Kremer, an Orange County resident who worked in sales at Zillow, claims her managers did nothing to stop the abuse. Her attorneys described a “culture of degrading women … pervasive throughout Zillow’s leadership.”
Text – and photo – messages filed along with the lawsuit appear to support Kremer’s claims of harassment. In them, male employees proposition Kremer, text her a sexually explicit photo and discuss misogynistic behavior by their coworkers.
Zillow on Tuesday acknowledged Kremer was mistreated while denying her claims that the sexual harassment is widespread at the company.
“When this allegation was first made, we immediately investigated these claims and as a result took quick action and terminated a sales employee in our Irvine (California) office,” Zillow spokeswoman Jill Simmons said by email. “The allegations in the complaint do not reflect Zillow’s culture or workplace and are completely inconsistent with our values.
“We don’t tolerate harassment of any kind.”
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Hat Tip to an anonymous source for bringing this to my attention. As Zillow is poised to vastly enlarge its presenc in the Real Estate arena this is one of many issues to watch carefully. I am strong in standing against demonstrated cultures of abuse. That said let' see how this plays. Young brash companies make mistakes just like people. There are growing pains. Zillow needs to be proactive. They are betting very large at disrupting the RE space and this is the kind of leverage the entrenched interests will exploit. "Just another black hat" won't effect positive change.
1 comment:
The Z team is betting heavily that realtors will keep paying big advertising money to get leads, but these are some of the hardest to close because of the misdirection (prospects think they are contacting the listing agent, when they are not, etc.).
Once realtors - who have always been lousy closers - find the big money vs. benefit equation is unhealthy, they will use the negative PR as seen here as the final reason to cancel their subscription.
Don't be surprised if today's 60,000 Premier agents are far fewer in number 12-18 months from now.
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