After Gates Allegations, Microsoft Opens a Review of Its Sexual Harassment Policies (nytimes.com) 72
Microsoft announced a review of its sexual harassment and gender discrimination policies "after shareholders raised alarms about how Microsoft and Bill Gates, one of its founders, had treated employees, especially women," reports the New York Times:
Shareholders passed a resolution during the company's 2021 annual meeting to review the policies Microsoft has in place for its employees to protect them against abuse and unwanted sexual advances. The resolution passed with support from almost 78 percent of Microsoft's shareholders. It was the only of five proposals on ethical issues put forth by shareholders to succeed. Others, like a call for a report on race- and gender-based pay gaps at the company and a pledge to prohibit sales of facial recognition to government entities, failed.
"Microsoft is under intense public scrutiny due to numerous claims of sexual harassment and an alleged failure to address them adequately and transparently," the text of the resolution said. "Reports of Bill Gates's inappropriate relationships and sexual advances toward Microsoft employees have only exacerbated concerns, putting in question the culture set by top leadership and the board's role holding those culpable accountable."
Mr. Gates solicited at least two employees while he was running Microsoft, according to reports in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. In one incident, in 2007, Mr. Gates sat through a presentation by a Microsoft employee, then immediately emailed her to ask for a date. Microsoft leaders later warned Mr. Gates not to do things like that. In 2019, Microsoft's board received a letter from an engineer claiming to have had a sexual relationship with Mr. Gates in 2000. A spokeswoman for Mr. Gates confirmed that the two had had an affair that "ended amicably."
More on the story from CNBC...
"Microsoft is under intense public scrutiny due to numerous claims of sexual harassment and an alleged failure to address them adequately and transparently," the text of the resolution said. "Reports of Bill Gates's inappropriate relationships and sexual advances toward Microsoft employees have only exacerbated concerns, putting in question the culture set by top leadership and the board's role holding those culpable accountable."
Mr. Gates solicited at least two employees while he was running Microsoft, according to reports in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. In one incident, in 2007, Mr. Gates sat through a presentation by a Microsoft employee, then immediately emailed her to ask for a date. Microsoft leaders later warned Mr. Gates not to do things like that. In 2019, Microsoft's board received a letter from an engineer claiming to have had a sexual relationship with Mr. Gates in 2000. A spokeswoman for Mr. Gates confirmed that the two had had an affair that "ended amicably."
More on the story from CNBC...
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> HINT: It's all about taxes. Something BIG is going down, and Bill & Melinda decided to cash out.
I thought we already knew that and it was because of his Epstein connections? At least that's what I saw in some reports.
Given that recent ruling in favor of one of Epstein's victims that only Epstein can enforce that settlement contract, along with Ghislane's conviction, things could still get interesting and they might be trying to distance themselves from Bill.
"That trick never works" with brain farts (Score:2)
If you have some compulsion to feed trolls, please change the vacuous Subjects at least.
chips and sex (Score:4, Funny)
If you have 3 Bill Gates' microchips in your body from receiving Covid vaccines, are you more likely to commit acts of sexual harassment? Asking for a friend.
Re: chips and sex (Score:2)
Re: chips and sex (Score:2)
That's just cause she wants the D. By the way I am fully faded and doubly boosted babes.
Re: chips and sex (Score:3)
vaxed... fucking auto correct... faded, based, waxed... wtf
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No.
But that's what "they" would say.
Easy to solve... (Score:3)
Unless someone pulls a Toobin, on a video conference.
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"Gentlemen, I would like to assure you I am not a giant dick, and I'm ready to proceed..."
Gates convinced a real woman to marry him (Score:4, Funny)
If that's not psychological abuse, I don't know what is.
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Wasn't it Microsoft that had a hot tub on site early days ...
That was just so they could get use to getting in/out of hot water -- with the Justice Department ... :-)
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I don't think Microsoft did, but you're probably thinking of Sierra On-Line. They were out in the middle of fucking nowhere and ran the place like a frat house. Engineers would head into town, pick up women, and bring them back to the hottub for sexy time.
Sad times (Score:5, Insightful)
Microsoft's board received a letter from an engineer claiming to have had a sexual relationship with Mr. Gates in 2000. A spokeswoman for Mr. Gates confirmed that the two had had an affair that "ended amicably."
It is now "harassment" for two adults to consensually engage in a relationship, one that both adults agree was amicable.
Mr. Gates solicited at least two employees while he was running Microsoft, according to reports in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. In one incident, in 2007, Mr. Gates sat through a presentation by a Microsoft employee, then immediately emailed her to ask for a date. Microsoft leaders later warned Mr. Gates not to do things like that.
It is now "harassment" to ask someone out on a date, when the asker has no reason to assume the other person is or isn't interested. You can't know if they aren't interested without asking.
Q1) Is there actually a claim this woman said she wasn't interested BEFORE being asked?
That could be a problem, and if this was the case, the summary really should have included that important and critical detail.
Q2) Gates was told to not do that again. So... did he? Or was that the final time he asked?
If he didn't quit, that could be a problem. Yet once again that critical detail isn't mentioned.
If the entire issue is some random dummy mistakenly assuming *everyone* should be fully aware about all the different potential ways other people might interpret their "clout", then that dummy can fuck right off.
That is identical to claiming Gates is a perfect model of a human being.
That's so untrue that being called a dummy is being far too kind.
Gates like many of us have no clue built-in to our brains of how other people think of us.
So again, Gates was told that requests by him specifically may be seen as pressuring someone into it.
All that matters is from that moment forward. Because most of us only need told once to learn.
Did he learn? Did he stop? Nothing was mentioned of him trying the same thing after 2007 so it looks like the issue was solved.
If that's incorrect... again, critical missing details people!
You aren't going to gain sympathy when framing your complaint in a way that the complainer is clearly and solidly the unreasonable one.
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Sounds like someone's sore about getting booted after asking every woman in turn for a date. And subordinates.
That is an absurd claim.
Does there even exist a person who is attracted to literally every/any woman?
Regardless, that's just ad-hominem.
I doubt I've asked 20 people over my entire lifetime.
Yes most all of those were No's. I'm not going to falsely project otherwise like you just did.
Most of us can take no for an answer without getting upset or "sore" like you're projecting.
It doesn't mean the act of asking is immorally wrong and evil like you claim.
It also doesn't make you look any more like a player.
Re: Sad times (Score:2)
The reality is genders aren't equal. We can support equality for women in the work place but we have generally very different approaches in the work place.
For instance, I generally prefer female managers. ain't general they seem to be more emotionally aware of their subordinates to a degree of accepting and not overly pushing their limits.
However, I think women do feel a lot of pressure from any sexuality in the workplace and likewise many men are conditioned against it to. But if we reverse the circumstanc
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Microsoft's board received a letter from an engineer claiming to have had a sexual relationship with Mr. Gates in 2000. A spokeswoman for Mr. Gates confirmed that the two had had an affair that "ended amicably."
It is now "harassment" for two adults to consensually engage in a relationship, one that both adults agree was amicable.
Did it end amicably (according to Gates) because that was the natural progression, or did it end amicably because she didn't want to have to change companies by having a nasty breakup with the Founder & CEO?
Mr. Gates solicited at least two employees while he was running Microsoft, according to reports in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. In one incident, in 2007, Mr. Gates sat through a presentation by a Microsoft employee, then immediately emailed her to ask for a date. Microsoft leaders later warned Mr. Gates not to do things like that.
It is now "harassment" to ask someone out on a date, when the asker has no reason to assume the other person is or isn't interested. You can't know if they aren't interested without asking.
Q1) Is there actually a claim this woman said she wasn't interested BEFORE being asked?
That could be a problem, and if this was the case, the summary really should have included that important and critical detail.
Q2) Gates was told to not do that again. So... did he? Or was that the final time he asked?
Have you ever heard the phrase "sleeping their way to the top"? That used to be a much more common saying though it missed the point somewhat. Generally those 'relationships' weren't happening because the woman was scheming for a way to get promoted, they happened because the male superiors were sign
Re: Sad times (Score:1)
Sleeping your way to the top didn't seem to hurt Marissa Mayer.
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Sleeping your way to the top didn't seem to hurt Marissa Mayer.
Is there any evidence of this or is that just how you choose to respond to young and attractive women who achieve professional success?
Re: Sad times (Score:1)
Lol....that's charmingly naive.
Do you believe in the tooth fairy too ?
Hmmm. What's it called again where you hang around the office late at night to catch the eye of the boss, attach yourself onto his pickle, get promoted way up the chain, then get let go when your incompetence shows ?
Have a think about it.
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b)
From what i read of it, he invited her out to dinner after she gave a presentation, there was no suggestion as to his intentions.
For all we know, bill simply wanted to congratulate her for giving a great presentation.
I've been taken out for dinner by my boss as a "well done" for some piece of work. I've also taken my (male) subordinates out to dinner for the same reason. I've never had any female subordinates, but if i did cases like these would make me extremely wary of treating them the same way i do ma
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Generally those 'relationships' weren't happening because the woman was scheming for a way to get promoted, they happened because the male superiors were signalling that the only way for their career to advance was by exchanging sexual favours
Ah yes, the old gender stereotypes at play again. Women are virtuous and lack ambition, so would never use their sexuality to get ahead. Meanwhile, men are lecherous unethical swine, and get off on the power of exploiting subordinates for sex.
These ridiculous stereotypes are a setback for women even if it is portraying them in a positive light. I assume the source for that claim is your ass, but I'd be delighted if you had one of those social justice surveys where they use highly biased samples and extrem
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You caught the word "generally" right?
Certainly cases of "sleeping their way to the spot" occur, but (although I have no idea how find a study) in most cases I suspect the man was the one initiating the exchange.
Note that you've also completely excluded from the picture the most common scenario: They just like each other and neither is pursuing the relationship for benefits in the workplace. Can you not comprehend that?
In any case, fucking [citation needed] for employee-superior relationships "generally" being superiors offering quid pro quos.
Actually I never said that employee-superior relationships were generally anyone offering quid pro quos.
What is actually happening is a few (largely male) managers will take advantage of the opening to either start looking for quid pro quos, and a somewhat larger group will start soliciting relation
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Generally those 'relationships' weren't happening because the woman was scheming for a way to get promoted, they happened because the male superiors were signalling that the only way for their career to advance was by exchanging sexual favours
You caught the word "generally" right?
Actually I never said that employee-superior relationships were generally anyone offering quid pro quos.
ffs dude.
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The point is to do an investigation to find out if there are deeper issues.
Maybe it will amount to nothing, but where the fin circles, there's a shark underneath the water.
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Microsoft's board received a letter from an engineer claiming to have had a sexual relationship with Mr. Gates in 2000. A spokeswoman for Mr. Gates confirmed that the two had had an affair that "ended amicably."
It is now "harassment" for two adults to consensually engage in a relationship, one that both adults agree was amicable.
The answer is maybe. If there are facets to the relationship that impair true voluntary consent, then true consensual consent may not be possible. This is why the Uniform Code of Military Justice spells out certain prohibitions on superior-subordinate relationships, because the assumption is that true mutual consent is not possible in such a relationship. A CEO-employee relationship will also carry similar issues, where even if the CEO explicitly tries to say that a proposition may be declined, the emplo
Re: Sad times (Score:2)
I think that the assumption is that you won't send your wife on a mission where she might die, not that your wife isn't intelligent enough to decide by herself whether she wants to have a relationship with you or not.
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It is now "harassment" to ask someone out on a date
...while they're at work and working, yes it absolutely is harassment, and while they're working for you, doubly so. A lot of guys just don't understand this and think it is totally normal, or that they have supernatural perception that they can tell when it is alright to do it. But it never is, even when both parties are agreeable to it, it is always unethical to engage in romantic pursuits at work, either while you are under an employment contract to do specific things that do not include romantic pursuit
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It is now "harassment" for two adults to consensually engage in a relationship, one that both adults agree was amicable.
No. It's a problem when one of those people is the head of the company. There is a clear power imbalance there. Maybe it was okay that time and there was genuinely no issue with Gates being her boss, but it could so easily have been different.
That's why many companies have policies against superiors getting involved with people working under them. If it happens they are expected to report it and remove themselves from their position of power over the other employee.
Regardless of if this particular relations
"solicited" (Score:5, Interesting)
Mr. Gates solicited at least two employees while he was running Microsoft, ... emailed her to ask for a date.
While technically correct -- "solicited" means "asked" -- it's generally a loaded word implying something illegal. And while it's generally considered inappropriate for a superior to date a (usually direct) subordinate at work, it's also how Bill and Melinda Gates met (after she started working a Microsoft) -- and they were together for 34 years (married for 27 years) ... I think using "solicited" instead of "asked" shows some bias on the part of the author(s).
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I think using "solicited" instead of "asked" shows some bias on the part of the author(s).
They're after $$$ so that's a given.
(...and how is what they're digging for any more moral than asking a girl out on a date?)
Fun times to be on the job. (Score:2, Insightful)
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Must be fun working in the modern age when the policies are don't look at, don't talk to, don't interact, and don't be friends with anyone in your workplace.
I think all those things are still possible, but one has to approach it with some caution since there's potential for things to go bad.
It used to be about abusing a position of power, now it's 'they asked me on a date'.
How long ago are you thinking? Because a lot of the #metoo stuff comes from fairly recently.
The problem is there's a subset of guys who treat the workplace as a hunting ground for casual sexual relationships, and a few of those are in management and are willing to use their power to get what they want.
You need to be fairly strict with the rules or they're just going to keep
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The problem is there's a subset of guys who treat the workplace as a hunting ground for casual sexual relationships,
You should not limit that to a single gender. There's a subset of the fair gender that also treats the workplace as a hunting ground for casual sexual relationships.
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I think using "solicited" instead of "asked" shows some bias on the part of the author(s).
I remember a story from many years ago (it may be apocryphal, so take this with a pinch of salt without further confirmation) that several women who used to work at Microsoft in the early days used to wear t-shirts saying "Marry me, Bill" on them.
I wonder why the authors did not mention this.
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I think using "solicited" instead of "asked" shows some bias on the part of the author(s).
I remember a story from many years ago (it may be apocryphal, so take this with a pinch of salt without further confirmation) that several women who used to work at Microsoft in the early days used to wear t-shirts saying "Marry me, Bill" on them.
I wonder why the authors did not mention this.
Clearly, they were asking -- I mean soliciting -- for it... :-)
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I think his deep involvement with the Jeffrey Epstein case, channeling Epstein money to MIT Media lab, the OOXML standardisation shitshow or the financing of right wing radicals at TechCentralStation are more controversial activities from Bill Gates than asking female employees for a date.
Furthermore, this is all rooted in the US dating culture. Elsewhere it is pretty normal to invite work colleagues for dinner.
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I didn't realize Bill and Melinda were together for that long. But I guess his inappropriate behavior with other women during their marriage might explain her final decision to divorce him.
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I didn't realize Bill and Melinda were together for that long.
I knew it was a while, but not that long; I had to look it up ...
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Of course there is bias, shareholders on general, where as I understand it the question originated from do not do anything which will bring the company into disrepute, so I think we can assume that someone who dislikes Bill, brought shares in MS so they could table this and bring about a personal attack on Gates, not that he doesn't deserve it. Maybe they think he still owns MS shares and this is going to hurt him somehow.
MS's sexual harassment policies (Score:1)
What (Score:5, Insightful)
So one woman at the office had an affair with him and he emailed another and asked for a date? This is the big ethical outrage here?
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Maybe the gender ratio was so out of whack that there were only three females working for the company in all those years?
It's out of hand. They're right. Look at brick layers, garbage men. Those tough manual very male (99-100%) dominated jobs. We need to take women that were going to be nurses or therapists and say - nope, off to laying bricks for you. We need gender equality.
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I bet that 78% of MSFT stockholders think that they are squeaky clean, loyal husbands and wives with nothing to hide. They are not lying to themselves - they genuinely believe this - just as white people in the suburbs don't believe that they are racist.
You think that a significant portion of that 78% had an affair that they themselves are not aware of? And I'm not sure why you're suddenly talking about racism.
There are 2 problems:
a) Most of the behavior being described is common human behavior. Hell, Clinton got Monica to blow him. Pretending that human sexuality can be totally repressed is a horrible idea. Just because it is a hetero relationship out of wedlock does not make it illegal.
b) Most of the 3rd parties making accusations are guilty of the same things. See a). Most people are human.
Ok... a few things to unpack here:
a) Contrary to what you seem to imply most people would readily acknowledge that infidelity is tempting.
b) Also contrary to what you imply most people don't cheat [brides.com].
c) Of the people who don't cheat, they're actually fine "repressing" their sexuality to just the one partner. They're also fine repressing their need to ea
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It doesn't mean that Bill Gates is a horrible person, he's done a lot of good and a lot of bad
He's done a bit of good and a lot of bad. Most of his supposed charity work is actually some kind of fuckery and it's all got a profit motive behind it. Notably, he got the money through anticompetitive behavior that destroyed companies (meaning jobs) and set computing back a decade, to list only a couple of its ills.
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Down modding instead of commenting only proves you've got not argument. But keep defending Epstein's buddy
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The point about racism was made because it is a very strong example of the social justice warrior pot calling the kettle black.
Frankly it seems more like you wanted to call white people racist.
On your point a), I am somewhat implying that most people find infidelity to be temping, but much more implying that humans are driven by sexuality and take interesting opportunities as they arise. With more power comes the opportunity to express that sexuality, rather than retreat to a little box in the suburbs and refrain from eating "a bowl of icecream followed by a case of beer".
Opportunity increases a bit, but you don't need to be powerful to be promiscuous. I do suspect the rich and powerful have more affairs, but I suspect it has more to do with entitlement than opportunity.
For example, I heard a story of an individual in NYC who had a particular small business. Bring a box of goodies into an office, post a list of prices, and leave a little box for the cash. Basically an honour system vending machine. Either way,
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he's done a lot of good and a lot of bad
He's done a lot of bad and is trying to buy back his reputation. Do you get props for being a philanthropist if you rob a 7-11 and then donate 10% of the proceeds to charity? Does the calculus change if you knock off enough 7-11s, and maybe their bank for good measure.
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Gates was absolutely fishing in company pond... (Score:1)
Re: Gates was absolutely fishing in company pond.. (Score:2)
"A real go getter. She understands well how to get ahead in corporate life."
This gives a whole new meaning... (Score:2)
to the name "Microsoft".