Seattle woman accuses tech startup of 'frat house' culture The sexual harassment and isolation began as soon as she was promoted, she says

Photo: Marilyn Nieves, Getty Images/Vetta Selamawit Afeworki loved her job at the Seattle-based online legal...

Selamawit Afeworki loved her job at the Seattle-based online legal-services directory Avvo for the first seven months -- until she was promoted.

After that, she claims she suffered sexual harassment from colleagues, followed by a coordinated effort to isolate and intimidate her after she made complaints. The ordeal resulted in her termination from the company.

Avvo, for its part, denies the accusations.

Afeworki filed a lawsuit against Avvo on Thursday, detailing the treatment she alleges she faced during her nearly 2½ years at the company.

"I was constantly stressed out," Afeworki said Thursday.

After a record of exemplary work and being commended by superiors, she says she was forced to take half-days and her work suffered.

"I felt that I was constantly being attacked so I would not perform well," she said. "The job I once loved, I couldn't anymore."

Afeworki was hired as an account executive at the company in July 2014 and was promoted to senior account executive about seven months later. She was the only woman and only person of color on her team, she says, which she believes contributed to her treatment.

A colleague made sexual advances toward Afeworki in early 2015 at the office, at work-sponsored social events and at after-hours events attended by co-workers, according to the complaint. After rebuffing each advance, the man allegedly "targeted" her with "bizarre and/or threatening behavior," including sending her aggressive messages on the company's Hipchat instant-messenging service.

He also grew competitive about their sales figures, Afeworki claims.

"He wanted some type of connection with me," she said. "He just became aggressive."

Eventually, the same man spread rumors among colleagues that the two had "hooked up," according to the complaint. Upon learning of those rumors, Afeworki went to a human resources representative. The representative reportedly told Afeworki that he would follow up with the colleague about his behavior, but Afeworki believes he never documented their meeting or took action with the man.

Conditions worsened in 2016, the lawsuit indicates. Afeworki attended a happy hour with co-workers after work in January that year, but the man she claims was harassing her drunkenly tried to grab at her, reports indicate. After she evaded his pursuits, he called her a "bitch" and continued to call her a "bitch" and "slut" several times thereafter. He would also allegedly stare at her in a threatening way, according to the lawsuit.

In September, Afeworki's manager required her to sit next to him because, as he put it, they were "disconnected." This move put Afeworki closer to the co-worker who had harassed her, she claims.

After that move, the man "became more overt and aggressive in his harassment," Afeworki alleges. On several occasions, she says, the co-worker and manager would point at Afeworki while talking and laugh. Furthermore, the manager would sit facing her with "his legs spread open" and his cell phone raised in front of his face, ostensibly taking photos or video of her, according to the complaint.

The manager also allegedly said that month, "Some people need to know when to quit!" and mentioned several times thereafter that upper management wanted her out of the company. He would also tell her that she was "different," reports say.

Later that month, Afeworki requested a meeting with her manager's boss, a chief revenue officer who had recently commended her for her work performance. However, when she related her concerns about her work conditions with him, he reportedly told her she was "expensive" and that he had to weigh the cost of employing her against the cost of snacks and soda for the workers.

He also allegedly told her that if she wasn't happy at Avvo, she might be "better off staying at home and collecting unemployment."

The next month, Afeworki's manager reportedly began setting sales ultimatums and reiterated that the chief revenue officer wanted her "out." He continued to stare at her while she worked, she claims.

Afeworki submitted a formal complaint to human resources, alleging discrimination, racism, bullying and isolation. However, she believes that move triggered a "coordinated effort" to compel her to quit or to fire her. The chief revenue officer reportedly told her multiple times that no managers wanted to work with her.

"I felt really isolated," she said.

The same boss met with her for two hours in a later meeting, continually intimidating her and not allowing her to leave the room despite her protestations that she felt uncomfortable, the lawsuit says. They didn't discuss her performance, but he allegedly "grilled" her about her feelings of being bullied.

Soon her managers made her switch teams with another co-worker who had gotten into trouble but wasn't fired.

Two weeks later, Afeworki fielded a call at her home to say she was fired.

It was those final staffing moves, attorney Dan Rogers said, that causes him to think her firing was a coordinated ousting.

"It seemed so obvious that it was because she made complaints to them," said Rogers, who works for Badgley Mullins Turner.

Afeworki subsequently spent five months on unemployment but now works at a place where she is happy, she says.

But she wants to cast a spotlight on workplace discrimination. She likened Avvo's office culture to that of a "frat house."

"They condone this type of behavior," she said. "(They think) it's OK."

Rogers said Afeworki did everything she possibly could to address her alleged harassment.

"She handled this admirably," he said. "A lot of people are scared to go to HR. ... At no point was her complaint taken seriously."

Avvo, through Chief Legal Officer Josh King, says the company has "fully investigated the allegations."

Tech startups like Avvo, Rogers added, seem to bill themselves as progressive places to work. "A lot of times that is more ... of a delusion than it is fact," he said.

Again, Avvo disputes this claim.

"Avvo is a diverse and welcoming employer that doesn't tolerate discrimination or sexual harassment," King wrote. "So it's painful when a former employee believes we've failed them on this count – even if we disagree with their conclusion."

Afeworki hopes that her lawsuit will draw attention to the issue.

"Hopefully they change the work culture (at Avvo) where they do take sexual harassment and discrimination seriously," she said. "If I do change the work culture, that would be great."