Here is how the Mayor of Money handles it:
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg was patronizing, telling a lawyer who quoted from his memoir that “your reading is good.” He was unsympathetic, saying that as a hard-driving and ultracompetitive boss, he believed that those who left his company were disloyal and “bad people.”
And he was sarcastic. At one point in his testimony, Mr. Bloomberg mocked flexible work schedules and telecommuting by suggesting an alternative to videotaping his testimony from the discomfort of his lawyers’ offices.
“Could we continue this via phone conference so that I can be back in my office, or do you believe that that’s not acceptable?” Mr. Bloomberg said. “I’m just asking. I’d be happy to do it if you want.”
Such moments of thrust and parry, irritability and self-assuredness bordering on cockiness are perhaps the most striking parts of Mr. Bloomberg’s deposition in a federal discrimination lawsuit against Bloomberg L.P., the giant financial services and media corporation that he founded. And while the deposition took place two years ago, Mr. Bloomberg’s comments had never been made public. A few excerpts were included in a filing by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission dated April 8.
Mr. Bloomberg, the company’s majority shareholder, is not a defendant in the class-action lawsuit, which was filed in 2007 on behalf of 65 employees who argued that the business had engaged in a pattern of discrimination against pregnant women who took maternity leave. The discrimination is alleged to have occurred after Mr. Bloomberg left to run for mayor in 2001.
But recent court documents submitted by the commission show what it asserts to be a pattern among company executives, not only of bias, but of outright hostility toward women who take maternity leave, with some executives suggesting that they did not deserve to work for Bloomberg L.P.
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Mr. Bloomberg testified twice — on May 14, 2009, and July 27, 2009 — for approximately eight hours. The excerpts that have been made public represent just a sliver of that deposition, and are part of the commission’s rebuttal to Bloomberg L.P.’s motion this year to dismiss the case. More specifically, the excerpts are intended to bolster arguments made by Raechel L. Adams, a lawyer for the commission, that “discrimination against women and mothers in compensation, demotions and other terms, conditions or privileges of employment has been standard operating procedure since at least 2002.”
In his deposition, Mr. Bloomberg dismissed the argument that the company created a hostile work environment for pregnant women. Instead, in his often curt exchanges with Kam S. Wong, a lawyer who worked for the commission at the time of the deposition, he defended the company as valuing hard-working employees equally.
“We treat everybody in the company from the top, in every single part of the company, the extent the law will allow it,” he said.
At times, though, the mayor distanced himself from the company’s operations, saying that he had spoken no more than 15 times in seven years with Lex Fenwick, who replaced Mr. Bloomberg as chief executive of the company in 2001 and then left in 2008.
“I long lost track of what they’re doing,” Mr. Bloomberg testified.
But the mayor displayed his famously testy and sarcastic side, as evidenced when Ms. Wong read a passage from his 1997 memoir, “Bloomberg by Bloomberg”:
Q.: “ ‘And God forbid one of our people go to work for a competitor, then we all heartily and cordially really do hope they fail. In their new job, they have an avowed purpose to hurt their old co-workers. They’ve become bad people. Period. We have a loyalty to us. Leave, and you’re them.’ Did I read that accurately?”
A.: “Your reading is good.”
Q.: “Thank you. Do you continue to believe that statement today?”
A.: “More so than ever before.”
In another exchange, the mayor noted that the deposition was providing a forum for a rereading of his book.
“One benefit of a deposition,” Ms. Wong said.
“Absolutely,” the mayor responded. “Could you name the other?”
“I’m sure we’ll think of plenty others later on,” she replied.
“I don’t think so,” Mr. Bloomberg said.
This is who this man is - arrogant, bullying, hostile and condescending.
And that's leaving aside the misogyny that he has engaged in, which didn't make it to these excerpts from the deposition.
In the past, Bloomberg has been alleged to have suggested to a pregnant employee that she "kill" her baby in order to keep her job.
Why would anybody give this man total power over a school system with over 1 million children?
Frankly, if anybody seems like they need a check and balance, it's this guy.
So maybe he told Cathie Black to make the comment about birth control, seems like a pattern by Bloomy!
ReplyDeleteBloomberg was charged by pregnant women that he told them to "kill it". So this is nothing new for his company. He must have bought off the other women when he ran for mayor.
ReplyDeleteThis dovetails into the ed deform movement which n essence dicriminates against women with families - you know - the people who have kids and need to leave school when it lets out. It oculd be men too but the burden falls mostly on women. I recently heard of a case where a teacher who had to take some time off after she had a baby was denied tenure due to excessive absence.
The vindictive belligerence of Mike Bloomberg and his senior management at Bloomberg LP is by no means solely directed at women. The bullying and harassment exists at all levels of the privately held company, regardless of sex. Otherwise loyal employees, fearful of losing their jobs, remain silent.
ReplyDelete