Tinder feuert VP der Marketingkommunikation und weitere Mitarbeiter nach Klage gegen Mutterkonzern

Pambakian und weitere Mitarbeiter und Mitarbeiterinnen hatten die Match Group, das Mutterunternehmen der App Tinder, in diesem Jahr auf zwei Milliarden US-Dollar verklagt. Grund für ein Misstimmung dieser Mitarbeiter war auch gewesen, dass Pambakian ihrer Aussage nach vom früheren Tinder CEO Greg Blatt sexuell belästigt worden sei. Als Folge der Klage – deren Hauptgrund war, dass Match Tinder deutlich geringer bewertet hatte als realistisch gewesen wäre, damit dem früheren Führungsteam der App weniger Geld gezahlt werden könnte – beurlaubte das Unternehmen eine Reihe von Mitarbeitern, darunter die Vizepräsidentin der Marketingkommunikation. Nun wurden sie gefeuert, wie The Verge zuerst berichtete. Die Match-Sprecherin Justine Sacco gab an, dass sie nicht fähig waren ihrer Arbeit nachzukommen.

Rosette Pambakian meldete sich daraufhin bei Tinders CEO Elie Seidman und Mandy Ginsberg, CEO der Match Group, um zu betonen, dass sie seit der Klage zum Ziel von Einschüchterung und Vergeltung geworden sei, die sie zum Rücktritt hätten zwingen sollen. Außerdem gibt sie an, dass ihre Entlassung auf die Beschuldigung Blatts zurückzuführen sei – zu der sie nie offiziell befragt worden sei. Ginsberg hingegen erklärt in ihrer Antwort, dass Pambakian keine sexuelle Belästigung gemeldet habe.

Es gibt bisher nur entlastendes Material im Fall der potentiellen sexuellen Belästigung durch Blatt – allerdings bereitgestellt durch die Match Group selbst. Während die Mail-Korrespondenz zwischen Pambakian und Ginsberg für Aufsehen sorgt, ist die Entlassung der Mitarbeiter als Nachgang der Klage wirtschaftlich nachvollziehbar, aber nur mit einem bitteren Nachgeschmack verdaulich.

Unten seht ihr die Mails von Rosette Pambakian und Mandy Ginsberg.

Rosettes E-Mail:

Dear Mandy,

Six years ago I wrote the very first press release for Tinder. Since then, I’ve poured my heart and soul into this company and helped grow it into a global phenomenon and top-grossing app. I was the youngest and longest-standing female executive at the company. I love Tinder. And I love my colleagues. But you have now fired me from a company I was so proud to build in blatant retaliation for joining a group of colleagues and Tinder’s original founding members in a lawsuit against Match and IAC, standing up for our rights, calling out the company’s CEO Greg for sexual misconduct, and confronting the company about covering up what happened to me.

While I truly hoped that decency and professionalism would prevail and that you would let me return to work, I knew that was probably unlikely when I was placed on leave the very day the lawsuit was filed and you continued to defend the actions of the executive that I spoke out against. Rather than acknowledge the truth and condemn his actions, you chalked it up it to “bad judgment.” To make matters worse, you told the world that a sham investigation (in which I was never even interviewed) determined the assault was some sort of “consensual cuddling”—as if there could by anything consensual about a CEO groping his subordinate in front of other employees after making sexually explicit comments throughout the evening of a company holiday party. No company that has faced allegations like this has gone to such lengths to protect one of its own – it’s truly despicable.

Since being placed on leave, I’ve been subjected to ongoing intimidation and retaliation clearly designed to pressure me into resigning—from immediately removing my name from my office and converting it into a conference room, to trying to coerce me into turning over my private and personal data on my phone. Though I can think of no other company that has actually fired the woman who made sexual assault allegations against an executive—the company’s actions here, including firing me just one day before my remaining options vest, are totally consistent with the way you have circled the wagons around him from day one.

Was the board aware that the company would publicly blame the victim?

When I refused to sign a non-disparagement agreement presented to me by HR, which would have prevented me from speaking publicly about my experience in exchange for compensation, Match snuck an arbitration clause into its employees’ most recent compliance acknowledgements, causing me, Jonathan, James and Josh to have to withdraw from the lawsuit. Know that my former Tinder colleagues and I still vigorously support that lawsuit — IAC and Match cheated us out of what we were promised and rightfully earned in exchange for building Tinder into Barry Diller’s most valuable business. As the lawsuit progresses the evidence will emerge and the world will see how IAC and Match plotted against their employees and rewarded misconduct.

I never imagined that I’d be pushed out of my company for standing up for what is right. But if that is the cost of being on the right side of history, I’ll pay it. As a woman CEO, I truly hope that you reconsider the safety of your remaining female workforce and allow Tinder and other Match owned companies to follow in the footsteps of Uber, Facebook and Google in eliminating forced arbitration for sexual misconduct claims. We deserve better.

Rosette

Mandys E-Mail:

Dear Rosette,

I’m glad you reached out to me directly and I would like to take this opportunity to clarify a few points, because there seems to be a very real disconnect here that I truly want to fix.

You were not terminated because you reported Greg for sexual harassment. You couldn’t have been, as you never reported Greg for sexual harassment. When Sean Rad brought the subject up nearly five months later, right after the valuation process commenced, it was immediately and thoroughly investigated by the Board, independently without any involvement from Greg, which concluded that no sexual harassment occurred. I was not the CEO at the time, but I know that you were interviewed on at least two separate occasions and you never alleged sexual harassment.

On the topic of sexual harassment at Tinder, you know how seriously reports are taken. You yourself reported two other male colleagues, whom Sean Rad hired, and they were very quickly dismissed. Clearly, it was taken very seriously given the company terminated those individuals. More importantly though, Greg is no longer here. I am. And I promise you, we do not retaliate against anyone who reports sexual harassment. Your position was never at risk due to any sexual harassment complaints. I wanted to find a way to keep you employed at Tinder.

As explained in the letter we sent you, you were terminated because it was not possible for you to fulfill the duties and responsibilities of your role as Tinder’s spokesperson for a number of reasons, including your public position against the company over a valuation process. We also recently asked you to come to the office for a meeting with the HR department to discuss work-related activities and policies and were told that we can only contact you through your attorneys. Unfortunately, it’s impossible for you to do your work at Tinder if all communications related to your job have to go through your lawyers. As it relates to your personal information, any suggestion that we have been trying to access it is just not true. Like any company, we’ve asked for you, and all other employees involved, to return company laptops, phones and other devices to us. And unfortunately, we couldn’t retrieve a number of company devices from you and the others since you claimed that they were coincidentally all lost or damaged just before you decided to sue the company.

There are two last points I want to make: on the point about your equity, those options have already been accelerated, and should be exercisable in your account, along with the other equity awards that have vested since August. However, on the arbitration agreements, there is no NDA in them and we never tried to force you to sign a non-disparagement agreement. You’re free to talk about anything publicly that you’d like. You have already done so and that’s your prerogative. But the arbitration agreement is attached again. As you already know from when you signed it, it’s clearly labeled “Agreement to Arbitrate.”

I am a strong female advocate and have said to the women in the organization that as a female CEO in charge, I have zero tolerance for bad behavior and I am very much invested in every single employee’s success. If you’d like to discuss any of the above, or have a productive dialogue, I am here and will make myself available for an in person meeting. Just let me know.

Mandy

Tinder feuert Rosette Pambakian und Co. nach Klage gegen die Match Group