Demand Ginni Rometty (IBM CEO) To End  Discrimination in the Workplace at IBM!  Covert Discrimination: No Subtle Matter. 

I am a former employee of International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) Headquarters, Armonk, NY, a company that has been in business for over 100 years.  IBM is a major leader in corporate business, has a diverse workforce, and is an organization thought to be among those companies setting the standard in employee fairness.  Sadly, however, employee fairness was not the practice at the branch where I worked.  Unfortunately, this facility was more favorable to white males and fostered a culture of discrimination routinely experienced by the minority workforce.

Based on the disparate treatment I personally experienced while working at IBM in Columbia, Missouri, I filed numerous complaints with the Missouri Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) citing gender and racial discrimination, violation of my Civil Rights under Title VII of the Act of 1964, and ultimately, retaliation.  It is my position that IBM management neglected to take my allegations seriously due to the fact that I am African-American and a woman.   

My EEOC complaint alleges I was regularly harassed by a male colleague in the workplace.  On one occasion, while I was on the telephone with a client, the man surreptitiously entered into my cubicle space, muted my telephone, and forcibly turned my chair around so that I was facing him with my body was thrust against the desk, leaving me little room to escape.  Suddenly, he began to scream hysterically and I froze in fear for my life.  Fortunately, I managed to escape this incident without physical harm.  Nonetheless, I was traumatized and I recall quite vividly how the harassment progressed. 

Subsequent to my complaints, management initiated a pattern of bullying, harassment, and intimidation that continued daily for the next 18 months.  The following is a list of what I endured:

·         special medical accommodations denied

·         promotion was rescinded

·         paychecks were delayed

·         unpaid overtime

·         cyberbullying

·         low performance rating

·         I was socially ostracized

Moreover, I requested to be permanently moved away from the male counterpart who harassed and threatened to do bodily harm to me and was essentially told “No.”  The response by IBM Human Resource was as follows:

“…please understand that you are using the title of ‘Harasser’ and it is important for you to be reminded that the corporate investigation determined that there were no findings of your allegation of ‘harassment’…and I cannot mandate management to move you away from your alleged harasser.”

Thus, despite continued harassment, which I reported to IBM management, no action was taken to address my complaint or thwart the actions of my co-worker. 

Further, in addition to my report of collegial harassment, management became aware that I was privy to information regarding a severe HIPAA data breach within the organization.  I have included the following excerpt regarding the Kaiser Permanente (KP) data breach from the report of which I was privy:

“It is my belief that if an auditor were to examine the KP Domino infrastructure as it is today, that it would be impossible for IBM, ‘to demonstrate compliance to mandatory HIPAA requirements.”...“Some of the violations I see fall under the following categories:

●     Implementing encryption mechanisms

●     Controlling logical access to PHI (protected health information)

●     There is no disaster recovery plan that covers all the Domino servers or all the data centers

Consequently, due to the negligence of IBM, who has a contractual agreement with KP to protect patient privacy, IBM failed to protect confidential data.  This impacted several hundred servers, and an indeterminate number of Kaiser’s patients were undoubtedly affected.

In light of this discovery and to add insult to injury, upon my return from a medical leave of absence (necessitated by the traumatic events I experienced), I was terminated, though, prior to these incidents, I received satisfactory evaluations.

Finally, an additional attempt to cause harm,  IBM engaged in unethical, and possibly criminal, misconduct by violating my privacy in a bold attempt to obtain my financial information from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), who immediately notified me of this unscrupulous action. Further, IBM has enlisted the services of a high powered attorney working to deny any reasonable effort for just compensation in spite of the racial, retaliation and gender bias levied against me by this company.  It is my greatest hope that my EEOC complaint will elicit the appropriate and desired response, and that IBM will accept responsibility for its role in the blatant discrimination I have suffered.

This matter, and the fact that it remains unresolved, has confounded my life for about four years now.  What I’ve suffered as a result of the aforementioned events has dealt a swift blow to not only my financial security, but also to my emotional well being.  Further, there is no evidence that IBM seeks to remedy the situation, which is disturbing.

I ask you, Ginni Rometty,  is this standard conduct for an allegedly reputable organization?  Does IBM tolerate employee discrimination, collegial harassment, and the mishandling of employee complaints?  Based on what has happened to me and the neglectful manner in which it was handled, I am left with the unsavory impression that this is business as usual for your organization.  And, while this may be the case, while you may have tossed this issue aside as insignificant, please note that I am seeking a satisfactory resolution.  The treatment I experienced was intolerable and inexcusable and I intend to share my story. 

 “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”—Martin Luther King, Jr

To all reading my story, I am confident that this is not an isolated event and I am aware of others who have experienced similar circumstances as mine.  I am asking you to sign my petition on behalf of others who has faced discriminatory practice in the workplace as well as those more likely to do so. 

Deepest regards,

 Valerie Shaw