Report Detailing Sexual Harassment at Microsoft Barely Skims Accusations Against Bill Gates

Big title Microsoft execs have come below heavy scrutiny just lately for bullying and sexual harassment complaints, however a brand new straightforward, breezy unbiased report requested by the corporate isn’t prepared to carry anybody’s toes to the fireplace.

Microsoft announced Tuesday {that a} third-party report on the corporate’s sexual harassment events was lastly full. That report, performed by the Washington D.C.-based legislation agency ArentFox Schiff, makes the case that Microsoft is already fairly golden, that its present measures towards gender discrimination and harassment are “robust” and that it has been making significant enhancements.

However, the massive 50-page report largely glosses over accusations towards former Microsoft executives, letting the corporate slide for maintaining recognized abusers and bullies on the payroll.

The report solely does a brief, shallow dive into sexual harassment claims made towards Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates in 2019, when the previous CEO was nonetheless a member of Microsoft’s board. Gates left the board in 2020 after members investigated allegations he tried to “initiate an intimate relationship with a company employee” going all the best way again into 2000. A 2021 Wall Street Journal report famous that Gates resigned from the board earlier than the board’s preliminary investigation into the co-founder was even full.

This newest report notes that an unnamed Microsoft worker reported to Microsoft’s human sources chief Okathleen Hogan in 2019, telling her that Gates had engaged in “inappropriate communications” together with her. Though Gates later confirmed that he had been seeing this individual in 1999, he argued any communications and conferences had been consensual. Gates vacated his place as Microsoft CEO in 2000 and had been slowly relinquishing his tasks on the firm he based. The billionaire resigned from the Microsoft board in 2020, and the unnamed one that accused the founding father of harassment has additionally left, based on the report. All of this was earlier than Gates and his spouse Melinda divorced in 2021.

None of that is actually new, and it appears the investigation was able to let any lingering questions go unanswered. The lack of element or actually any thorough examination of occasions is particularly notable since this has been a course of that began two years in the past. At the time, low stage Microsoft employees blasted their very own firm in lengthy email threads over its dealing with of sexual harassment claims. Because of these complaints, some Microsoft shareholders pushed for an investigation of Microsoft’s insurance policies in addition to extra particulars about these sexual harassment claims towards Gates. As a lot as the corporate wished to let the entire thing go after their preliminary investigation, Arjuna Capital, one of many shareholding entities in Microsoft, sponsored the review that lastly kicked off in 2021.

Natasha Lamb, a managing accomplice at Arjuna, instructed Bloomberg that regardless that the report was “comprehensive,’ they “hoped to see more” in regards to the allegations towards Gates.

Other execs were represented in the report as well. A Business Insider report from earlier this year noted that two company vice presidents and longtime Microsoft veterans, Tom Keane (who worked on Microsoft Azure) and Alex Kipman (HoloLens inventor who worked on the Xbox Kinect controller) were reportedly abusive to the employees under them. It’s been reported that Kipman was known by fellow employees for being abusive to female workers in particular, which allegedly included rubbing a woman’s shoulders without asking or even watching “VR porn” in front of other employees.

Both execs are no longer with the company, but Microsoft asked ArentFox to include a review of those allegations in the report. The pair are not listed by name in the document, and the firm noted it did not reinvestigate the allegations. Instead, the investigators said that there was “a perception among some employees that the company tolerates and to some degree protects high performing senior executives who may be engaging in inappropriate conduct.” Employees also felt that these allegations should have been dealt with earlier.

ArentFox wrote that they randomly selected 54 of 155 employees who raised harassment complaints, and just 20 agreed to an interview. Based on those interviews, the firm noted that almost none of the witnesses for these allegations remained in the same role, mostly out of fear their careers would be harmed as a result. Several mentioned they felt they had promotions or pay increases delayed because of them speaking out, and more wondered if HR was “filtering” complaints that would necessitate further review.

One witness instructed the agency:

“It makes no sense that they found a pattern of bad behavior but told me my complaint couldn’t be substantiated because he treated everyone that way instead of just some people.”

Despite all these complaints, the report’s writers considered that Microsoft was still doing a good job relative to other companies’ practices. The most the firm does is recommend the company update definitions of sexual harassment and discrimination in its existing policy. It also suggested Microsoft should add some more specifics about how the company conducts its investigation process and revise its guidelines to let the “severity of the behavior” and “impact on the [victim]” help determine what discipline to impose.

Still, even though the report seems to make a glowing review of Microsoft, some departments show an outsized number of gender and sexual discrimination and harassment claims. Engineering, in particular, accounted for nearly 40% of all complaints. The second highest was sales at 25%.

In the company release, Microsoft said it will conduct targeted reviews and revisions of their harassment policies and conduct more employee and manager training. CEO Satya Nadella said the company’s board and execs “are fully committed to this implementation plan as we continually work to close the gap between our espoused culture and the lived experience of our employees.”

Many of those complaints made by Microsoft workers echo what ladies have confronted at different tech firms, together with important Microsoft rival Apple. Apple additionally equally stated it plans to make modifications to its insurance policies after the latest stories of harassment from workers. What makes Microsoft’s response so jarring is it appears to disregard the truth that high-ranking executives had been influencing the corporate tradition for years, and that it took outdoors investigations earlier than they had been lastly delivered to heel.