What is going on at Zillow? Yesterday, a new lawsuit was filed against the Seattle-based company claiming, among other charges, racial discrimination. This follows a handful of other suits filed in quick succession, including one claiming sexual harassment. Like that suit, the latest one contains copies of appalling texts and e-mails that paint the Orange County Zillow office as, in the words of the complaint, “an adult frat house.”
All in all, these suits reinforce the worst stereotypes about the tech community at a time, following the outburst of misogyny known as gamergate and calls by Jesse Jackson to hire more minorities, that it badly needs to repair its image. (See our recent cover story Son of a Geek.)
Yesterday’s suit—like the five before it, filed by the Los Angeles law firm Geragos & Geragos– names five plaintiffs who worked in the Orange County office. Three of them—Stephen Johnson, Reginald Peterson and Ryan Seda—claim discrimination because they are African American. According to a 35-page complaint, these three were “referred to by Zillow as the “NAACP black coalition,” were “nicknamed ‘Samuel Jackson’ and ‘Bagger Vance,’” were told they had “nigger lipped” cigarettes and “were moved to the back of the sales floor where they were denied sales leads and incoming cold calls.”
Attached to the complaint is this alleged text from a supervisor named Gabe Schmidt.
The complaint also claims that another former employee named Michael Kerr had his hearing damaged by being deliberately placed next to blasting techno music. Yet another former worker, Jason Youseph, was placed on probation for daring to take time off to recuperate from a surgery for a herniated disk, according to the suit.
Anybody who complained was accused of not fitting in with the Zillow culture, the complaint further alleges. And, if the complaint is to be believed, that culture was not only vulgar and discriminatory but a sweatshop, where managers used “constant yelling, cursing and disrespect” to bully their employees into working non-stop.
But are these allegations to be believed? The texts and e-mails are in black and white, and those tell a damning story. Even Zillow concedes that.
“The referenced text messages reflect inappropriate and unacceptable behavior that has no place at Zillow, and the individual allegedly responsible was already terminated as the result of a separate investigation,” Zillow says in a statement. The separate investigation stemmed from the sexual harassment lawsuit.
While the statement says Zillow is engaged in a new investigation about the latest claims, it casts doubt on the overall characterization of the company. “The alleged behavior is completely inconsistent with Zillow’s culture and core values.”
Zillow also recently filed a motion to dismiss the sexual harassment lawsuit. The crude, tasteless texts those revealed– “Hy said he will resent your password for a boob picture” was one—were matched by “lewd” remarks made by the plaintiff herself, according to the motion.
That may be true. But a bevy of lewd texts, even if reciprocal between a manager and employee, suggests a culture that needs changing. The question is whether that culture was isolated to the Orange County office, and perhaps these particular employees, or if is part of something larger.
