harassment

HP statement on Hurd resignation

The following are two main excerpts from the press release Hewlett-Packard put out Friday afternoon at 1:05 p.m. PDT regarding CEO Mark Hurd's resignation following allegations of sexual harassment:

HP CEO Mark Hurd resigns; CFO Cathie Lesjak appointed interim CEO HP today announced that Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President Mark Hurd has decided with the board of directors to resign his positions effective immediately.

The board has appointed CFO Cathie Lesjak, 51, as CEO on an interim basis. Lesjak is a 24-year veteran of the company who has served as HP's CFO and as a … Read more

New app lets you report 'street harassment'

We've come a long way since the '80s, when my mom kept a whistle in her purse and one by the telephone. Now, there are all sorts of ways to report and publicly shame sexual harassers. One of the better-known is Hollaback.

When Emily May started the project in 2005, she designed a blog where women could swap stories of public sexual harassment--she calls it "street harassment"--in part for the relief of telling their stories, and in part for the power behind putting the accused harassers' faces and/or behaviors online for anyone to see.

Welcome to the Movement, from Hollaback's new Executive Director from Emily May on Vimeo.

But the Hollaback blog, which started in New York, proved to be such a popular concept that it now boasts satellite blogs based out of eight cities worldwide.

As of June, it goes 2.0, launching not only a free app for the iPhone and other smartphones but a more streamlined Web site with a map of reported harassment hot spots. The message: sexual harassment (characterized as verbal, physical, and public masturbation) will not be tolerated. As executive director May recently told The American Prospect:

With street harassment, if you walk on, you feel victimized. If you yell at the guy, you put yourself in danger. And of course, if you tell the police, they don't care. So when it happens to you three, four times a day, it really starts to weigh on your life. It changes the way you live your life, the clothes you wear. More than anything, we all wanted a response to street harassment that felt good.

So while Hollaback's mission is in part to deter harassment, it's also about those being harassed reclaiming a certain amount of power. Which is why May tells me by phone that Hollaback will also welcome harassment reports filed by men: "If somebody else wants to report harassment, I think that's fine. It's a good way for men to get involved, because 95 percent of men on this earth do not harass and [also] deplore this behavior."… Read more

Popular blogger ignites uproar over Twitter harassment

This post was updated at 10:49 AM with comment from Ariel Waldman.

Some Web enthusiasts find microblogging service Twitter to be addictive because you can say absolutely anything you want--as long as it's 140 characters or less. So what happens when "saying anything" translates into harassment?

One avid Twitter user, Ariel Waldman, posted an entry Thursday on her personal blog, declaring that "Twitter refuses to uphold (its) terms of service."

She said she started receiving "multiple accounts of harassment" from another user of the microblogging service and that when she petitioned to … Read more

Report: MySpace issued subpoena in teen suicide case

The Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday that social network MySpace was issued a subpoena in the investigation of a 13-year-old girl's 2006 suicide that involved harassment through a fabricated profile on the News Corp.-owned site. The article also said that "witnesses in the case" had additionally received subpoaenas.

Representatives from MySpace were not immediately available for comment or confirmation. The social network is no stranger to court orders, having been subpoenaed by multiple state attorneys general last year over sex offender concerns.

But the tragic case of Megan Meier's suicide is a very different situation; … Read more

Is political correctness screwing up the workplace?

In 1964 congress passed the Civil Rights Act. Three years later came the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), followed by the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. This litany of legislation proves that politicians can actually get things done when they put their minds to it, all recent evidence to the contrary.

As an engineering manager for Texas Instruments in the mid-80s, I was careful about discrimination. Then I got a memo explaining that sexual harassment would not be tolerated. I was terrified until I realized the memo went out to all employees. Whew, that was a relief. I wish the memo proves that executives care about their employees, but I think it was more about avoiding litigation. And my relief was all about keeping my job.

Regardless of how or why any of this stuff happens, it's exactly the kind of thing that distinguishes our nation. We've made great strides toward putting an end to job discrimination and sexual harassment. But lately, something seems to have gone terribly wrong.… Read more

Town bans Net harassment following MySpace hoax

Amid continued outcry over the MySpace.com hoax that preceded a teenager's suicide, the town of Dardenne Prairie, Mo., has passed a law banning online harassment.

Although it's only a misdemeanor with a maximum penalty of 90 days in jail or a $500 fine, the law is specifically targeted at the kind of online attack that Meier faced in the days prior to her death last year.

"It is our hope that by supporting one of our own in Dardenne Prairie, we can do our part to ensure this type of harassing behavior never happens again, anywhere,&… Read more