ibmmemo.com
Discrimination as Usual at IBM

What happened to me?

Discrimination as Usual at IBM – Behind the scenes to a publicity stunt called Diversity and Inclusion
IBM publicly states they believe in diversity and inclusion and that they believe in their transgender program. I can say from first hand experience working at IBM with Corporate Citizenship and their diversity and inclusion teams along with HR that there is a big disconnect between their public statement and what they practice behind the scenes.

When I joined IBM I thought they were a forward thinking innovative company that practiced diversity and inclusion. I thought I would be welcomed and treated normally like everyone else with fairness and inclusion. I thought I would be able to help create new programs that make it fairer for LGBTQ individuals. I thought wow! Finally a company that will allow me to do this.

However, from day one, I realized it was all talk and no action. My first day turned into a nightmare as I was made fun of by other employees, I was told not to use the restroom of my gender and I was oogleed by an HR manager who stopped a presentation just to look at me in digust and say “What!” while staring at me. I thought this was a fluke and things would get better. I was so wrong

Every day I would face managers who would try to change my dress and who said I dressed like a man but had the hair of a women. I was constantly asked when I would be transitioning even though I had transitioned already. I had my business suit taken off of me by a manager who thought it made me look too masculine. I was constantly questioned whether I was really a transgender female by management and was touched by multiple managers on my arms, legs, bra strap, and even shaken!

When I brought all this up to management from manager level to director, VP, SVP of HR and even CEO I was met with hostility and a turned cheek. Some in HR would compare my situation to other countries and say that it’s worse in other countries for transgender individuals so I have it pretty good.

Some in HR told me not to share the harassment or lodge formal complaints unless I really had to and that “people could get in trouble so be careful”

Some in HR when I brought it up said they disagreed and would not look further into it. One manager I brought it up to called me a “masochist” and said” maybe you love pain behind the scenes and I don’t know about it”

Some managers even encouraged me to leave IBM (even though my performance was perfect and I scored above average in all reviews) when I would bring up discrimination. I was even told by one manager that “I wouldn’t be suprised that these things happen at IBM and that IBM is not doing anything about it”

 

After about 8 months of speaking to multiple managers, lodging formal complaints with HR teams and speaking VP’s finally a specifc Hr representative manager reached out to me to specifically talk about the incidents. After sharing what happened her response was less than enthusiastic. She said well “your position is the best chance of happiness at IBM and if you need to see a therapist you can” while also saying there was nothing that could be done. I was devastated.

 

I even sent multiple emails to Ginni  and the SVP of HR at IBM. I actually spoke with the SVP of HR at IBM Diane Gherson who told me there was nothing she could do.

 

While I shared these experiences I had to continue to interact with the management and managers who were touching me and doing these things.

 

no one seemed to care at all and I was told by management that “IBM has a great transgender policy and we believe in diversity and inclusion. ” They said this in response to my specific complaints  of what happened to me as if they didn’t even hear a thing I said.

 

I was in contact with other LGBTQ individuals at IBM who related to me similar stories of harassment and discrimination. Many however were afraid to come forward due to retaliation for speaking out.

 

Finally after 1 year of bringing these things up IBM asked me to come to New York to try to sort out these things in a meeting with the Senior IBM legal team and management. I thought finally this is it we can work it out and fix the discrimination, or change policies or implement a training program or anything at all to fix what happened,

 

What actually happened was a legal team and managers who lied directly about the things that happened to me. The managers I reported discrimination to denied that I reported  discrimination. IBM lawyers actually lied about specifics. For example in an internal interview the interviewer discriminated against me and their was written internal documents to prove it, but to cover up the discrimination and limit their liability the lawyer said “She  was offered that position and then she declined the position.” So they specifically lied even though it was veritably false.

I kept asking for a fix such as to be moved away from the specific manager who was touching me, or to have a training program for those involved, or to change their policies to protect transgender individuals and LGBTQ. There was no training for this. Or to have a specific person in charge for handling things when discrimination or harassment occur. They refused all these things and instead said because “I was causing political issues” that it was “making it hard for the lawyers” and that because of that they wanted to push me out of the company and give me $150,000. They wanted to take away my rights to protect other individuals and take away my rights to speak up for other people I worked with who experienced harassment. (I had spoken with many LGBTQ and transgender individuals and they relayed similar situations of discrimination and harassment and even members of the LGBTQ leadership and Corporate citizenship agreed that IBM was ignorant and had a long way to go)

 

See they told me that they would think about making changes but then ultimately just offered me a hush money legal agreement like the one with Trump and Stormy Daniels.

 

It was horrible. I immediately sent emails to Ginni and the HR teams and Lawyers saying that I didn’t want the hush money agreement nor the $150,000.

After sending these emails to the HR teams, the SVP of HR Diane Gherson and the CEO Ginni Rommety, I was threatened by the IBM legal teams to be quiet or face being sued for sending these emails. (The emails said “I don’t want to sign the hush agreement and I think its wrong.”)

 

IBM has silenced me and tried to silence other individuals. The reason you don’t hear more cases about discrimination at IBM and harassment is because of their arbitration agreements everyone signs without knowing in order to even start working and because when harassment happens they rush to the aid of the managers and executives and seek to silence the individuals at all costs by offering money, threatening to fire them (Even people with perfect performance records like me) and threaten to sue them. (In one instance a legal representative even said, if you go back to work will you sign an agreement stating you won't bring up the discrimination again?)

What I realized is this is Standard for IBM. THey do this all the time. There are Thousand or 10’s of thousands who have experienced harassment and discrimination at IBM and they have been silenced. It’s been so difficlt and I must speak up about what IBM really does behind the scenes. This happens with transgender individuals at IBM as well as many other groups. There are many that have been discriminated on the basis of age, race, disability and Gender) There is also a problem with nepotism where they favor friends and family over other equally qualified candidates. During my interactions with managers there were many jokes by management about how Watson logo is just attached to many technology products so there other products are easier to sell. So they misled customers about watson and its effectiveness within all of their software products. In effect mislabeling products with a brand name so that they could tell their customers its Watson AI, you should buy it. Furthermore they overstated the effectiveness of Watson AI in solving many issues such as being able to identify cancer.  There are many other instances of people on the sales team who were not paid what IBM agreed to in their contracts. I bring up these other issues only to share that while working at IBM I realized there were many issues where the company was fine with lying to colleagues and customers just so they could improve sales. In the same way they lied about their diversity and inclusion program just so they received could publicity in public and indirectly caused them to increase their sales.

 

I’ve worked hard all my life and worked hard for good grades in school and worked hard to interview and apply and improve my skills. I was hired because of my skills and because I performed well but I was treated badly because of who I am “Transgender”

 

All I wanted was to be treated fairly. It’s horrible to know this level of discrimination still occurs. I speak up so that other may speak up and we can rally together to change the policies.

Furthermore and finally even though IBM and 56 other companies signed a letterhttps://www.hrc.org/blog/56-major-companies-respond-to-effort-to-erase-transgender-people-from-legal that is superficial and does nothing for protection of transgender rights. Its merely more of the all talk no action without any legal clout. They still don’t investigate,  they still push transgender employees out and they still use hush agreements, they still threaten to sue victims for speaking out. If these 56 companies including IBM wanted to protect transgender individuals they would file a joint lawsuit to protect (Not harm) transgender individuals at the Governmental level and within their own company policies and put money where their mouth is. Again, when I advocated for policy changes at IBM they cited not wanting to do any policy changes and cited that it would be too expensive. They don’t care about change just about getting free publicity.

They silenced my story to influence the upcoming aqusitions with red hat and others which they knew were in the works, so they gave money to silence me in order for their own financial gain.

What I'm trying to do on gofundme is to raise awareness for the behind the scenes discrimination, to advocate for policy changes and to raise money for non profit organizations who protect and fight against discriminatory policies.

 

 

 

Here is a list of changes I believe would make a difference at IBM.

1. New diversity positions who ensure diversity is met in each department and who review hiring metrics as well as read the notes on candidates to see if bias exist during hiring. Implementingnew policies.

2. Review boards (Made up of Diversity members) that listen to the calls of diversity candidates while interviews are going on or record these calls and listen later to ensure given fair interview

3. Diversity members who sit in or record or listen to regular meetings and conversations between managers and diversity employees.

4. Better transparency of findings during investigation. Right now, they just say there is no discrimination and don't seem to care about any of the issues that occurred. New policy requiring documentation of every step of investigation

5. 3rd party review agency which investigates each claim and who interview people whenever an allegation occurs and who report to external agency. (Unbiased governing agency)

6. Ability to use audio/video recordings of discrimination which occurred and allow employees to record only to protect themselves in discriminatory/harassment circumstances.

7. Ability of people to band together and be a part of an anti-discrimination group like a labor union and speak out without fearing retaliation

8. Ability to have interviews a second time when discrimination occurs at the first interview

9. Unconscious Diversity bias testing for all managers /mandatory training for managers

10. Establish clear criteria in advance of making decisions (hiring, promotion, etc.) so that bias gets taken out of the decision-making process.

11. Survey Diversity employees confidentially to find out what is really going on in every aspect of the employment process – from pre-screening resumes to hiring to promotion to career opportunities, through compensation and engagement and development as well as the
performance management process.

12. Give people ability to join groups and meet local LGBTQ and other employees

13. Same pay for LGBTQ employees as others in the company

14. Same advancement opportunities for LGBTQ employees and Diversity employees

15. Deal with any complaints of discrimination promptly/For example currently it's been 8 months and no action taken. (It typically takes many months to years)

16. Training to prevent sexual harassment and inappropriate touching in the workplace

17. Extending protection to more workers to cover Gender, Age, Race, Housing, Disabilities

18. Provide better relief to victims within an organization. Don’t require victims to leave. A mediator I know who works with companies said that in 95% of cases employers require a sexual harassment victim or discrimination victim to resign even though they did nothing wrong.