A former Goldman Sachs managing director has opened up about the several instances of workplace sexism and harassment she faced during her time at the investment bank. Among the most shocking of Jamie Fiore Higgins’s revelations was her allegation that male colleagues ‘mooed’ at her mimicked squeezing breasts when she used the lactation room at work, according to Financial Times.
Higgins revealed disturbing details of her time at Goldman Sachs in a recently-published book called Bully Market: My Story of Money and Misogyny.
She said that male colleagues would make cow noises at her when she used the lactation room as a new mom. Higgins, who worked at Goldman Sachs for 17 years until she quit in 2016, says that she faced workplace sexism despite reaching a senior position.
Among other things, she revealed that one of the bank's bosses told her she would never reach managing director if “she was pumping milk instead of working.”
In another instance, she found that colleagues had put a toy cow on her desk when she returned from the lactation room.
The allegations in her tell-all were not limited to sexism. Higgins recalled one incident where a male colleague shouted racist slurs during a work night out but avoided any reprimand or punitive action, according to Business Insider.
Her book reportedly contains a note saying that some Goldman staff were "composite characters, some names were changed and not every dialogue was repeated word for word.
Goldman Sachs responded to her allegations of toxic work culture saying that the company would have investigated if Higgins had raised a complaint during her time there.
"Had Ms Higgins raised these allegations with our Human Resources department at the time we would have investigated them thoroughly and addressed them seriously," Goldman Sachs told the Financial Times.
"We have a zero-tolerance policy for discrimination or retaliation against employees reporting misconduct."
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