Two years ago, Mayor Bloomberg's company, Bloomberg LP, was sued by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for "a pattern or practice of demoting and reducing the pay of female employees after they announced their pregnancies and after they took maternity leave" because of things like former CEO Lex Fenwick allegedly saying, "I'm not having any pregnant bitches work for me." While the discrimination allegedly occurred after he became mayor, Bloomberg himself was deposed in 2009 because he does own the company. Now details from the deposition have been released, and the mayor is described as "patronizing," "sarcastic," "unsympathetic" and irritable as well as "snippy" and a "real charmer."
Apparently when a lawyer for the EEOC read parts of his memoir, "Bloomberg by Bloomberg," the billionaire gave a review of her reading. From the NY Times:
“ ‘And God forbid one of our people go to work for a competitor, then we all heartily and cordially really do hope they fail. In their new job, they have an avowed purpose to hurt their old co-workers. They’ve become bad people. Period. We have a loyalty to us. Leave, and you’re them.’ Did I read that accurately?”
“Your reading is good,” the mayor replied.
“Thank you,” Ms. Wong said. “Do you continue to believe that statement today?”
“More so than ever before.”
While Bloomberg testified for a total of eight hours, the Times says that other testimony may be more important to the case: "One of the most vivid excerpts involves Matthew Winkler, the longtime editor of Bloomberg News who helped Mr. Bloomberg with his memoir. Complaining that pregnant employees who went on maternity leave often did not return, he was quoted by one plaintiff as saying: 'It’s like stealing money from Mike Bloomberg’s wallet. It’s theft. They should be arrested."
Bloomberg LP says, "The E.E.O.C. has no substantive argument or evidence in this case. Rather, they have resorted to regurgitating second- and third-hand quotes. These accusations are old news and false." Of course, this story requires that we bring up the 2001 Village Voice article by Wayne Barrett which brought up how one former Bloomberg LP employee suing the company said, after she said she was pregnant, that Bloomberg told her, "kill it" as well as "Great! Number 16," referring to the other women on maternity leave (Bloomberg's 2001 mayoral opponent, Mark Green, used "Kill it!" in a campaign ad).
Last year, a former Goldman Sachs employee claimed she was "mommy-tracked" at the investment bank.
