I sidste uge landede en lang, dybdegående rapport ovre hos Quartz, som i en længere periode har undersøgt en række chikanersager hos Microsoft, og også hos Xbox-divisionen. Rapporten er baseret på en række emails, eller snarere 90 siders emails, imellem en række kvinder ansat i forskellige afdelinger af virksomheden, som maler et et hårdt billede af forholdene som kvinder har arbejdet under.
I sidste ende delte flere end 12 kvinder deres personlige historier med hinanden om chikane, sexisme og en generelt nedsættende tone.
"Dozens of women then shared their own frustrations about discrimination and sexual harassment, detailing allegations ranging from sexist comments during work trips to being told to sit on a coworker's lap in front of a human resources leader," står der i rapporten.
Ikke bare det, åbenbart er det at blive kaldt en "b***h" ganske almindeligt på Xbox-holdet, som én kvinde har sagt i rapporten;
"We did a roundtables with the women when I was in Xbox core [team] & every woman, except for 1, had been called a bitch at work. Before people say this is just an Xbox thing (as I've heard that dismissiveness way too many times within Microsoft before) the other eng [engineering] orgs where my experiences happened were Windows & Azure. This is a Microsoft thing, a common one."
Nu har Microsofts HR-chef Kathleen Hogan svaret igen (via GamePur), og de lover at forbedre arbejdsforholdene.
"I discussed this thread with the [senior leadership team] today. 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.
I would like to offer to anyone who has had such demeaning experiences including those who felt were dismissed by management or HR to email me directly. I will personally look into the situation with my team."