Starbucks regional vice president accused of sexual harassment
AP Photo/Michael Conroy
Starbucks partners (employees) from New York sent a letter to the executive vice president of Partner Resources (Human Resources) accusing their regional vice president of sexual harassment.
Allegedly, during a Starbucks function, executive Andrew Alfano became intoxicated and made disrespectful, sexual comments to a group of female district managers.
The managers also claimed that Mr. Alfano created an unsafe working environment and was responsible for the resignation of two female regional directors. Fearing retaliation, the mangers kept quiet until the sexual harassment lawsuit filed by Kati Moore, a former Starbucks barista,
After today's conference call regarding the sexual harassment case in California and ABC's 20/20 coverage of the lawsuit, we felt compelled to speak up and protect the brand from this man. As women, being under his leadership is very uncomfortable. Mr. Alfano has compromised our Mission Statement and Starbucks Coffee core values."
This doesn't look good for Starbucks which portrays itself as a good corporate citizen. Hopefully, the specialty coffee company has taken steps to investigate these allegations.
You can read the entire complaint letter on the Starbucks Workers Union (SWU) website. And in all fairness, from reading their website, it is obvious that the SWU is biased against Starbucks. It may be difficult to get a balanced perspective from the organization. Their motives are questionable at times, but when it comes to sexual harassment, every accusation should be taken seriously.
Update - It's great to see Starbucks is on top of this allegation. Below is the coffee company's official statement:
Starbucks takes any accusations such as these very seriously. When we were made aware of these claims, we immediately began a thorough internal investigation as per our standard practice. We have found the claims to be without merit."
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Comments
Stupid Bitches! Women these days think they cannot be offended and treat the workplace like a joke. I say look Honey, if you can't handle job, there is the door!
Wow Drew, distasteful and ancient. Cindy, I'm sending this to all my Starbucks loving friends. Ciao!
@Drew nice response and evidence why women may still have difficulties in the workplace.
Some thoughts:
Sexual harassment: unwelcome sexual advances and other verbal or physical conduct e.g., inappropriate pictures, posters, and dress manner, should be eliminated from the workplace and elsewhere and can be tried even if the plaintiff cannot prove psychological injury. A firm can be held liable for damages resulting from a hostile work environment.
Training is vital: workshops, assertiveness training, and gender-awareness training. Sexual harassment adversely affects the bottom line, at work and elsewhere, and is therefore a social and community problem!
By revealing their experiences of sexual harassment, women must effect changes on a corporate and on a social/community level. Absenteeism, high turnover, negative publicity, and low productivity are by-products of harassment.
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Maxwell Pinto, Business Author and Consultant
Ms Tickle needs to explain her jab at the SWU. When has the Union ever been disreputable? And yet, Starbucks is frequently disreputable and is rarely called on it. Back up your smear-job, Cindy, or make a retraction/apology.
The "update" from Starbucks is pretty generic and bland, but hopefully they really are taking it seriously and investigating it.
@Rachel - thanks for stopping by and supporting my article.
@Maxwell - I appreciate you taking the time to clarify the meaning of sexual harassment in the workplace.
@Joe - thank you for your comment. Believe me I'm not interested in a "smear campaign" against the SWU. I've been in contact with Aaron and rewrote my statement to clarified my opinion based on my personal experience working with some of the SWU members.
@Melody - nice to see you here! Yes, I agree. I hope the situation is thoroughly investigated.
I was a store manager, harrassed by my DM. I complained about him to the partner contact center and then was fired after I informed my manager that I was pregnant. I never received any corrective actions in my eight years with the company until after I complained about my DM. I begged HR and the regional manager to help protect me from my manager. They assumed he didn't act inappropriately...he also harrassed other managers that quit. He also regularly parties with managers. I heard he slapped an employee and said to the partner that it never happened because no one witnessed it. He was fired from his last 2 jobs for sexual harassment and Starbucks is hanging on to this piece of crap.
@Alabama Starbucks ex-manager - I'm sorry to hear about your experience. You hope HR would protect the employee, but I've found HR usually protects the company. Hope you have moved on to something bigger and better.
I left Satrbucks a little over a year ago, and I haven't missed it for a second. I was a manager who worked for the company for about nine years. I loved my job, up until the last year. The District Manager team, one male in Suffolk County in particular, used scare tactics and intimidation to achieve "results". It became a environment of fear and disrespect. We were working in a place where you thought you could get fired at any given moment, for no real reason in an economic climate where finding a new job is very difficult. Fortunately I found a new job and quit, but I hear all of there stories from friends that are still there and it just seems to get worse and worse. Starbucks loves to be knows for being a wonderful place to work, yet they treat their people like dogs and cover up for the disgusting behavior of the higher up. Shame on you.
The sexual harassment might really be possile--I wouldn't put it past alfano... but easier to nab would be to focus on the even more widespread allegations of intimidation and fear and remodeling his 'team' to be just like him--white men. All they need to do is ask a cross-section of partners at all levels in the area confidentially and it would probably be easier to get people to admit to the type of environment we now work in. It is true that a number of high level people with serious tenure have left under his reign--people with 7, 10, 15 years! Why so many now? Put 2 & 2 together. Don't they do exit interviews anymore? They need to back log some-that would help. It's not Howard's Starbucks in NYC.
I worked under Andrew Alfano for 6 plus years. I always knew he was a egotistical man. After reading the complaint letter sent it by the management partners, It came clear to me of what I already suspected. Rosa Grajeda, was promoted to district manager, to the shock of the whole market. She was only in the position for maybe two years as a store manager, I myself was given many great acheivement adwards and thought I was next or some other very successful managers in the company. We also should not forget Kim Vetrano who was also said to be under the covers with Andrew. She is still a District manager even though many complaints about her treatment of management have been ignored.
Karma will take care of the above mentioned.
Has anyone been discriminated by this Andrew Alfano mentioned above in reference to their sexual orientation?
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