I am an author writing a book on the challenges professional women face at work. As part of my research, we came across a statistically significant cluster of women who experienced the same takedown pattern at Amazon:
A high-performing female executive (two/three levels from CEO) get called into an HR investigation that is completely unexpected. Accusations from a business partner suddenly become negative and the only people they can find to confirm the pattern are only the direct reports and peers who are known to dislike the woman.
Meanwhile, she is at the top of her game, getting feedback from her boss and those same business partners that she is doing all the “right things,” is not expecting this at all and therefore gets caught flat-footed. Within 10-20 mins of the intense interrogation that is essentially Gaslighting 101, each one realizes something is off but because women are conditioned to ‘go along to get along,’ they keep answering questions, trying to will the “sane” answer into existence.
After the meeting, most of these women contact their boss to understandably ask “what the hell is going on?” Their managers all say: “It’s a process. Of course you’ll be fine.” She believes it, knowing she has done nothing wrong, only to be fired at the end of the investigation with her boss wringing his pale, stale hands saying: “There was nothing I could do.” Meanwhile, he was in on the whole thing.
What’s the pattern? According to the women we interviewed, the HR investigation often began just months before the executive’s 24-month stock vesting date. If she was terminated before that milestone, the unvested equity—often worth six or even seven figures—was forfeited under the terms of the equity plan. The women believed this timing was not coincidental: the company avoided paying severance in many cases and retained the unvested equity, resulting in substantial savings.
Because many of us who have worked in corporate settings are conditioned to stay silent, these women were told not to discuss the contents of the investigation. It wasn’t until they began comparing notes with one another that they believed they recognized a recurring pattern. One woman whose investigation was still active took FMLA leave and remained on leave until her 24-month vesting date had passed. After her equity vested, she returned to work and was promptly terminated. Whatever the reason for the timing, she at least retained the compensation she had already earned under the vesting schedule.
I interviewed one husband whose wife had become the family’s primary breadwinner because her career took off. He stepped back from his own career to raise their children—exactly as all the progressive parenting books said made sense. Then she was fired in a weaponized HR investigation. They lost their house, declared bankruptcy, and he became so bitter their marriage probably would have ended except for one thing: they couldn’t afford to get divorced.
These are decent, hardworking people who were seeking basic fairness. They are starting over. Who knows what happens to them from here. What I know, however, is that it doesn’t have to be this way. 99% of humans wake up striving to do the right thing. Silicon Valley can do better. Every single day that they don’t, they don’t just embarrass themselves, they force a further divide in society that doesn’t end well for anyone.
I want to make this very clear: The only women who survived the financial devastation of this figured out the best way to survive this idiocy was to call out to FMLA leave, hire an attorney, and call Amazon on their bullshit. I would suggest every woman who believes herself to be targeted in a takedown do the same thing.