UploadVR Had a 'Kink Room,' Pressured Female Employees To 'Microdose,' Alleges Lawsuit (gizmodo.com) 444
The virtual-reality company UploadVR is being sued by the company's former Director of Digital and Social Media for rampant sexual harassment. According to Gizmodo, "the lawsuit alleges that the company's employees and founders created a hostile work environment in which sexual harassment, gender discrimination, and retaliation occurred on a regular basis." From the report: In the suit documents, the former Director of Digital and Social Media for UploadVR claims that the office environment was a "boy's club" that employees expressly referred to as a "boy's club." From the suit: "Specifically, the male employees of UploadVR, including Mason and Freeman, would discuss their sexual exploits in graphic detail at the workplace in front of Plaintiff and other female employees. For instance, UploadVR employee [name redacted]'s sex life was a frequent topic of conversation. The other male employees would talk about how he 'refuses to wear a condom' and 'has had sex with over 1000 people.'" The documents also claim that employees were engaged in Silicon Valley's hot new trend of "microdosing" and "using Marijuana in the office." When female employees didn't want to participate, they would be ostracized by the male employees and excluded from important meetings and lunches.
Definitions matter (Score:2)
"The other male employees would talk about how he 'refuses to wear a condom' and 'has had sex with over 1000 people.'"
If you have sex with more than 1000 partners, are they really all *people* to you?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Err...not sure what you're talking about here. The article didn't mention beastiality or the like....
If you're just trying to make some sort of point about the large number (1K)...well, you don't have to be in love with someone to fuck them....sex and love don't have to be combined in order to enjoy the act. Heck, often times, hookups are quite fun and more exciting that just hitting the same thing over and over and over and
I RTFAd (Score:2)
Still don't know what 'microdosing' is.
Re: (Score:2)
Generally seems to be a thing for morons with money to burn.
Re:I RTFAd (Score:5, Interesting)
the alcohol equivalent that most people have probably done would be taking one drink every hour or so, with water in-between so you can drink and socialize and get slightly affected without actually getting intoxicated.
Re: (Score:2)
exactly what it sounds like... taking a low dose of drugs. usually many times a day.
Gee, not unlike caffeine addicts taking shots all day from a dealer named Keurig...ain't it funny how we demonize certain stimulants and champion others...
Re: (Score:2)
Basically, it's taking small doses of LSD for "enlightenment" and stuff.
The "Reply All" podcast did a good explanation of this, where someone on their staff actually tried it out. It didn't work out that well for him.
Re: (Score:3)
I think it is taking small doses of LSD which allegedly acts as a mild stimulant and creativity booster.
Oh, we've got that where I work too. We call it a Keurig.
Only downside is it's an addictive little bastard. You should see how the caffeine junkies act when we're out of product...
The Keurig junkie speaks (Score:3)
Oh, we've got that where I work too. We call it a Keurig.
Yes, but that's not micro dosing.
At least, not the way I use it...
Re: (Score:2)
No, that's when it's small doses of meth.
microdosing [Re:I RTFAd] (Score:2)
I thought we just called that a Ritalin prescription.
Not Ratalin: Prozac.
They're both pharmaceuticals that adjust brain serotonin levels. Prozac is just a bit less of a sledgehammer in how it does it.
Toilet (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Wow, you guys really are neo puritans.
In the 90's liberals would have called you fascists.
Re: Toilet (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I have no idea where these people work but this would not be considered remotely acceptable at any place I have ever worked. I can't imagine a professional company putting up with this kind of behavior.
I would hate to explain to the FAA, FDA etc why a plane crashed or a drug killed people and have them find out about this kind of behavior. You would be nailed to the wall.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Of course, it's not "acceptable". But the way a free society deals with "not acceptable" behavior is by people voting with their feet, not by calling in the STASI.
No, it is absolutely not "great" or even "acceptable" that the federal government gets involved in questions of whether men are behaving n
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
A free society protect's people's freedoms by ensuring that they can work and live a reasonably free life. If you live in a country where no-one will give you a job because of your gender, "voting with your feet" is kinda difficult. You are not very free because you have no money and no opportunity to earn it.
Freedom isn't just "leave me alone, let people do whatever the hell they like". It's a balance between allowing as much as possible but also protecting people from some harmful behaviour. Even the most
Re:Toilet (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: Toilet (Score:2)
No surprise (Score:2, Insightful)
Egos are out of control in tech. The fact that they are high all the time is most definitely reflected in their ridiculous and hair-brained ideas. It makes it that much easier to pull the rug out from inder them. A lot of new tech will fail due to their being a bunch of hateful, oblivious, drug-addled douchebags that were only suffering from adolescent superiority complexes rather than a actually ever having been all that bright in the first place. Pathetic, all of them, from top to bottom.
Silicon Valley (Score:5, Funny)
Hay, it's a free country. If you don't like assholes and drugs then move out of California.
Boys will be boys. (Score:5, Insightful)
Which is why boys need adult supervision. Men, specifically, to set an example.
A man acts with dignity, self-restraint, and consideration for others. He doesn't do shit just because the people around him are doing it, and he doesn't pressure other people do things without a good reason.
If none of that sounds like any fun, feeling obligated to impress other guys with bullshit isn't any fun either. It's a bigger, more joyless burden than acting like a grownup, you just haven't figured that out yet.
Re: Boys will be boys. (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
"Professional" only means "doing it for money". Nothing else.
Re: Boys will be boys. (Score:5, Insightful)
"Professional" only means "doing it for money". Nothing else.
You know, I was going to note that the atmosphere was unprofessional, except that I suspected we've reached a point where people don't even know what professionalism means.
Of course contrary to your claim there are in fact many different definitions for the world "professional", the one I'm talking about is the antonym of "unprofessional", the one you're talking about is the one that's the antonym of "hobbyist". You are talking about people like professional competitive eaters; I'm talking about people like civil engineers.
Professionalism is performing a job in a way that maintains public trust and respect for people who do that job. There are certain vocations, like accountant, or physician, where public trust is essential to their very function. But anyone can act professionally, in the sense of being demonstrably worthy of trust. I once was IT director of a company and had irreconcilable differences with the COO. I could have done a lot of damage to that company, instead I resigned. I took my second in command to the CFO's office and removed an envelope from the safe there where I had put all my passwords in a sealed envelope for safekeeping. Then, with my back turned and the CFO looking on I walked her through revoking all the access I had to the company's systems.
It was deliberately theatrical, because as a professional you don't just have an obligation to do the right thing, you have to be seen doing the right thing.
Re: (Score:2)
This is what is known as "toxic masculinity". There is toxic femininity as well, which is also pretty bad, but in this case it's that pressure to be a macho asshole, bragging about your conquests and doing drugs because you "aren't afraid" and shit like that.
It's a dumb thing to do anyway. Guys who brag about their sexual partners might get some positive reaction from their male friends, but it's a strong signal to women as well. That signal being, avoid this guy like the plague because he will tell everyon
Re:Boys will be boys. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3)
It's described that way to further an agenda. But characterizing it that way unjustly stereotypes people.
One of the things you hopefully learn with age is how little probative value an isolated piece of truth has. You can always find someone who fits a stereotype if you look, but you have to be cautious drawing inferences from that, even if you find a lot of people who fit.
Everyone has met guys who seem to believe being a man means acting like a jackass. If you've never met that guy, then chances are you are that guy, and if you're an adult the guys around you aren't agreeing with you, they're humoring you.
T
Re: (Score:2)
My thought was "Who does this?" I get there's a lot of group dynamics involved, some leaders and influencers and a bunch of followers, but this kind of thing seems to cross so many obvious lines that it's kind of surprising that you could get so many people to go along with it.
Boys will be Boys... (Score:2)
Boys will be Boys and have their fun... Time to hire some men who have matured and have some respect for others I guess.. Of course, if management is full of boys instead of men.. Have fun trying to fix this.
What is this culture thing where women are treated this way? My father taught me to respect women both by respecting my mother and insisting I do the same. Come on boys, grow up...
Crazy allegations, if true, absolutely insane (Score:2)
TFA is even better than the summary - allegations of absolutely incredible misbehavior. The interesting thing is: There's not any wiggle room: the craziest allegations can be easily proven (like: sending a email around the office with your STD test results).
That said, neutral journalism it's not. The allegations are very clearly heterosexual allegations (men interested in women). So when the author writes:
the employees allegedly had a “kink room” in the office that contained a bed and was intend
Re:Crazy allegations, if true, absolutely insane (Score:5, Insightful)
then it is absolutely wrong to write that "male" employees used the room, because they will have used it together with their female sexual partners. Which makes one suspect that this is not a men-harrassing-women problem, but more generally an entirely inappropriate, sexually-loaded work environment, with both men and women acting out in unprofessional ways.
The men who used the room did not necessarily have to bring female employees into the room. They could have used it with women who were not employees. And those women could have been acting quite professionally in their particular career.
1999 is calling... (Score:5, Insightful)
Putting aside the harassment claims for a second, this sounds like what happens when you have an immature "executive team" running a company fueled by large VC investments. If a company's culture encourages a frathouse mentality, and its executives display that culture, that's exactly what regular employees will see and emulate. It goes down to the department level too - I've worked in IT departments for a number of companies, and there are always problem child departments, usually sales. Some salespeople are just walking sexual harassment lawsuits waiting to happen, and companies tend to turn a blind eye to it when they're "rockstar" salespeople. Working in software, there's just some guys you don't want to get paired with on customer visits because they're just embarrassing. Watching an overweight middle aged balding sales dude hitting on a customer's receptionist or female employees (unsuccessfully) is cringe-worthy.
I do think that years of anonymous online communication as a primary means of interaction does contribute to some of the problems. I'm a guy, and a very liberal laid-back one at that, but it would never occur to me to say or do anything unprofessional at work. I've mentioned on here in the past (and been raked over the coals for it) that people need to understand that free speech doesn't mean you can let whatever comes to your mind slip out. People need to learn impulse control, and not seeing the other person on the other end of your conversation emboldens people to say things they normally wouldn't. Look at any comments section on any online news outlet that uses Facebook logins - even with a person's name, picture and sometimes employment history written right out there, I have a hard time envisioning some people saying the things they say in a public setting.
What I think is funny is that this second tech bubble is playing out almost exactly the way the first one did. We're headed for the top -- products and services are getting wackier every day, there's a million copycats of every single idea trying to squeeze out the last few VC dollars in a space, and the investors are finally starting to shut off the money faucets. It's almost like 1999 never happened, and no one alive at that time has any memory of it. This is going to be one of many flame-out stories in the next 2 or 3 years.
As a male adult (Score:3)
If I had found myself working in a company full of "bros" like this, I would be looking for a way out.
But then, I'm over 50. Way over 50. The testosterone poisoning has abated. But I do have a daughter, and
seeing women treated like that would probably cause me to drop a dime.
Re: As a male adult (Score:3, Funny)
Calling in an anonymous tip to legal authorities, like from a phone booth, which at one time charged 10 cents to make local calls.
To you kids out there, phone booths were public booths with landlines you could pay to make calls from.
To you babies out there, phone calls are how you used to talk to people using only your voice. No video, no text, and you had to dial a specific number to reach them.
Re:Hiring practices... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Is it taking small doses of acid? I mean, it takes so VERY little LSD to send you tripping, exactly how much and how are they keeping "micro" so that it doesn't blow you away for a day (if in fact this is what they're doing...).
Re:Hiring practices... (Score:5, Informative)
Yes, it is taking very small doses of various drugs like LSD, psilocybin, mescaline, MDA... (But not MDMA, which is not perceptible at microdose levels, according to Alexander Shulgin.) It's not that hard to keep the dose small, you just cut it up, same as a prescription pill.
Re:Hiring practices... (Score:4, Funny)
So, the homeopathic approach to hallucinogens?
Hunter S. Thompson wound not approve.
Re: (Score:2)
The difference is that you don't need to shake it, you'll acquire the shakes after a while anyway.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Hiring practices... (Score:5, Informative)
Kids these days (75-100mcg??)...when I was a kid, a tab had 250 micrograms or we wanted our money back.
I'm told, in the 1960s a typical dose was 1000 micrograms.
Re:Hiring practices... (Score:4, Insightful)
This is what you get for hiring a bunch of phricks.
News flash: most men and most women are exactly like this.
Don't believe me about women? You don't think that when they get together that they discuss their own sexual exploits, menstruation, or whatever other topic they care to discuss?
The reason this is happening is because those who pretend to be our betters and deign to tell us what is acceptable behavior have systematically gone about destroying societal norms for the last few generations. There was a time when a group of men would have the common sense and decency to confirm discussion such as those described to the locker room, club, or some other place outside of mixed company. Of course, if you spend 50 years telling boys that girls are not different than them and that they are exactly the same, then why are you going to be surprised when boys act like boys and include girls in the conversation? I mean, girls are no different, right?
Then, if you have the temerity to teach boys that they need to treat girls in a particular way you are socially lynched for perpetrating the patriarchy, subjugating women, etc., etc. Oh well, this is a no win situation if every I saw one.
Re:Hiring practices... (Score:5, Interesting)
None of my friends have EVER acted like this when I have been around them. I have also not encountered this before at any company I have worked at.
Every business I have worked with would have had the offending employees get one warning and then be out the door the next time it happened. I can't even imagine any engineering company being okay with "microdosing". The liability alone would kill that idea.
Even when I have been in a group of only male masters or phd students we mostly talked about science, engineering, movies, games etc kind of topics but not sexual exploits.
This is reprehensible behavior and should not be tolerated.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Excuse me! I happen to like sexual topics and I find it very offensive that you would call that interest of mine reprehensible.
Seriously, though, it depends on the company you are in. If the people around you are okay with it, then I see no problem at all. The question here is how realistically was the company's attitude represented to the employees during their job interview.
I am not trying to gauge the chances of this being the case, however there is a chance of some people being okay with that and now tr
Re:Hiring practices... (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't find your interest reprehensible. I find it reprehensible that this happened in a company setting. There is a large amount of peer pressure for people to just go along with something especially if their job is involved. Even if people are uncomfortable with something or are even disgusted by it they will often put up with it so they can keep their jobs and get promotions. This creates a hostile working environment and it is not acceptable.
If you want to talk like this then do it in a context where there is no coercive force on others present.
Re:Hiring practices... (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm sorry but if you can talk about the game on the weekend or this funny youtube vid you saw you should be able to talk about sex. Just because a large population cringe up whenever they hear the word and like to pretend its a dirty disgusting thing they would never do doesn't make it more or less a legitimate thing to talk about.
The reason why it's not suitable to talk about in a work environment is because it makes most people feel uncomfortable. This isn't complicated. Get into the reasons why it's jusfied or not, but if the question is how to maintain a non hostile working environment, not permitting people to discuss things that make a large percent of the population cringe up is kind of obvious.
Incidentally, I don't mind talking about sex, but I sure as shit don't want to talk about you having sex, so in return, I won't talk about *me* having sex. This is not complicated stuff.
Unless you are going to white list some topics for the workplace and everything else is no go then you can't really tell people to talk to each other according to your sensibilities.
No, some topics are blacklisted around the office, because there are not that many that make for a hostile work environment. You're doing a lot of mental gymnastics to excuse some reasonable limits on behavior that the majority of the population agrees with.
Re: (Score:3)
You can choose what you say and you can't choose what you are.
This is really very simple and based on fairly simple human decency. Work is a place for getting work done. You can talk about off-topic things at times so long as it does not interfere with the work. There are some subjects that most of us know makes other uncomfortable and so we avoid them while at work. One of the examples giving in this thread is two women talking about abused children in a book and I would also say that is not appropriate fo
Re: (Score:3)
" you should be able to talk about sex"
It's not a question of being able to talk about sex, it's being forced to listen to talk about something not related to the job while trying to perform the job.
Your sex talk has nothing to do with my job, why should I be required to expend the effort to withstand your distraction?
Re:Hiring practices... (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm sorry but if you can talk about the game on the weekend or this funny youtube vid you saw you should be able to talk about sex.
I'm sorry, but your comment contains no logic whatsoever. You're claiming that because A and B are true, that C must be true, without showing any associative link between A and B or C. Perhaps someone can pop up to tell us which logical fallacy that is, but it's not even a very good one.
Furthermore, should women be treated sensitively and protected from things men think they might not like or should they actually be treated equally and expected to deal with it?
Expecting them to deal with subject matter they find threatening in the workplace is not equality. Women are really and actually subjected to sexual inequality and sexual abuse on a regular basis, which is why anyone who actually cares about other people's feelings and who has two neurons to rub together understands that it's not appropriate to create a sexually charged environment in the workplace.
Re:Hiring practices... (Score:5, Insightful)
Are you psychotic? All of this is utterly unprofessional behavior, and a big chunk of it is *illegal*. Drugs are still illegal throughout the USA, it's a federal crime. So it this type and degree of sexual harrassment. Anyone who condones this sort of behavior in the workplace is a moron, risks the entire companies' standing, is ripe for a lawsuit (which they will easily win), and overall, a jackass.
If "people are OK with it" then they should all be fired summarily.
This is the sort of people we are turning out in this country - morally bankrupt and self-centered.
Re: (Score:3)
This is just "bro-tastic" behavior. The people I choose to associate with don't talk about this sort of BS either, not because it's "reprehensible", but because it's childish, one step above fart jokes. We have more interesting things to discuss.
On the one hand, this is the sort of BS that's inevitable if you try to staff a tech company with jocks instead of geeks. Never cross the streams! Jocks and frat boys go into sales, obviously. This "brogramming" trend is clearly getting out of hand.
OTOH, discus
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
News flash: most men and most women are exactly like this.
No they don't. Not in the 20+ years of my technical career. Of course, I worked mostly for Fortune 500 companies. Professionals are expected to act as professional and keep their personal life out of the workplace.
Re:Hiring practices... (Score:5, Insightful)
Bullshit. I'm part of a "mixed company" club that shares a locker room on occasion. The conversation is by no means clean, but there's no bragging about sexual exploits or pressuring anyone into doing drugs. Why not? Because we have respect for each other and are there for a specific purpose that has nothing to do with sex and drugs. Some people drink, some people don't. Some people smoke, some people don't. Some people probably do drugs, but they keep that to themselves if they do and don't let it interfere with what we're doing. Some people are having sex with each other, same sex, opposite sex, whatever, but they do that on their own time and don't let it be a distraction. Nobody had to be told to act this way and there are no rules governing it beyond basic conduct when in public. You have to get along with a diverse group of people, often in challenging situations, so you don't act like a total prick. It's simple common sense.
The "boys' club" mentality is the aberration here. By removing all consequence in a "everything's acceptable because we're all guys" environment, you amplify the absolute worst in human behavior. And then you justify it with the "boys will be boys" defense, assuming that everyone is naturally like that. Except that situation self-selects the loudest and the meanest, forcing everyone else to either go along with it or leave. Because anyone who has a problem with it is told to shut up, ridiculed until they give in, or worse. The assholes are a vocal minority but look like the majority when you let them make the rules. And then that eventually extends beyond the "safe space" of the locker room or wherever into other aspects of these people's lives.
The point here isn't that boys and girls are the same, it's that everyone is different, regardless of whether they are boys or girls. And in that sense, they're all the same. In that they're not. But everyone should be treated the same, like they're worthy of dignity and respect. And that's not a fantasy; if it can happen in a coed locker room, we should be able to expect it from a workplace.
Re: (Score:2)
So, in other words, the opportunity to grab someone by the pussy makes you less likely to talk about it?
If only the prez had known...
Re: (Score:2, Troll)
Re:Hiring practices... (Score:4, Insightful)
Yes, concluding that men and women are different could not possibly be arrived at through observation and experience. It is clearly the result of mental illness.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
I doubt they were hiring pricks. They were them...
Let me guess... the founder is 25-years-old?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Did you even read the lawsuit? I think "condom wrappers and underwear on the floor of the office" is pretty unambiguous. Not everything is some cryptosemite conspiracy.
Re: (Score:2)
Hey! When you call me and force me to get to work at 7am, you get what you get!
Re:Phrasing is the key (Score:5, Informative)
I left a place years ago because the guys were really creepy like that, and I'm a dude. At another place we had to ask the new parents to tone down the discussion of their children's potty training.
The company employees made sure it was a gender specific problem. They specifically referred to their office as a "boy's club". And then there is shit like this:
The founders and other employees are accused of speaking "sexually" about female employees right to their face, and one employee would, allegedly, talk about having "a boner" and going to the bathroom to "rub one out" in order to maintain focus. The suit clarifies that to mean "he was going to the restroom to masturbate."
and
A section describing how women were expected to do "womanly tasks" describes an environment that was cartoonishly sexist. Female employees were expected to clean up after events and parties, while men were not. The defendants allegedly told the plaintiff that women should be âoemommiesâ and help the men with whatever they needed.
From the sound of it they are royally fucked, because there are emails about STD test results and looking for docile women on their far eastern business trips. The "kink room" just sounds gross, and clearly they didn't take any HR advice as it would be an obvious form of sexual harassment for any gender.
Re: (Score:2)
At another place we had to ask the new parents to tone down the discussion of their children's potty training.
What in the world could be so graphic about a toilet training discussion that it would need to be "toned down"? I could see if they were making you smell a dirty diaper, but just talking about one? Did somebody mention naughty bits by name?
Re: (Score:3)
We would be eating lunch or drinking coffee and they would start talking about the consistency of their kid's shit, and speculating about what foods caused it to be that way, and how best to clean it up. Once or twice we just made a few noises and they shut up, but somehow it kept coming up.
Someone, I don't remember who, said something and that was it. They realized that most of us were not used to having another human being's excrement under our fingernails and didn't need to be reminded of the smell or sp
Re: (Score:2)
Wait 'til I hold my fingers under your nose after wiping my little darling's ass and ask you whether you think that smells more like the results of milk or the oatmeal.
Re: (Score:3)
I left a place years ago because the guys were really creepy like that, and I'm a dude.
I had *one* internship like that where the boss overshared everything about his 'lifestyle' life. I then went to work in corporate America. And while some times it is a bit dry I couldn't imagine that sort of discussion ever coming up. We still find plenty of non-work stuff to talk about. I talked a co-worker into trying Linux.
But I'm not the type of guy to sit around and 'bro' out about what I do behind closed doors, let alone "Hey, you know what sounds like a good idea? Consuming drugs on the job".
It soun
Re:Phrasing is the key (Score:5, Insightful)
And excluding workers from important meetings who didn't participate in the drugs is not merely laughing at them. It's actively preventing them from performing their job. And one of them was terminated for complaining about it. You obviously think it's okay to terminate people for complaining about behaviour then.
This can only ever be neutral if you straight up ignore the actual details.
Re: (Score:2)
And excluding workers from important meetings who didn't participate in the drugs is not merely laughing at them.
Heh... I wouldn't be surprised if those "important" meetings turns out to be pot parties or orgies.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Except that your phrasing doesn't have the same meaning at all.
"When female employees didn't want to participate, they would be ostracized by the male employees and excluded from important meetings and lunches" is not the same as "They laughed at some workers who did not participate, and some of them were women".
It's not even remotely close, check your logic.
You're so biased against anything that is gender related that you refuse to see when there is a problem. Maybe that will change when you'll get harasse
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I was sexually assaulted as a 10 year old. When saying it to feminists they will repeatedly say "you are a man, it does not count". But thanks for wishing me another assault, it sure as hell shows how behind your "feminist" facade you are just another person wishing for someone to be assaulted. I guess that because I'm a man it makes it ok.
Re:Phrasing is the key (Score:5, Insightful)
I was sexually assaulted as a 10 year old. When saying it to feminists they will repeatedly say "you are a man, it does not count".
Feminist here. I'm really sorry you had to go through that. I can tell you know, it absolutely does count. Sexual assault against males is a real problem, and one which we want to solve.
I don't know who you spoke to, but they don't really sound like mainstream feminists. There are some asshats who otherwise have broadly feminist views, even though they, for example, exclude trans women. Like any philosophy, there is no control over who believes it and no control over who calls themselves a feminist, but please understand that it is not mainstream feminist thinking to discount sexual assault of any kind.
Re: (Score:2)
In any culture there are extremists, it is nice to hear from a sane member of a culture often portrayed as extreme in general.
Re: (Score:2)
When you say sexual assault against a man, I'm assuming you mean homosexual/gay...a guy raping a guy?
Otherwise, I can't see any heterosexual sexual assault, I mean, a chick can't rape a man.
But I do think it is worse with gay rape, as that its well...a guy taking a guy which really isn't in the "norm" of behavior, and hur
Re:Phrasing is the key (Score:5, Funny)
Reading this remind me of some invaluable advice that I once heard : never go full retard. Maybe it is useful to you too?
Re: (Score:3)
How weak are the weakest men / strong are the strongest women?
Do you have conscious control over your boner? Interesting trick, maybe you could share it with the rest of the world who have certainly experienced a non-controlled boner at some point.
Remember: not *full* retard.
Re: (Score:3)
I'll just drop this in here and hope you educate yourself.
http://www.popsci.com/science/... [popsci.com]
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
For instance, UploadVR employee [name redacted]'s sex life was a frequent topic of conversation. The other male employees would talk about how he 'refuses to wear a condom' and 'has had sex with over 1000 people.'"
So the other male employees were slut-shaming another guy?
Or wondering what kind of sexually transmitted diseases he was carrying?
Re:Phrasing is the key (Score:5, Insightful)
Someone didn't read the entire article. They were way over the line.
Because if you read the article, it was clearly both very inappropriate and targeted behavior:
The founders and other employees are accused of speaking “sexually” about female employees right to their face, and one employee would, allegedly, talk about having “a boner” and going to the bathroom to “rub one out” in order to maintain focus.
Making unwanted sexual comments directly to someone is the textbook definition of sexual harassment. Masturbating on company time is just over the top.
If their director of social media is acting like a retarded frat boy and encouraging the same in others, he needs to go. If the company gets hit with a lawsuit because they couldn't figure that out on their own, well, too bad.
Re: (Score:3)
Masturbating on company time is just over the top.
I disagree; it's another bodily function that can be handled in private. However, telling someone you're doing it IS over the line.
Re:VC Round (Score:5, Funny)
The VCs were too busy microdosing.
Re:VC Round (Score:4, Insightful)
"Microdosing is for pussies," said John McAfee as he prepared to hit the pipe.
(Hint: not serious. But he probably would feel something like this.)
Re:VC Round (Score:4, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
"I'm gonna call me a couple of hard, pipe-hittin' Johns..." You're right, it really does change that context quite a bit!
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
I don't know if they've have VC funding yet, but you'd suppose that the VC's would check for this sort of thing in the due diligence phase.
Maybe they did. It could be that porn is the only profitable form of VR right now.
And yes, I would assume they have some funding or some money. A lawyer working on contingency wouldn't want to waste time suing a startup that didn't.
Re:Seriously simplify your life (Score:5, Funny)
Or hire only women. You can save up to 70% on salaries.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
And lose it all again on paid maternity leave.
Yeah, OK, I'll probably get modded flamebait for that, but it was worth it :-).
Re:Seriously simplify your life (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Seriously simplify your life (Score:5, Insightful)
I agree entirely. As a man I would not have wanted to work there either. I understand a certain amount of off-topic conversations at work but this is way outside what is okay.
If you discuss a new movie, tv, scientific study, etc at work that is fine so long as it does not take up too much time but not this kind of stuff.
In general I would also avoid politics and religion. :)
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
In Obama's America, female White House Staffers got paid less than their male counterparts. At the very least, Bill Clinton had this level of sexual harassment for years, and by some accounts crossed into rape. Al Gore also engaged in this type of behavior, but his investigation was magically dropped during the Obama years. And yet, you never comment on these because of.....reasons.
Please, please stop with the anti-Trump bull shit. Do not give people a pass because they play for your fucking team. Take the
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
If you're going to link to conspiracy site and RT mouthpiece zerohedge, why not link to the Enquirer too so that we can learn about bigfoot's alien babies?
Re: (Score:3)
I thought you hired an HR dept full of pretty women to keep the nerd programmers motivated .......
That's the marketing department. You hire old ladies for the HR department to keep the young ladies in the marketing department in line. Programmers can stick to their VR.
Re: (Score:3)
No, it just means that it would be equally bad if it were a woman doing it.
Apart from the bit about men and women being "interchangeable" being wrong, what you say makes no logical sense. You might as well argue that instead of complaining about "getting stabbed", women should just buy knives and join in the stabbing because clearly the issue here is equality, not grievous bodily harm.
Re: (Score:2)
So... women should also not become engineers but men should stop being engineers?
Is there some sort of road map what should be copied and what should be avoided, or is it arbitrary and depending on feelings?
Re: (Score:3)
I am pretty sure California actually has laws to criminalize stuff like that.