Startups are also popular for their celebration culture. Bat the young Munich company Finn.Car the Christmas party escalated at the end of 2021: Nine employees were sexually harassed. Now the head of the company admits: it was me.
At some point Emin S. just couldn’t stand it anymore. “Dear followers, I would like to share this disturbing truth about Finn’s past with you,” the programmer wrote in a message on the LinkedIn careers platform in mid-April.
Finn, that’s Emin’s employer, an up-and-coming start-up from Munich, around 400 employees, which offers cars via an app that you can subscribe to for a monthly fee. And the truth that he now wants to make public is a tough one: It’s about the “multiple sexual harassment” of female employees, writes Emin, and unlike the blog entry to which he links below, he also names the company and the Accused: company founder and CEO Max-Josef Meier (38).
It’s not just the names he mentions, his own, those of his employer and boss that make his entry so unusual. The news spreads, draws circles – and finally moves the accused Finn boss Max-Josef Meier this week to take an equally unusual step: Confronted by Capital with the allegations, Meier admits everything.
Since the end of 2021, his company’s workforce has been rumbling. According to information from Capital, the incident occurred at the Christmas party, and there were said to be nine cases of sexual harassment that evening. Meier confirms this to Capital. He was heavily intoxicated and has no memories of the incidents, says the Finn boss. However, he also refers to the months of internal processing of what happened that evening, a specially set up commission, and he is sincerely sorry for all of that.
Lesson on how to deal with sexual harassment
However, Meier’s statements, which Capital was able to verify in part through statements from employees and internal documents, paint the picture of a completely overwhelmed company. The case is also a lesson in how much catching up there is in Germany when it comes to dealing with sexual harassment in the workplace.
Emin S., who by his own admission was not present at the Christmas party, was stunned by the company’s decision to leave Meier at his post. Emin writes on Linkedin that he has repeatedly expressed his discomfort and the psychological stress caused by Meier’s stay. “But he insisted on staying in his position.”
Derailments and assaults in the workplace are not uncommon in Germany. According to a survey by the Federal Anti-Discrimination Agency, every eleventh employed person in Germany has experienced sexual harassment at work. It affects women in a good three quarters of the cases. The number of unreported cases is likely to be much higher. Many victims never make their experiences public, although they may even be able to claim compensation from their employer. For example, for fear of harming their careers and colleagues. Or fear of retaliation.
Those affected at Finn, who Capital was able to contact, also did not want to comment on the incidents at the Christmas party. Sexual harassment has been a taboo subject, especially in the male-dominated start-up scene: Everyone knows it happens, but nobody talks about it.
Finn CEO Meier describes the incidents
All the more unusual is the case of Finn boss Max-Josef Meier, who wants to come clean in an interview with Capital and is looking to flee to the front. A few days after his programmer’s Linkedin post, he agreed to a video call. Meier – a slender man with dark blond hair combed back – speaks slowly, visibly struggling for composure, at one point asks for a pause. Apparently he keeps looking at a document on his screen during the conversation. Never before has a CEO spoken so openly about his own missteps.
Source: Stern
