Gender discrimination is the common tune of most lawsuits filed by employees of big tech firms in Silicon Valley. A surprising factor, however, to the case filed by a former Yahoo employee is that the company is being accused of "actual and intentional gender-based discrimination" against male employees. It appears that girl power is more a weapon than it is a movement in the Yahoo offices.
Gregory Anderson, who previously worked as an editorial director at Yahoo until November 2014, took his case to a U.S. district court on Monday.
Anderson alleged that Yahoo "intentionally hired and promoted women because of their gender, while terminating, demoting or laying off male employees because of their gender."
According to The Guardian, the complaint singles out Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer as having taken advantage of "quarterly performance reviews" or QPR to inject "subjective biases and personal opinions" in determination the promotion or termination of employees.
Los Angeles Times reported that Anderson was in the bottom 5% of employees based on QPR, which led to his termination from the company.
Anderson also claims that his supervisor Kathy Savitt, Yahoo's Chief Marketing Officer, gave obvious preference to female employees. Prior to Savitt's taking over Yahoo's media division, where Anderson was employed, female top managers only accounted to 20 percent of the total population. Three years into Savitt's tenure, the number rose to 80 percent.
An obvious bias towards women was also evident as women were given more freedom to make voluntarily leaves and have time to seek new employment, whereas men were just laid off easily, as noted by Ars Technica.
In defense of their QPR system, Yahoo spokesperson Suzanne Philion told Ars Technica in an e-mail, "We believe this process allows our team to develop and do their best work."
"Our performance review process also allows for high performers to engage in increasingly larger opportunities at our company, as well as for low performers to be transitioned out."
A gender discrimination case against male employees appears to contradict Yahoo's current employment structure. The company's workforce is currently comprised of 62 percent male, while 76 percent of men hold leadership positions.
Former women's rights employment lawyer Joelle Emerson, however, points out that the contradicting numbers do not make Gregory Andersons claims less sufficient. She claims that the trend is related to the resistance in increased diversity among tech industries.
However, lawsuits such as this are perceived to rise to the concept of "reverse discrimination." Should it propagate, promoting women or minorities in the workplace would have to be executed more cautiously out of fear that they would be branded with reverse discrimination.
Experts say it's not illegal for companies to have goals, such as wanting 50 percent of company leadership occupied by women. Goal setting is allowed, so long as decisions involving hiring and termination is not based on "protected class."
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