Would You Continue to Work If You Sued Your Boss? This Woman Did

June 7th, 2012 - By Charlotte Young

indiawest.com

Ellen Pao, a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, may have sued her boss, but that doesn’t mean she’s given up on her job. According to Forbes, Pao filed a gender discrimination suit against her bosses at the Silicon Valley venture capital firm on May 10.

While neither Pao nor her lawyers have discussed the lawsuit with the press, she has made a statement about it on Quora, a question and answer website. One user on the site anonymously asked if she quit after the lawsuit, and Pao responded, “no and I don’t plan to quit.”

Pao’s case asserts that she had undergone several sexual harassment encounters over the course of six years. It states that Ajit Nazre, a partner who left last year, pressured her to have a sexual relationship with him. She admits in the complaint that she acquiesced one or three times, but when she attempted to put an end to the relationship Nazre began to exclude her from business meetings and important discussions.  According to the complaint, when Pao reported the harassment to human resources and to senior partners at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, they took her off the board of one of their startups and even suggested she move to their office in China. One of the senior partners, Ray Lane, then actually encouraged Pao to marry Nazre and meet with him for lunch to settle their disagreement. Nazre was later promoted and became Pao’s boss. In her suit, Nazre wasn’t the only one sexually harassing Pao. She claims senior partner Randy Komisar also made advances towards her which she rejected. In response to the suit, a note from a top partner at the firm claims her case was made without merit.

With Pao still in the office, the situation is awkward to say the least, but Anne Golden, a partner at the plaintiff-side employment law firm Outten & Golden believes that staying is good for her case. If she left it would be harder to prove that she lost income and benefits because of the harassment.

Daniel O’Meara, the chairman of the employment law department of Montgomery McCracken Walker & Rhoads, says that her presence will cause discomfort on both sides, and will also assist her if she wants to settle the case.

“They are going to want to pay her to get out of there,” he said to Forbes. Staying “enhances her bargaining power.” At the same time, there is the matter of Pao’s emotionally stability. “I sometimes tell my clients that their life is more important than their case,” Golden said.

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  • http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?_encoding=UTF8&search-alias=digital-text&field-author=Peaches%20The%20Writer PeachesTheWriter

    If she leaves, then the real purpose of her suit would be in vain. Stay there and make them face you. If she leaves, she is forgotten and so is the message she is sending. “Make them remember FORVER, the night they played the Titans!” Sorry, I went off on a lil’ tangent. Happy Friday.

  • fancykim

    I was in a situation where I was harassed and bullied on the job by a member of management that I was hired to work with. The situation increasing got worse for 8 months (starting with my 1st day). I stayed, even after filing an EEOC complaint, and ended up being fired. All that is to say, I personally was suffering from Traumatic Stress (and later PTSD) and you just never know how you will react until you are in the situation. At this point I don’t think staying in a situation or putting up with harassment (racial, sexual or otherwise) is a good idea, but it is just never cut-and-dry when you are going through a situation – often-times it builds and before you know it, you are realize it went too far.

  • MLS2698

    I’m not sleeping with the boss to get a position.

    • Ona2684

      That doesnt seem to be the case here and that doesnt answer the question. You certainly dont have to sleep with an employer or co worker to be harrased and even if you did it does not mean you did it for a promotion.

  • FromUR2UB

    This woman may as well defend herself, because she has fools for lawyers. People on her job have already joined forces against her. She won’t survive on a job where everyone is out to get her, because even the people who may be on her side, aren’t going to risk their jobs to help her. She thinks things were bad before? Well, now the work environment is even more hostile, and I feel pretty sure that they’re trying to lay some traps for her to have a reason to fire her. They may wait until everything settles down, but her days at that company are numbered. If ever you sue an employer, you better be ready to quit because without a doubt, they will make life miserable. Plus, I’m pretty sure they have more money to spend on lawyers than she does, so they can drag this case out for years. If she gets any money out of it, she’ll probably have to spend it all on health concerns after enduring that kind of fight.

  • lalatarea

    wouldn’t her leaving make it easier to prove she lost income? that statement her lawyer made seems off but to answer the question NOOOO how are you suppose to prove emotional distress, and that you were harassed YET u still working there? hmmmm also what abt the fact that she slept with him MORE THAN ONCE? that makes it seem more like a break up gone wrong than harassment.

  • SheBe

    I haven’t read the article yet. I felt compelled to answer the headline question. YES! I would continue to work even if I sued my bosses. I am NOT the problem; they are. So why should I leave? Okay, now back to the article.