Ellen Pao vs. Kleiner Perkins — My Rant
SAN FRANCISCO — One of Silicon Valley’s most famous venture capital firms prevailed on Friday over Ellen Pao a former partner in a closely watched suit claiming gender discrimination, but hardly got away unscathed. The plaintiff, Ellen Pao, had accused the firm, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, of discriminating against her in the course of her employment and eventual dismissal.
The decision handed Kleiner a sweeping victory in a case that had mesmerized Silicon Valley with its salacious details while simultaneously amplifying concerns about the lack of diversity in the technology industry.
Even with her loss in the case, Ms. Pao’s suit succeeded in prompting debate about women in technology and venture capital, said Deborah Rhode, a law professor at Stanford University.
“This case sends a powerful signal to Silicon Valley in general and the venture capital industry in particular,” Ms. Rhode said. “Defendants who win in court sometimes lose in the world outside it.”
Source: NYTimes
Let me be very clear as clear as water. I am not against having more women in the workforce! I am a son, brother and uncle to all girls, women and incredible ladies. I wouldn’t trade it for a day for guy! So let’s get this issue out of the way before some crazy feminists start exploding.
Now statistically speaking, more and more women are enrolling in universities and colleges and more and more are graduating. So it is only logical and straightforward calculation that the trend forecasts more and more women in the workforce. NO ISSUES THERE!
Here is my issue
Why is this lawsuit based on ‘sexual discrimination’ ‘based on gender’? Why was it not based on competence, skills, traits, abilities and all the things that people in top echelon fight and covet for? Why is it based on the fact that she is a woman?
Every time I hear this verbiage it signals to me that the woman is weak and using the gender tactic to gain sympathy empathy and public support for her weakness and wrong doing.
The Chase bank I visit for my banking needs employs 7 female staffs and only 1 male manager. The same is true for so many banks, retail locations and such where women are majority. I don’t recall dropping lawsuits for gender discrimination. I AM HAPPY AND MORE POWER TO THEM!
But if Ellen Pao type women are fighting for equality then we must be absolutely clear on the rules of the games. There isn’t a special class and quota for you! You want equality, you got equality! Men have to fight, compete and climb the Corporate ladder just like any women would and the rules are the same.
“It is not based on gender but rather survival of the fittest!”
In a typical Marketing or HR Corporate hierarchy very rarely have I seen male heads, mostly it is the women who dominate such roles. Why not move over and make men the head?
The responses will vary from I earned this post, to women are better at these roles to get in line behind the succession line. Fair enough!
What is even more particularly disturbing is that Ellen Pao was already the interim chief of Reddit. So sure she was discriminated against which she claims but the jury found otherwise. However the issue is this biased view of women going up in arms about ‘sexual discrimination’ when they don’t want to play by the rules. The rules are simple! The most important rule is:
“Might is Right!”
Enough is enough Ellen Pao, stop discriminating against strong women like my mother because you didn’t get made partner! However you are already an interim head of Reddit!
Ellen Pao Fact checks
During the trial, numerous details emerged, including Mr. Doerr’s telling an investigator that Ms. Pao had a “female chip on her shoulder.” Chi-Hua Chien, a partner, said women should not be invited to a dinner with former Vice President Al Gore because they “kill the buzz.” A senior partner at the time, Ray Lane, joked to a junior partner that she should be “flattered” that a colleague showed up at her hotel room door wearing only a bathrobe. Another senior partner, Ted Schlein, seemed never to have heard of the exhortation of Sheryl Sandberg, a senior Facebook executive, that women should “sit at the table,” testifying, “I really don’t think it was a very big deal to us who sits at a table or who does not.”
Ellen Pao claimed sexual discrimination and like a soar loser didn’t accept and improve but rather sued and got a job with Reddit. SEEMS LIKE A CORPORATE CLIMBER MOVE TO ME?
Here is my biggest turn off with Ellen Pao mindset;
“A daughter of Chinese immigrants who has three Ivy League degrees, Pao eventually learned to activate her aggression, as her lawsuit against Kleiner Perkins indicates. No one but she knows who and what caused her to take on Silicon Valley’s most famous VC firm, but I have to believe that her husband, Buddy Fletcher, had something to do with it. Alphonse “Buddy” Fletcher, Jr. is a hedge-fund manager who is facing client lawsuits and government probes related to his failing money-management business.
I interviewed Fletcher 21 years ago for a story called my “Don’t call me Slacker,” about America’s most successful twenty somethings. At the time, he was 28 years-old, running his own firm, and getting chauffeured around Manhattan in a Bentley — the fringe benefits of having sued his former employer, Kidder Peabody, for short-changing him on his bonus. Fletcher, who is black, had won $1.3 million from Kidder, then owned by General Electric GE 0.40% , and he was seeking $5 million more, claiming racial discrimination. “Bite off more than you can chew. Then chew it” was Fletcher’s philosophy, he told me. That advice came from his grandmother.
Fletcher didn’t appear at his wife’s trial in Silicon Valley, and the jury of six men and six women was not allowed to hear about his legal and financial troubles. But the truth about Ellen Pao and Buddy Fletcher, whose extraordinarily complicated lives Fortune chronicled in a 2012 cover story, suggests that she was hardly the ideal change agent to help fix the gender ratio in the VC industry, where 94% of the partners are male.”
- @pattiesellers Source: FORTUNE
The Triads
In a sign that the struggle over the place of women in Silicon Valley is only beginning, gender discrimination suits have recently been filed against two prominent companies, Facebook and Twitter.
The suit against Twitter, by a former engineer, Tina Huang, claims that the process for promotion is not clear and is biased in favor of men, a claim that Ms. Pao also made about Kleiner. The suit seeks class-action status. Twitter said in a statement that it was committed “to a diverse and supportive workplace.”
The suit against Facebook is narrower. Chia Hong, a former manager, says she was “discriminated against, harassed, and retaliated against” because of her sex and race, culminating in her termination. Ms. Hong is represented by Lawless & Lawless, one of the firms representing Ms. Pao. Facebook has said that it works “extremely hard” on diversity and believes that it treated the employee in question fairly.
It is ironic to note that all 3 cases were brought by female Far East Asians. Does that mean something?
Is it a massive Chinese plot to subdue these mighty organizations and networks to their knees? Or is a cultural individual issue? I leave that to your creative imagination.
This case screamed Feminism, feminist bias, favoritism and cheap smear campaign by Ellen Pao and her type. I believe that Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers should counter sue for defamation of character.
Ms. Pao accidentally learned about the dinner Mr. Gore was having because she was living in the same San Francisco building. She met Mr. Fletcher at an exclusive fellowship that Mr. Doerr recommended her for. Even after being fired by Kleiner in 2012, Ms. Pao was paid $33,333 a month for the next six months, plus benefits and bonus. Most Americans could never imagine such handsome remuneration, terminated or not.
Source: NYTIMES
So biting the hand that fed you is just not even a gender thing no more Ellen Pao! It is a serious lack of gratefulness, ethics, morals and values.
One last thing Ellen Pao, I don’t have any negative energy, hate towards you because of your ‘gender’. I have reservations, anger and lack of tolerance towards your character type. Fortunately it is not a gender based thing. There are pretty of men who are in the same league as you and I promise you I harbor the same feelings for them too so don’t feel too special!
Equality either means the same yardstick applied for all but if you want special privileges because of your gender when it is not in your favor then I think it is a bit hypocritical and self defeating!
It may be politically incorrect to say, but it’s true that anyone can sue. And plaintiffs tend to be outliers. Like whistleblowers, gadflies and other disruptors, plaintiffs are usually people who don’t get what they want the way that the rest of us do. So, they sue.
Originally published at forspeak.com on March 28, 2015.
#EllenPao #KleinerPerkins #VerdictRant
