Rivian hit with Gender Discrimination Lawsuit by ex-sales and marketing head, Laura Schwab

[SeaGeo]

This is a bummer, I really appreciated the diversity (ethnically and gender) that they've appeared to have amongst their engineering group.

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[moosehead]

Agreed with Dark-fx' perfect storm comment.

These allegations, plus poor communication and delivery delays, plus a small battery fire last week - do not help a highly aggressive $60B valuation on zero EBITDA and 55k preorders. Add in the underpriced, delivery and safety commentary to increase the degree of difficulty.

The IPO may not be a triple lindy, but it is a double back with double twist into a medium depth pool.

 

[Caymanwent]

…”Rivian’s ability to assure vehicle quality and safety to customers…” I would really like to have an fuller explanation about what safety concerns she had with regards to manufacturing before I take delivery of this startup automobile . The accident wasn’t fully explained either...

 

[Peter del Rio]

There is no excuse for gender discrimination these days however that is not what is concerning for the IPO and Rivian in general.

The lawsuit claims several other executives at first brushed off her statements about Rivian’s vehicles being underpriced, only to agree later that prices would need to be increased post-IPO after a male executive raised the issue.

Ms. Schwab also raised concerns internally about the manufacturing process and Rivian’s ability to assure vehicle quality and safety to customers, the complaint alleges. The lawsuit further says that Ms. Schwab was skeptical about the company’s ability to achieve certain delivery targets and that she advised it to set a more realistic objective.

In sum, buyers beware.

 

[Speedrye]

I'm torn between believing her and believing that the person in charge of marketing at Rivian really needed to be fired for the absolutely abysmal work that has been done in the past year.

 

[Riviot]

This is a bummer, I really appreciated the diversity (ethnically and gender) that they've appeared to have amongst their engineering group.

Appearances are cheaper and increase sales better than reality.

I'm torn between believing her and believing that the person in charge of marketing at Rivian really needed to be fired for the absolutely abysmal work that has been done in the past year.

"Exclusion became a pattern, and I was left out of countless meetings where business needs and my role dictate that I should have been present. "
I believe our anger, resentment, and frustrations with marketing should have been directed at the Chief Growth Officer, Jiten Behl, who hamstrung his team. We have been given exactly what Sales & Marketing has been receiving: nothing.

 

[Smithery]

22 years in Silicon Valley. Sadly it’s still the norm in a lot of places. She’s right.

Yup. 16 years in SV myself. Seen it plenty.

The "neutral view of not believing any accusers story until evidence corroborates" is FAR from unbiased.

It objectively favors the system in power vs the individual claiming bias, which means it almost always favors the abuser.

And the abused's take is almost always closer to the truth than the flat denial from company.

 

[EVTrucking]

Yowza!

 

[kurtlikevonnegut]

WSJ also published an article and I found the following re: manufacturing quality and pricing most concerning to me, personally.

Ms. Schwab also raised concerns internally about the manufacturing process and Rivian’s ability to assure vehicle quality and safety to customers, the complaint alleges. She said she suggested that the first deliveries go to Rivian employees and alleges other executives initially dismissed the idea, then later adopted it."

She has a lot of industry experience, but I'm really not sure what the VP of Marketing would have to say regarding manufacturing process and ramp schedule or vehicle quality.

I'm going to be honest, if Rivian's manufacturing process is different from Jaguar Land Rover that actually makes me feel better about their product, not worse.

 

[fromSf]

In short term this looks optically bad for Rivian. If someone had filed complaint I would seriously think several times before firing or eliminating the position thru re-org.

One thing for sure, Rivian communication sucks and there is no transparency. Feel its due to the incompetence of the leader so its possible complaint may be true. Its pathetic to say, R1S will be delivered in December and we still don't know lot of interior details. Whether second row has sliding feature, entry/exit to 3rd row, is there storage in second row, speaker placements in R1S, no R1S prototypes at first mile events etc.

On the other hand, timing of the lawsuit raises lot of questions for me: Why the rush to sue days before the IPO? Is it to get media attention? Is it because Exec worked there for less than year and laid off before before the first year cliff and lost the opportunity to make millions.

Just to be clear, I understand the pain of the complainer. Once I did go thru something similar (racial + non Ivy league) discrimination at work, in my case I was promoted to "C" level few months before getting fired and was fired before bonus payouts and huge cliff vesting.

All I can hope is Rivian delivers our R1T/S s00n so we don't have to spend time reading/talking about Rivian internal issues.

 

[Jay]

Looks like she is out of Rivian.

 

[kanundrum]

Looks like she is out of Rivian.

 

[kanundrum]

Link for her post:

 

[Atlrivian]

Wife was a manager at a very large tech company for years. On the occasion she wanted to fire someone she had to dot every i, etc. EVERY single instance of malfeasance / incompetence was recorded in detail. Even with pretty egregious cases she had to go through HR and the employee was put on a "performance improvement plan." THEN they could finally be fired if they screwed up again.

The point is if she was fired for cause it should have been recorded somewhere by HR. If it wasn't, Rivian corporate are idiots. If her role was just eliminated out of the blue, boy do I hope there is some evidence of that.

I will tend toward believing her because 1) im not an asshole, 2) if she is lying about this and doesn't have at least passable evidence she has torched her reputation, 3) she was well respected previously, 4) Rivian has not exactly engendered anyone's trust with their transparency.

 

[Jay]

Link for her post:

Yea. After reading, I feel half of it might be BS. Just media attention.

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