The former chief operating officer of Pinterest initially dropped a bombshell with a post to Medium entitled “The Pinterest Paradox: Cupcakes and Toxicity.” She describes a corporate culture that consistently overlooks and demeans its female executives. She followed up her Medium post with a lawsuit filed against Pinterest that alleges the company’s female executives are targeted for sexual discrimination and retaliation.
About the lawsuit
In her lawsuit, she cites problems with parity in compensation as well as criticisms of her leadership style, which was judged as “not compliant enough” despite her help in taking the company public. She claims that she was summarily fired for complaining to Human Resources and the company CEO about demeaning sexist comments made to her by another member of the senior leadership team.
During her tenure at Pinterest, she doubled revenues, expanded into 20 countries and supervised a staff of more than 1,000 employees. Despite these stellar achievements, she alleges that she was fired for speaking out about the company’s toxic culture.
What is considered a toxic culture?
A company’s culture is considered “toxic” if it is ineffectual or destructive to its employees. The culture must undermine the work that the company does. It will be interesting to note how the plaintiffs will argue how the corporate culture is ineffectual in light of Pinterest’s colossal success.
Employment law cases are often exceedingly sensitive in nature. If your business becomes involved in a case like the one, you may wish to engage consult an attorney before responding publicly to any accusations.
