Microsoft emails detail sexual harassment and discrimination – prompting Satya Nadella response

An internal email chain at Microsoft detailing women’s allegations of workplace sexual harassment and discrimination, first reported by Quartz on Thursday, has continued to grow and prompt responses from senior leadership, according to more than 90 pages of emails reviewed by KUOW.

Three additional Microsoft sources confirmed the authenticity of the emails.

In one of the emails, a woman said her male coworkers called her a “bitch” to her face. (Others said they witnessed and experienced the same thing.) Another said she was asked to sit on a man’s lap – in front of people from human resources. A third woman described “mom penalties” as a reason for not being able to progress at Microsoft.

The email chain started on March 20 with one woman’s request for advice to 18 women’s groups within the company: She was frustrated feeling like she couldn’t advance within Microsoft while watching peers within the “boy’s club” progress.

“This frustration has been going on for at least three or more years now,” she wrote.

The woman’s email was met first with encouragement and offers of support for career development and ideas on how to better track data on the hiring and retention of women employees.

More responses came flooding in. One woman said she felt like she had to be an “unpleasant person” to get credit for her work, “or be a nice person and treated as a ‘diversity hire.’”

“We all have stories of our work being discounted,” another woman wrote. “We all are worried we’ll be fired if we speak up.” Others wrote that they modified their behavior to be treated fairly by the “boy’s club.”

Then more disturbing stories began to spill from the thread. “I’ve recently been lucky enough to change roles, but the men in my last group really thought nothing of calling me a bitch to my face,” one woman wrote. “To my knowledge, nothing was ever done to address this.” Others said they witnessed and or experienced the same thing.

One woman wrote that she was asked to sit on a male colleague’s lap twice in a meeting — in front of HR and other executives. “I alone objected and cited Microsoft policy,” she wrote. “The person said that he did not have to listen and repeated the request a second time.”

Another woman said she was sexually harassed during a work trip where a man threatened to kill her if she didn’t give him sexual favors; she said she reported to management, but was told “it sounded like he was just flirting.”

At one point, even Satya Nadella, CEO, was copied on the thread.

On Friday, nine days after the email thread started, Kathleen Hogan of human resources responded to the thread, saying she had discussed the emails with the senior leadership team.

“We are appalled and sad to hear about these experiences,” she wrote. “It is very painful to hear these stories and to know that anyone is facing such behavior at Microsoft. We must do better.” Hogan said she would be setting up sessions the week of April 22 to hear feedback and encouraged people to reach out to her directly.

After Hogan replied, more women shared stories of their careers at Microsoft being put on hold or regressing because of having children or taking care of sick parents. “Mom-penalty stories,” one woman called it. Some also highlighted positive experiences they had with male managers who wanted to improve how they manage female subordinates.

One woman told of a male Microsoft employee joking to other workers that he would stay in her room during a trip; she told another story about a senior consultant who walked past a Spanx store and told her that if she wanted to “try on some Spanx, I would tell you if they look good.”

Another woman said she was sexually harassed by two different men, but was told by the Seattle HR lead: “Well, what will you do differently now so that this doesn’t happen again?” and “I mean, I think you just have to think about whether you go to an after-hours/social event in the future.”

During CEO Satya Nadella’s monthly question-and-answer session with employees on Thursday, women brought up concerns from the thread. “He did say it was a top priority on the agenda,” a Microsoft employee told KUOW.

While Nadella answered questions during the Q+A, backlash to the email thread appeared on the company’s Yammer, an internal social media feed.

One woman wrote that Asian and white men experienced “systemic discrimination” at Microsoft because of a 2016 policy to tie executive bonuses to diversity goals.

“We have a standing policy of giving more money to executives if they have fewer white and Asian men in their org," she wrote. Some pushed back, although a few men came to the commenter’s defense.

In an email to all employees, Frank X. Shaw, Microsoft’s vice president of communications, acknowledged the email chain and Yammer thread, and urged employees to watch the Q+A. He wrote:

“In the discussion, Satya and Kathleen committed to addressing themes surfaced in the email, including better transparency of data, training and awareness for managers and employees, the process, speed, and transparency when complaints are filed, and an examination of part-time pay equality.”

By Thursday afternoon, still more emails were being added to the original thread. A Jewish woman wrote that she was sexually harassed by men she worked with, and after rejecting one who made passes, he told her he could see her as a “witch who burned in the Holocaust.”

In 2015, a cybersecurity expert and former Microsoft employee brought a gender discrimination lawsuit against Microsoft. It was later joined by two more women, but they were denied class action status in 2018. The plaintiffs have appealed to the Ninth Circuit.

Paige Browning and Isolde Raftery contributed reporting.