An independent review of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s workplace culture describes an environment that fostered “hostile, abusive, unprofessional or inappropriate conduct,” and questions whether the agency’s chairman is credible to lead the agency through a cultural transformation.
The report released Tuesday by law firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton outlines incidents of stalking, harassment, homophobia and other violations of employment regulations.
The incidents span from field offices to headquarters in Washington, and “arose within a workplace culture that is ‘misogynistic,’ ‘patriarchal,’ ‘insular,’ and ‘outdated’ – a ‘good ol’ boys’ club where favoritism is common, wagons are circled around managers, and senior executives with well-known reputations for pursuing romantic relations with subordinates enjoy long careers without any apparent consequence,” the report states.
More than 500 workers reported incidents of harassment, discrimination and other issues.
Examples of the worker complaints included a woman stalked by a coworker who was continually harassed even after complaining about his behavior; a field office supervisor referring to gay men as “little girls;” and a female field examiner describing receiving a picture of an FDIC senior examiner’s private parts.