a good reference. Meanwhile a man who assaults and harasses women continues to work in the company, with no repercussions whatsoever.

Helen

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Told that I wouldn’t be attending the public launch of our product after all as I was pregnant.

London_Office_Worker

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I’ve posted here before, so this is a bit of an update: I work in HR for a London tech company. For 6 years, one of the senior Directors (who just happens to also be the CEO’s best mate), has been harassing me. He’s also sexually assaulted me a few times. He’s threatened to beat me up, and encourages his reports to raise spurious grievances against me. In April this year I finally summoned courage to report all this in the form of a grievance. My grievance was never heard or investigated, but in August the CEO did ask the Senior Director over a lads’ dinner & drinks, if he’d done it. Predictably the Senior Direcor denied it and said I was a liar. A few weeks later he decided he also wanted to threaten me with slander against his reputation, if I tried to pursue it. I’ve now been told that the Senior Director is innocent, as I have no proof of his behaviour – no witnesses to him groping me, or propositioning me, and no video evidence. They’re not prepared to do a proper investigation and look at what I do have. To make matters worse, I’ve been told that I need to act professionally around him, and to apologise in full for having accused him. I’m the only person in the company not even getting an inflationary pay rise this year. So, new job time.

Hatty

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I went to a creative meeting and it was mainly all male designers, they looked up and down collectively as I walked in. A male designer when he found out I was also a designer instantly wanted to see my work asking quite aggressively. When I showed him my website he said websites are old hat, i’m not your mother you don’t have to verify yourself to me. Without prompt or any reaction from me he said : “you should be confident in your work, no ones going to do it for you, be stronger’ Then he proceeded to touch my hand which was uncomfortable and his fellow male colleagues were laughing. Not one of them was treated in this way, pretty reminiscent in all publishing, art world and graphic design enviroments!

Barb

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I got my first job in IT in the mid ’90s working a help desk while taking a break from university. I quickly found that I had a knack for IT, and became the lead technician on staff. An integral part of the work involved providing phone support for field technicians servicing our equipment. On more than one occasion male field technicians would flat out refuse to work with me because I am a woman. At the time I was very young and naive (not very woke) and so I could handle this with more humor than I would nowadays. What I did at the time was transfer them to the dimmest man on our staff, let them waste 60-90 minutes of their time, and then quickly help them when their call eventually made it’s way back to me. I wonder if any of them learned anything from the experience.