When I started at LegalZoom, I believed it was a wonderful place to work. My first week on the sales floor I immediately experienced sexual harassment from my co-workers and management. From snide comments made to me and direct harassment at the workplace, this HR department does not take safety seriously. In fact, certain people in management and HR actively work to silence those who come forth to speak up.
When I took my concerns to my manager, I was told that I wasn’t used to how things work in an office. I was encouraged to not tell my co-workers that their touching at work made me uncomfortable. When I was finally moved from my harasser, the female employee who now sat next to me, confessed that our manager had made advances toward her. She admitted to lying about being harassed by another employee just so she wouldn’t have to sit next to her manager. She was afraid to lose her job.
Members of HR have notably harassed employees by encouraging name calling in the workplace and have participated in harassment by several eye-witness accounts. They are known to pull in employees to reprimand them for not abiding by rules that are not even located in the employee handbook and instill scare tactics to some who bring forth claims.
If your harasser is friends with many people in upper management it will be even more difficult to keep yourself safe. Nepotism courses through the veins of this corporation. Though I never personally applied for a promotion, I have seen time and time again, this company grant promotions to those who may not have been the most qualified candidate, but to those who have close personal relationships with management, or those who have grounds to sue the company thus providing the promotion is easiest to calm the waters.
Nepotism is most prevalent in the smaller privileges at LegalZoom. With LegalZoom’s new investor, sales goals are steadily growing higher than ever, and the commission structure is paying out lower than ever. If you’re a favorite of your manager, or more accurately a top performer on your manager’s team you will be treated much differently from the other reps. You will be offered overtime when others are told “there no OT available”, you’ll be asked to keep that a secret too. More phone time always mean more opportunities for sales which served to further divide the top 15% of the company from the rest and more notably crumbles the company culture they once had.
I was told that my harassers were felt “uncomfortable” and that I had “diminished their character” because I brought forth my claims. How unprofessional is it for HR to tell a claimant they made their harassers uncomfortable? That seems to go against the open-door policy they claim to have. How could anyone feel comfortable going to HR when they have a proven history of victimizing the claimant and place blame to those who come forth?
