Resolution?

  • "Vicious comments by online (anonymous) commenters following my writing a piece about gender equity in tech industry."
     
  • "Traveling to certain places and being the only female on a team can be intimidating- particularly in 3rd world countries or in the South 20 years ago. My company didn’t know how to prepare me for that."
     
  • "After speaking at events, I've been followed by aggressive attendees to my car on several occasions."
     
  • "Coworker had anger issues especially toward women. I told my boss who blew me off. He was eventually arrested at work for a violent episode."
     
  • "I was the COO of a large company, and the CEO was very unstable. I decided to leave (life is too short), and he asked if I would stay with the company if he killed himself. I declined, and then he starting asking questions about what kind of car I drive, what my son looks like...I was nervous for months.:
     
  • "After a colleague made a (VERY unwanted) advance, I did not complain to anyone but I ensured that I never was alone with him outside an office setting. Not complaining was a mistake. The colleague later criticized me in a review as 'not putting in enough hours.' If I'd filed a complaint, his spiteful slap back at me would have been put in context. But I wouldn't have known whom to complain to or how."
     
  • "I publicly embarrassed him. That worked."
     
  • "Spoke to peers and asked their advice. This served to neuter the person involved from a social standpoint."

What Would They Have Done Differently:

  • "Hard to say. He worked in HR so I would have had to go to the head of HR which felt career limiting. That said, after I left I know he continued to harass other women, which makes me wish I had filed a complaint. I'm not proud of how I handled it but I was afraid and didn't want to invest any more time or emotional energy. It was behind closed doors, no one else was there, so I knew it would be a he said/she said."
     
  • "I should have spoken directly to my colleague about his inappropriate comments. In the case of the superior I should have reported it but was quite young and not confident in my position at the time."
     
  • "Spoken to HR. But we didn't have that person in the venture capital firm. Didn't know who to talk to."
     
  • "I didn't file because it seemed like an innocuous statement between long-time friendly colleagues at the time. However, the repercussions of my rejecting my superior caused him to be very negative towards me and make my work life very difficult."

Please add your anonymous stories to this initiative so that more stories can be heard.