Microsoft accused of silencing female exec with 1 million GBP payoff

by Steven Mostyn - Sep 21 2011, 14:06

Microsoft is currently wading through unsightly media custard in light of accusations that it silenced a disgruntled female employee by throwing a huge sum of money in her direction.

Specifically, the Redmond-based software giant reportedly paid out more than a million GBP to veteran executive Natalie Ayres after she was passed over for a promotion to the head of Microsoft’s UK operations division.

Speaking with UK broadsheet The Daily Telegraph, an anonymous source claims Ayres had not completed the interview process for the vacant managing director’s position when Microsoft filled it with Gordon Frazer.

“The management do not follow procedure… and if your face doesn’t fit, you suffer,” said the source. “It’s a boy’s club.”

“The only way to progress beyond a certain point is to become a male in female clothing,” they added. “Although women compete on an equal basis further down the organization, they hit a glass ceiling at around ‘level 65 or above’.”

After serving for 15 years, Ayres left the software company shortly after the installation of Fraser—who had previously served as a general manager for Microsoft in South Africa.

It is at this point the source claims Microsoft slapped her departing palm with a seven-figure golden handshake. The Telegraph reports that neither Microsoft nor Ayres has come forward with official comment on the matter.

It’s perhaps worth noting that Microsoft’s internal staffing statistics show that around 40 percent of all executive positions are held by women and/or minorities, and that almost 25 percent of the company’s global workforce is women.

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