Former employee says ZocDoc is a ‘frat house’ where female employees are regularly harassed

A former employee of the doctor appointment booking startup ZocDoc says the company fostered a work environment akin to a “frat house” that was generally accepting of sexual harassment against women. She has now filed a lawsuit against ZocDoc.

The former ZocDoc employee published an anonymous rant about the claims on the discussion website Kinja. She also forwarded the link to Business Insider, which published its account Saturday. Business Insider says it has since learned the former employee’s name (but did not publish it) and confirmed her employment at ZocDoc.

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This is a list of the woman’s allegations, as printed in the Business Insider article:

• “There were things the men who worked there could get away with saying like ‘you aren’t bubbly enough’, ‘you look hot today’, “That secretary is a c—‘ etc. It was just accepted.”
• “There was a distinct difference between the way upper management talked to and treated the women in the company. Male employees were at a great advantage and very buddy buddy with each other and the women (who weren’t sleeping with someone in upper management) were on their own.”
• “I would often overhear managers say some of the girls dressed slutty, when I brought it up one gentleman even jokingly saying ‘there’s nothing wrong with that’ while laughing it off.”
• “Words like ‘tits,’ and ‘p-ssy,’ were common phrases heard on the sales floor.”
• “They have several mice who run around the office during the day and late at night, defecate in mugs kept in the kitchen. Cleaning mice feces out of your desk was a daily routine.”

The former employee says she has documents to prove her allegations against ZocDoc.

The company sent VentureBeat this email statement on the situation: “As a company, we pride ourselves on being a great place to work, and we have a long-standing policy against any forms of unlawful harassment or discrimination.​”

The former employee had some choice words about ZocDoc’s business practices in her official statement:

“As a sales representative I was told to blatantly lie to Dr.’s and I overheard people around me lie to them on a consistent basis. ZocDoc was even recently sued by a band of doctors in a class action lawsuit brought forth by a group of Doctors.”

ZocDoc is a portal that enables people to search for doctors, read and submit reviews, and book appointments online. The company makes its money by charging doctors to list their practice on its site.

New York-based ZocDoc in June raised a $152 million round at a $1.6 billion valuation, according to a Delaware Certificate of Corporation filing grabbed by VC Experts, first reported by Fortune.

ZocDoc previously raised $75 million from DST Global and Goldman Sachs, bringing its total funding to $97.9 million. DST Global is run by Russian entrepreneur Yuri Milner.

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