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[Mista]

Former vice president of human resources at Unity Technologies Anne Evans is suing the company for sexual harassment and wrongful termination, the former of which falls on former EA CEO and current Unity CEO John Riccitiello.

The lawusit alleges that, during her time at Unity, Evans found her workplace was "highly sexualized." Riccitiello and others in management positions "spoke openly about women in a sexual manner, made sexist jokes, and flirted with and pursued sexual relationships with female employees and contractors."

Among various incidents, the lawsuit says Riccitiello made inappropriate sexual comments to Evans soon after she began working at the company. "Riccitiello would comment to Evans about how he thought the way she walked was 'sexy' and how he could not believe she was a lesbian." After this, Riccitiello began making more explicit advances, inviting her to private events in the company's home of San Francisco, asking if she'd "like to get to him [him] better," propositioning her, and telling her explicitly after a team dinner in Paris that he wanted to have sex with her. She rejected these advances, after which Riccitiello would tell her not to talk about those events, saying "It would be good for your career if you keep mouth [sic] shut about last night." Evans did not report Riccitiello for fear of retaliation.

As for the wrongful termination claim, Evans claims she was terminated after an incident involving two other employees' unauthorized access to the results of confidential employee survey. An internal investigation eventually lead to Evans' termination due to her accepting gifts from one of the two employees who had accessed the results (they had been in a consensual relationship at the time). This, Evans was told, was against company policy, despite the lawsuit's claim that "there is no policy at Unity, written or otherwise, addressing the giving or accepting of gifts among employees." (During the investigation Evans pointed out Riccitiello had had a relationship with another higher-up and accepted gifts as part of that relationship, and that there was "confusion" among Unity employees about how to approach and report relationships.)

The lawsuit claims "Unity's decision to terminate Evans was motivated, in substantial part, by her sex and her unwillingness to conform to the company's sexually-charged environment and rejection of sexual advances from the company's CEO." As a result, the lawsuit asserts, Evans has suffered lost income, benefits, emotional distress, and "other general damages."

According to VentureBeat, Unity filed a statement with the San Francisco County Superior Court.

“Unity intends to vigorously defend against the false allegations asserted by Anne Evans. Following a third-party investigation that surfaced facts that Evans engaged in serious misconduct and established multiple instances in which she demonstrated a gross lapse in judgment, Unity terminated her employment. This was an undesirable outcome for Evans, and we had been working with her on the details of her departure when she filed a public lawsuit that includes false and damaging claims against the company, our CEO and a number of our employees.
Before and throughout the investigation, Evans had multiple opportunities to share her concerns about her experiences at the company through confidential and objective mechanisms, yet never did. We take these issues seriously at Unity, just as we did when we learned about concerns involving Evans. We do not tolerate harassment, and we have policies in place to address relationships in the workplace.”

GameInformer - The Final Level

 

[Varteras]

This really all just feels like the go-to attack on these companies that fire women for incompetence.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Tip for everyone: Always be cautious what you put in emails or say to employees. You may think everyone is having fun with it and goofing around. And at that time, it might have been right.... but all it takes is a pissed off employee to use those jokes out of context to get you or the company.

For example, my peers and I joked around all the time about stupid stuff.... men and women. We laugh about each other tits and crotches. We're all peers though, so there isn't the sensitivity of someone being a boss and subordinate.

Never the less, all it takes is someone who wants out, or getting fired to tell HR they were traumatized at sex chat when they were part of it and loving the laughs.

It's stupid how some people can turn against you at the last minute, but that's life. Some friends, family and coworkers can backstab you for personal gain.

 

[Tremmy]

This really all just feels like the go-to attack on these companies that fire women for incompetence.

They have nothing to lose and everything to gain by doing so these days.

 

[somerset]

Pro-tip- don't employ women in a tech company unless you have no choice. They add no value (where a woman *could* do a job well, like costume design, there will be plenty of males just as good or better), but because their work environment will be mostly male, accusations of harassment in the future will be assumed to be true by almost everyone.

Any good lawyer will tell *any* women once employed by a tech company that her chance of winning a *baseless* action is 100%. Most 'winning' of course will be an out-of-court settlement, where the good lawyer will choose a figure that is better to for the company to pay than risk losing in court.

Against the risk, there is zero logic betting on a happy outcome when looking at a female candidate for a job.

 

[Tesseract]

Pro-tip- don't employ women in a tech company unless you have no choice. They add no value (where a woman *could* do a job well, like costume design, there will be plenty of males just as good or better), but because their work environment will be mostly male, accusations of harassment in the future will be assumed to be true by almost everyone.

Any good lawyer will tell *any* women once employed by a tech company that her chance of winning a *baseless* action is 100%. Most 'winning' of course will be an out-of-court settlement, where the good lawyer will choose a figure that is better to for the company to pay than risk losing in court.

Against the risk, there is zero logic betting on a happy outcome when looking at a female candidate for a job.

dribble, corrinne yu is one of the best tech wizards on the planet

you're gonna pass on her because she's a chick?

you sound like a fabian

 

[Arkage]

Wouldn't be surprising if he made sexual comments towards her and then threatened her to be silent. Men in power do shit like this on a regular basis to underlings for all variety of stuff. But can't prove it either way. What could be proven is whether he was gifted shit like she was, which is against an apparently nonexistent company policy.

Pro-tip- don't employ women in a tech company unless you have no choice. They add no value (where a woman *could* do a job well, like costume design, there will be plenty of males just as good or better), but because their work environment will be mostly male, accusations of harassment in the future will be assumed to be true by almost everyone.

Any good lawyer will tell *any* women once employed by a tech company that her chance of winning a *baseless* action is 100%. Most 'winning' of course will be an out-of-court settlement, where the good lawyer will choose a figure that is better to for the company to pay than risk losing in court.

Against the risk, there is zero logic betting on a happy outcome when looking at a female candidate for a job.

You sound like someone who doesn't spend much time living in the real world.

 

[Musky_Cheese]

Sounds like a nightmare if true.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Wouldn't be surprising if he made sexual comments towards her and then threatened her to be silent. Men in power do shit like this on a regular basis to underlings for all variety of stuff. But can't prove it either way. What could be proven is whether he was gifted shit like she was, which is against an apparently nonexistent company policy.

Woman can do it too.

When faced with being fired, they can also pull out the sexual assault claim at the last minute. I've seen it myself. Then t lead to multiple months of investigations, lawyers and various employees being summoned to speak out.

Good thing was she was totally BS'ing. She ended up still getting canned with zero monetary compensation.

But still a total shit show that involved at least 10 people of different levels..... bosses, peers, HR etc....

 

[TyphoonStruggle]

dribble, corrinne yu is one of the best tech wizards on the planet

you're gonna pass on her because she's a chick?

you sound like a fabian

What?

There was speculation that she was quietly removed from 343 and naughty dog. https://www.neogaf.com/threads/when...r-of-amazons-prime-air.1036813/post-161828734

 

[Arkage]

Woman can do it too.

When faced with being fired, they can also pull out the sexual assault claim at the last minute. I've seen it myself. Then t lead to multiple months of investigations, lawyers and various employees being summoned to speak out.

Good thing was she was totally BS'ing. She ended up still getting canned with zero monetary compensation.

But still a total shit show that involved at least 10 people of different levels..... bosses, peers, HR etc....

So you're telling me the system works? Good. So let her go through the system.

Also, laughing about tits and crotches is pretty fucked up in a professional workplace. You're doing dumbshit inappropriate high school stuff on purpose and then getting upset if it's used against you. If being "cautious" in what you say to employees means don't talk about their boobs or dicks, let alone in emails, I think most of the general population has that covered as an understood norm of respect and professionalism, and that in the end you reap what you sow.

They have nothing to lose and everything to gain by doing so these days.

Do you not understand how expensive and time consuming suing big companies can be?

 

[StreetsofBeige]

So you're telling me the system works? Good. So let her go through the system.

Yes and no. After a shit show of time, it finally worked. But if the workplace wasn't messed up with attention seekers trying to cash in, you wouldn't have women pulling this card out hoping for a last ditch pay out.

The problem with accusations like this is not only time wasting, but the accuser (when wrong) almost never gets punished. SO it's basically a one-sided attempt. So people take advantage.

I guarantee you that if false accusers got punished as bad as someone who did commit wrongdoing, the number of accusers would drop like a rock.

Also, laughing about tits and crotches is pretty fucked up in a professional workplace. You're doing dumbshit inappropriate high school stuff on purpose and then getting upset if it's used against you. If being "cautious" in what you say to employees means don't talk about their boobs or dicks, let alone in emails, I think most of the general population has that covered as an understood norm of respect and professionalism, and that in the end you reap what you sow.

It's not. Depends who you're doing it with.

There's a difference between having fun doing juvenile jokes with people you know, and someone is genuinely upset at the get go, vs. people all agreeing it's funny, but someone backstabs someone at the last minute when faced with being fired for sake of a final cash grab years later.

 

[Tremmy]

T

So you're telling me the system works? Good. So let her go through the system.

Also, laughing about tits and crotches is pretty fucked up in a professional workplace. You're doing dumbshit inappropriate high school stuff on purpose and then getting upset if it's used against you. If being "cautious" in what you say to employees means don't talk about their boobs or dicks, let alone in emails, I think most of the general population has that covered as an understood norm of respect and professionalism, and that in the end you reap what you sow.



Do you not understand how expensive and time consuming suing big companies can be?

Of course it is. That doesn't change anything I said though. 90% of the time these cases are settled out of court for a lump sum for that exact reason.

 

[Sqorin Hammerfarf]

Also, laughing about tits and crotches is pretty fucked up in a professional workplace. You're doing dumbshit inappropriate high school stuff on purpose and then getting upset if it's used against you.

Dumbshit inappropriate high school stuff? Is that how you talk about... SHAKESPEARE?!?!

"By my life, this is my lady's hand these be her very C's, her U's and her T's and thus makes she her great P's."

If it is good enough for the Bard, it is good enough for mother fucking Unity.

 

[TLZ]

Tip for everyone: Always be cautious what you put in emails or say to employees. You may think everyone is having fun with it and goofing around. And at that time, it might have been right.... but all it takes is a pissed off employee to use those jokes out of context to get you or the company.

For example, my peers and I joked around all the time about stupid stuff.... men and women. We laugh about each other tits and crotches. We're all peers though, so there isn't the sensitivity of someone being a boss and subordinate.

Never the less, all it takes is someone who wants out, or getting fired to tell HR they were traumatized at sex chat when they were part of it and loving the laughs.

It's stupid how some people can turn against you at the last minute, but that's life. Some friends, family and coworkers can backstab you for personal gain.

I agree with this, from personal experience (not the sexual part).

 

[iconmaster]

An internal investigation eventually lead to Evans' termination due to her accepting gifts from one of the two employees who had accessed the results (they had been in a consensual relationship at the time)

This feels like a hard case to win.

(Settlement I guess.)

 

[Shmunter]

The #metoo supporters better hope the claim is proven legit. Otherwise another blow to the movement and re-enforcing male’s not wanting to hire and work with females.

 

[Tesseract]

What?

There was speculation that she was quietly removed from 343 and naughty dog. https://www.neogaf.com/threads/when...r-of-amazons-prime-air.1036813/post-161828734

i mean, she's responsible for some of the most advanced renderers on the market right now

if she wasn't steeped in the identitiy game, she prolly could've been the next carmack

 

[TyphoonStruggle]

i mean, she's responsible for some of the most advanced renderers on the market right now

if she wasn't steeped in the identitiy game, she prolly could've been the next carmack

The point is that we don’t know how competent she actually was.

Jesus! How do you white knight for some lady who’s not even in the industry anymore? Some people are so desperate.

 

[Tesseract]

The point is that we don’t know how competent she actually was.

Jesus! How do you white knight for some lady who’s not even in the industry anymore? Some people are so desperate.

gtfo outta here with that desperate white knight retard shit, her resume speaks for itself

Yu's early career was as a programmer for the King's Quest series for the Apple II although she had her own 3D engine projects that she sold to various companies.[2] She programmed for QuickDraw 3D, an early rasterisationAPI.[2] She worked on the game Zombie, and created the video game engine used in Spec Ops.[3] In November 1997, she was employed by video game developer Ion Storm.[1] She worked on the 2001 video game Anachronox and served as Director of Technology at the studio.[1][4] While at Ion she was responsible for the Quake 2 code base used in their games and any games based on that engine.[5] In November 1998, she left Ion Storm and later became the Lead Technology Programmer at 3D Realms.[1] Yu worked as an engine programmer at Gearbox Software, creator of Brothers in Arms and Borderlands. Yu worked to heavily modify the Epic Unreal Engine 3 with an emphasis on lighting, shadows and physics.[6] Yu was a founding member of Microsoft's Direct 3D Advisory Board. She participated in CUDA and GPU simulation at NVidia.[7]

In 2008, Microsoft Studios hired Yu as the Principal Engine Architect for an internal studio, 343 Industries.[8][9] 343 Industries was established in 2007 to oversee the Halo franchise following Bungie's separation from Microsoft. Yu programmed lighting, facial animation, and developed new technology for the 2012 video game Halo 4.[10] While coding on Halo team, Yu researched new lighting techniques, and invented new dynamic radiosity algorithms. Microsoft applied a software patent for Yu's Halo lighting work.[11]

In November 2013, Yu joined video game developer Naughty Dog, a subsidiary of Sony Computer Entertainment, to work as a graphic programmer on PlayStation 4 projects.[12] In November 2014, she left Naughty Dog and joined Amazon.com to work on their Amazon Prime Air program.[13] In March 2018, she left Amazon and joined General Motors as a VP of Engineering.

 

[EviLore]

Wall Street Rule for the #MeToo Era: Avoid Women at All Cost

No more dinners with female colleagues. Don’t sit next to them on flights. Book hotel rooms on different floors. Avoid one-on-one meetings.

In fact, as a wealth adviser put it, just hiring a woman these days is “an unknown risk.” What if she took something he said the wrong way?

Across Wall Street, men are adopting controversial strategies for the #MeToo era and, in the process, making life even harder for women.

Call it the Pence Effect, after U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, who has said he avoids dining alone with any woman other than his wife. In finance, the overarching impact can be, in essence, gender segregation.

Interviews with more than 30 senior executives suggest many are spooked by #MeToo and struggling to cope. “It’s creating a sense of walking on eggshells,” said David Bahnsen, a former managing director at Morgan Stanley who’s now an independent adviser overseeing more than $1.5 billion.

This is hardly a single-industry phenomenon, as men across the country check their behavior at work, to protect themselves in the face of what they consider unreasonable political correctness -- or to simply do the right thing. The upshot is forceful on Wall Street, where women are scarce in the upper ranks. The industry has also long nurtured a culture that keeps harassment complaints out of the courts and public eye, and has so far avoided a mega-scandal like the one that has engulfed Harvey Weinstein.

‘Real Loss’
Now, more than a year into the #MeToo movement -- with its devastating revelations of harassment and abuse in Hollywood, Silicon Valley and beyond -- Wall Street risks becoming more of a boy’s club, rather than less of one.

“Women are grasping for ideas on how to deal with it, because it is affecting our careers,” said Karen Elinski, president of the Financial Women’s Association and a senior vice president at Wells Fargo & Co. “It’s a real loss.”

There’s a danger, too, for companies that fail to squash the isolating backlash and don’t take steps to have top managers be open about the issue and make it safe for everyone to discuss it, said Stephen Zweig, an employment attorney with FordHarrison.

“If men avoid working or traveling with women alone, or stop mentoring women for fear of being accused of sexual harassment,” he said, “those men are going to back out of a sexual harassment complaint and right into a sex discrimination complaint.”

Channeling Pence
While the new personal codes for dealing with #MeToo have only just begun to ripple, the shift is already palpable, according to the people interviewed, who declined to be named. They work for hedge funds, law firms, banks, private equity firms and investment-management firms.

For obvious reasons, few will talk openly about the issue. Privately, though, many of the men interviewed acknowledged they’re channeling Pence, saying how uneasy they are about being alone with female colleagues, particularly youthful or attractive ones, fearful of the rumor mill or of, as one put it, the potential liability.

A manager in infrastructure investing said he won’t meet with female employees in rooms without windows anymore; he also keeps his distance in elevators. A late-40-something in private equity said he has a new rule, established on the advice of his wife, an attorney: no business dinner with a woman 35 or younger.

The changes can be subtle but insidious, with a woman, say, excluded from casual after-work drinks, leaving male colleagues to bond, or having what should be a private meeting with a boss with the door left wide open.

 

[LittleBusters]

I guess we'll find out the facts in court.