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Xbox Exec Ousted After Refusing Bathrobe Request
3 Mar
Summary
- An Xbox executive was pressured out after refusing a bathrobe request.
- Phil Spencer helped her find a new role after the incident.
- Microsoft faced past harassment allegations, lawsuits.
A former Xbox executive has detailed how she was pressured out of her position in 2004 following a distressing incident. Laura Fryer, then the sole female leader on the Xbox team, recounted being handed a bathrobe by a colleague in a hotel room and asked to put it on. Fryer, who felt pressured to leave her job after refusing, stated that Phil Spencer, who later became head of Xbox, intervened.
Spencer, recognizing her predicament, offered Fryer a position at Epic Games, which she accepted. This move, according to Fryer, "saved" her and ended a period where her career felt "radioactive." She felt this event signaled a decline in Microsoft's workplace culture.
The incident surfaces amid Microsoft's history of workplace controversies. The company previously faced a class-action lawsuit alleging a "boys' club" atmosphere and inadequate handling of sexual harassment complaints between 2010 and 2016. Although that specific lawsuit was dismissed, it points to ongoing concerns about the company's past treatment of such issues.
