Rachel Kremer thought she had landed a dream gig when she started working for online real estate giant Zillow in June of 2012. Many, many texted dick pics later, she is singing an entirely different tune.
Yesterday, Kremer filed a lawsuit against Zillow for their “pervasive culture of degrading women” that led to “the most heinous acts of sexual harassment imaginable” suffered at the hands of both peers and supervisors. The company’s alleged indifference allowed this all to go on unchecked, and ultimately led to Kremer’s termination when she tried to speak up.
She received a series of disgusting texts from a variety of coworkers, any one of which would get any employee fired in a normal workplace. Not only are they graphic and basically the very definition of harassment, but the texts aren’t even clever; they’re just gross:
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The suit says that at Zillow, “sexual harassment and misconduct are normalized, condoned, and promoted by male managers,” and that female coworkers are often openly ranked based on categories like breast size and sexual experience.
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This is a bad look for Zillow, obviously. Spokeswoman Jill Simmons said in an emailed statement that “The allegations in the complaint do not reflect Zillow’s culture or workplace and are completely inconsistent with our values. We don’t tolerate harassment of any kind.”
Chief Operating Officer Kathleen Philips told The Recorder that the company is investigating the claims, but likewise insisted that harassment is not a company-wide problem.
[via Gawker]
