Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Tesla fires female engineer who alleged sexual harassment

theguardian.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 118 posts

Re: Tesla fires female engineer who alleged sexual harassment

#21

Post by matt4077 »

lightbyte wrote: post #8

>At the time, Vandermeyden said she was hopeful her lawsuit and public comments would not end her career at the company. How could she honestly expect to keep her job with an employer she is sueing and smearing in the media? Why would she even want to continue working there?

Her employer is a company. Companies don't have the emotions people have.

In large organisations, the effect of employee lawsuits may even be beneficial, because it allows for a mechanism to escalate serious issues before they become even worse, while the high barriers in terms of cost, emotional burden etc. serve to discourage frivolous complaints.

Re: Tesla fires female engineer who alleged sexual harassment

#22

Post by rootusrootus »

CJefferson wrote: post #5

This sounds terrible for Tesla in many directions. Either she is right, in which case Tesla sounds very bad. Alternatively, Tesla is completely right (which I personally don't believe), in which case as they confess that : "Vandermeyden had been granted numerous positions “over other more qualified candidates” and was “given special treatment and opportunities for advancement that were unwarranted based on her qualif…

Most companies would refuse to comment on a situation like this, especially one that is high profile. Based on Tesla's willingness to make such an incendiary public statement, I'm guessing they have a big pile of documentation to back it up.

I agree that they probably just opened themselves up to other legitimate lawsuits. Oops.

Re: Tesla fires female engineer who alleged sexual harassment

#23

Post by SomeStupidPoint »

CJefferson wrote: post #5

This sounds terrible for Tesla in many directions. Either she is right, in which case Tesla sounds very bad. Alternatively, Tesla is completely right (which I personally don't believe), in which case as they confess that : "Vandermeyden had been granted numerous positions “over other more qualified candidates” and was “given special treatment and opportunities for advancement that were unwarranted based on her qualif…

I would find it amusing if Tesla won the case against her, and then lost the case against a male engineer she was promoted over, based on those statements -- you know, for sexist promotions.

Re: Tesla fires female engineer who alleged sexual harassment

#24

Post by mulletbum »

elbrian wrote: post #12
falcolas wrote: post #3

Moral of the story: If you sue your employer in an at-will state, you're very likely to be fired. Now, the only winners will be the lawyers.

She did not just sue her employer -- she gave interviews to news outlets, touting unproven allegations. Do you think that Tesla should continue to pay someone who is actively and deliberately tarnishing their image, without giving them a chance to make things right (if they were ever wrong to begin with)?

This is what I am not understanding why there is even a question about it. The minute she went public, Tesla has the right to fire her. If they were retaliating, she had the chance to do that internally. She could leave a paper trail and let them have a chance to correct the problem.

I don't know why it is up to Tesla to keep an employee trying to tarnish their image.

Re: Tesla fires female engineer who alleged sexual harassment

#25

Post by ocdtrekkie »

SomeStupidPoint wrote: post #19
ocdtrekkie wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, I guess the question at the end of the day is if her claims have merit. If she can prove the discrimination, her termination is illegal. If she's been unreasonable, and Tesla has indeed, as it claims, made every effort to meet her needs, I absolutely can see why they'd fire her.

Tesla isn't merely claiming they've met her needs, they're actually claiming that she's received privileged treatment because she's a woman: > Tesla added that Vandermeyden had been granted numerous positions “over other more qualified candidates” and was “given special treatment and opportunities for advancement that were unwarranted based on her qualifications”.

Tesla says, and Vandermeyden says something else. But if this is going to court, I suspect the outcome is very much going to depend on which party can prove their side of the story.

Re: Tesla fires female engineer who alleged sexual harassment

#26

Post by praveenbeatle »

CJefferson wrote: post #5

This sounds terrible for Tesla in many directions. Either she is right, in which case Tesla sounds very bad. Alternatively, Tesla is completely right (which I personally don't believe), in which case as they confess that : "Vandermeyden had been granted numerous positions “over other more qualified candidates” and was “given special treatment and opportunities for advancement that were unwarranted based on her qualif…

It feels like another case of someone bringing their political ideology to the job rather a willingness to do great work.

Re: Tesla fires female engineer who alleged sexual harassment

#27

Post by amelius »

lightbyte wrote: post #8

>At the time, Vandermeyden said she was hopeful her lawsuit and public comments would not end her career at the company. How could she honestly expect to keep her job with an employer she is sueing and smearing in the media? Why would she even want to continue working there?

Perhaps if the people responsible for the problems were fired instead?

Re: Tesla fires female engineer who alleged sexual harassment

#29

Post by JoeAltmaier »

SomeStupidPoint wrote: post #19
ocdtrekkie wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, I guess the question at the end of the day is if her claims have merit. If she can prove the discrimination, her termination is illegal. If she's been unreasonable, and Tesla has indeed, as it claims, made every effort to meet her needs, I absolutely can see why they'd fire her.

Tesla isn't merely claiming they've met her needs, they're actually claiming that she's received privileged treatment because she's a woman: > Tesla added that Vandermeyden had been granted numerous positions “over other more qualified candidates” and was “given special treatment and opportunities for advancement that were unwarranted based on her qualifications”.

Wow they must be really screwed up at Tesla then.

Re: Tesla fires female engineer who alleged sexual harassment

#30

Post by kolbe »

CJefferson wrote: post #5

This sounds terrible for Tesla in many directions. Either she is right, in which case Tesla sounds very bad. Alternatively, Tesla is completely right (which I personally don't believe), in which case as they confess that : "Vandermeyden had been granted numerous positions “over other more qualified candidates” and was “given special treatment and opportunities for advancement that were unwarranted based on her qualif…

Companies are free to give all the special treatment they want so long as it isn't rooted in one of the protected classes. While gender is one of the protected classes, they never admitted she received said treatment because of her gender. It could have been because they thought she showed a great deal of potential, despite her less than impressive resume.
Post reply on HN