What Happens When Silence Ends There are moments, though, when silence breaks, and everything shifts. In 2017, a former Uber engineer named Susan Fowler wrote a blog post about her experience inside the company. What she described wasn’t just a bad manager. It was an entire culture that allowed it to happen. That blog ended up toppling leadership. At Fox News in 2016, Bill O’Reilly and Roger Ailes were accused of harassment. The company paid huge settlements. Advertisers left. The public turned. It wasn’t just a PR crisis; it was a full collapse.
At Activision Blizzard, employees sued over what they described as a “frat boy culture.” It wiped billions off the company’s value. Even Microsoft had to factor it into their acquisition talks. Just recently, in 2025, Moët Hennessy was sued for €1.3 million by a former employee who claimed she was harassed, pushed out, and humiliated in front of clients. The company denies this, saying the employee is out for revenge. The truth isn’t settled, but the company’s culture is already under the microscope. In all of these cases, it wasn’t just about what happened. It was about what had been allowed to happen, repeatedly. That’s what people notice now. The Cost of Looking Away We often hear about finance and tech companies being boys’ clubs. And they are. But
Families get involved, and careers stall. Then there are cultural habits. Harassment is frequently brushed off as a misunderstanding or labelled as “drama.” Women are told not to make a scene, to be flattered, or to be more careful next time. Finally, there’s a lack of collective momentum. Some women’s rights organizations and journalists do cover these issues, but there hasn’t been the kind of widespread, public reckoning we’ve seen elsewhere. Most stories are shared privately, in trusted circles. So here, #MeToo feels less like a movement and more like quiet stories passed from one woman to another.
In all of these cases, it wasn’t just about what happened. It was about what had been allowed to happen, repeatedly. That’s what people notice now.
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ISSUE 16 GLOBAL PAYROLL MAGAZINE
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