On March 20, a female Microsoft employee sent out an email to other female employees at the organization. She was reportedly looking for advice on how to move up in the company, as her career had stagnated after being in the same position for six years. This email sparked a long series of replies from other disgruntled employees, citing instances of sexual harassment and discrimination in the workplace at Microsoft, until there were over 90 pages of emails.

The emails were obtained by online publication Quartz, which verified their validity using two sources at Microsoft. The claims made in the emails paint a toxic work environment for at least some female employees at Microsoft.

One woman claimed that when she was on the Xbox team, there was a round-table discussion to talk about harassment, and only one woman in attendance was not called an inappropriate name at work. Another reported an instance where she went on a work trip with a partner company, and an employee of that company threatened to kill her if she didn't perform sexual acts. "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."

Another female employee claimed that she was asked to sit on her coworker's lap during a meeting. "As a Microsoft Partner, was asked to sit on someone’s lap twice in one meeting in front of HR and other executives," she said. Apparently, no one did anything to try to stop the behavior. "I alone objected and cited Microsoft policy. The person said that he did not have to listen and repeated the request a second time. No one said anything."

Microsoft's Head of Human Resources, Kathleen Hogan, responded to the growing email thread on March 29. "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," she said. Hogan instructed anyone who felt that they were dismissed by management or HR to contact her directly and also said that she passed on the email chain to senior leadership.

This isn't the first time Microsoft has dealt with allegations of widespread harassment, and the company has actually been sued over it as recently as 2018. This is also far from the first time a tech or video game company has been accused of having a toxic environment, with reports of Riot Games having a particularly toxic culture. Hopefully by bringing these issues to light, something can be done to stop this kind of behavior.

Source: Quartz