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#Apple exec says she was placed on leave after raising sexism concerns

“#Apple exec says she was placed on leave after raising sexism concerns”

An Apple senior engineering program manager said she was placed on indefinite administrative leave Wednesday after raising concerns about sexism, a hostile work environment and unsafe working conditions.

Ashley M. Gjøvik told The Verge she asked Apple to mitigate the hostile work environment while they investigate” the claims she had been bringing up for months and they offered her therapy through the Employee Assistance Program or medical leave.

“I told them that made no sense and said they should talk to my leadership and set up oversight and boundaries,” she said. “I added that if there was no other option they could give me paid administrative leave. They apparently made no effort to set boundaries and instead said they were placing me on administrative leave and implied they did not want me on Slack where I had been vocal about my concerns with certain policies at the company.”

She added the company implied she shouldn’t meet one-on-one with other female Apple employees to discuss their concerns about similar issues.

Late last month, Gjøvik retweeted a New York Times story in which several women who worked at Google said they had been offered EAP therapy or administrative leave after they spoke up about alleged workplace misconduct instead of launching an investigation into the allegations or dragging it on for months.

“This happened to me at #Apple too,” Gjøvik tweeted along with the article.

She also tweeted Wednesday that she meant “physically unsafe; #dangerous chemicals; #OSHA. You’ll hear much more about this in a bit.”

Gjøvik tweeted screenshots of the alleged sexism she experienced at Apple, which included being told she shouldn’t go “up an octave” at the end of her statements because she would sound less authoritative.

And after sending an email asking for the company to give support to women and speak out against sexual misconduct during the Brett Kavanaugh hearings, she said she was sent a link to an article that said Ruth Bader Ginsburg had defended him as “very decent.”

She added that the company had previously tried to “quickly brush …off” her complaints and “prevented me from raising more concerns” during a previous investigation that was later closed with the company concluding nothing inappropriate had occurred, according to The Verge.

She said for this investigation she gave the company 558 pieces of evidence to review.

Apple in a statement to Fox News said, “We are and have always been deeply committed to creating and maintaining a positive and inclusive workplace. We take all concerns seriously and we thoroughly investigate whenever a concern is raised and, out of respect for the privacy of any individuals involved, we do not discuss specific employee matters.”

Gjøvik didn’t immediately respond to Fox News’ late-night requests for comment.

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