- General
- August 10, 2018
- 5 minutes read
Mobike is investigating suspended manager in alleged sexual harassment case
image credit : Mobike Bike sharing giant Mobike, The 3 year old startup acquired this April in a deal worth…
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| image credit : Mobike |
Bike sharing giant Mobike, The 3 year old startup acquired this April in a deal worth $3.4 Billion by Chinese tech giant Meituan Dianping has now stated it’s investigating sexual harassment allegations made against a manager at the company following a report from a female employee that the concerned manager allegedly harassed her and other two female workers.
The report made by an anonymous female software engineer at the Beijing based startup was penned in a Youdao Cloud Note (in Chinese) alleging that Mobike executive Zhang Yaochun leveraged his position to “sexually harass three female employees to various degrees, exploit his power to oppress those who act against his will, and hire women with whom he saw the potential of developing sexual relationships.”
Mobike has temporarily suspended Zhang and has now launched an investigation after receiving a misconduct report as per its statement.
The letter from the employee contained screenshots of conversation with Zhang included by the employee which shows the manager to have asked her to send selfies to him and bring him meals during the weekends in addition to stating a colleague who she identifies as “Quilan”, a former employee at Didi Chuxing having it worse with allegations of Zhang making certain moves which include often asking her to drive him home late at night along with asking to cook for him at his home in hopes of developing a relationship with her.
The letter stated “Qiulian suffered the most in our team, and she had to quit because her work was deeply affected.”
“He treated the workplace as his imperial harem, and often suggested his position could provide help and convenience to others,” reads the letter which also notes Mobike female co-founder Hu Weiwei stating she “must understand our feelings.”
“We think of Mobike as an enterprise full of positive, youthful spirits, with a sense of social responsibility,” the anonymous employee wrote. “[The manager’s] unethical and unprofessional behavior has harmed Mobike’s corporate image and workplace atmosphere, and is harmful to the team’s work efficiency and future development.”
“I hope that we can get the attention of the company and take corresponding measures. We don’t want to have more serious things happening later.” reads the letter.
This has led to Mobike trending across the Chinese media with searches involving the bike sharing company spiking on the Chinese micro-blogging platform Weibo as this represents a very notable case of a female employee standing up to workplace sexual harassment from the Chinese region.
China’s #MeToo movement first came to limelight after accusations were made against a professor at the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics through social media with a number of them following made against academics, journalists, environmentalists and now executives.
