A girl who previously labored for Meta’s ex-operations chief Sheryl Sandberg claims she was tasked with drafting “talking points” for her boss whereas she was in labor together with her first youngster.
Sarah Wynn-Williams, the creator of an explosive memoir about her six-year tenure on the firm that was then referred to as Fb, wrote a scathing evaluation of Sandberg, together with a declare that her then-boss invited her to “come to bed” whereas clad in pajamas throughout a flight on a personal jet.
Wynn-Williams, who was director of public coverage at Fb, recalled giving start to her firstborn in January 2014 in her new guide titled “Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism.”
“I get a message,” she wrote. “Sheryl’s about to unexpectedly go into a meeting with the president of Brazil at Davos and she wants talking points.”
Wynn-Williams torched Sandberg’s hard-driving work ethic in gentle of her bestselling 2013 guide “Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead,” which inspires girls to be extra formidable of their profession whereas asserting themselves in company boardrooms.
“I’m in the delivery room, my feet in stirrups, in labor,” Wynn-Williams wrote. “I put down my phone and reach for my laptop. I start drafting.”
Her husband, Tom, who was close by, was incredulous, based on the guide.
“What are you doing?” he requested.
“Just getting Sheryl some talking points,” Wynn-Williams replied to her husband, based on the memoir.
“Sarah, no,” her husband advised her.
However Wynn-Williams persevered.
“I continue typing,” she wrote. That’s when her husband “appeals to my doctor, a person he knows I deeply respect…”
However Wynn-Williams insists on getting the job completed regardless of being “between contractions,” telling her husband and the physician: “Two more minutes.”
In response to Wynn-Williams, the physician “reaches over and gently closes my laptop.”
“She says, ‘It’s a very special thing to give birth to your first child. I don’t think you should be working through it. Sheryl will understand.’”
“She won’t,” Wynn-Williams responded. “Please let me push Send.”
That’s when the physician responded: “You should be pushing. But not Send.”
Wynn-Williams wrote that “[d]espite the disapproval in the room,” she “quickly reopen[ed] the laptop.”
“I send the email. I know how this looks, and I can’t defend it.”
Wynn-Williams wrote that she was “ashamed” although she “can’t blame this entirely on Facebook.”
“I’ve been this kind of driven person my whole life. I don’t like to let people down. But it’s also true that at Facebook, I didn’t feel like I had a choice,” she wrote.
The Submit has sought remark from Sandberg and Fb’s mum or dad firm, Meta.
Wynn-Williams additionally alleged within the guide that Sandberg spent $13,000 on lingerie for herself and one other subordinate, her private assistant “Sadie,” and that she grew irritated when Wynn-Williams declined the previous COO’s invitation to “come to bed” whereas on a personal jet flight.
In response to Wynn-Williams, Sandberg and Sadie would take turns sleeping in one another’s laps and stroking one another’s hair throughout street journeys.
Sandberg has to this point declined to touch upon the claims.
Wynn-Williams has additionally accused one other Meta govt, Joel Kaplan, of sexually harassing her. Meta stated it carried out a prolonged inner investigation into the claims.
“This is a mix of out-of-date and previously reported claims about the company and false accusations about our executives,” a Meta spokesperson advised The Submit.
“Eight years ago, Sarah Wynn-Williams was fired for poor performance and toxic behavior, and an investigation at the time determined she made misleading and unfounded allegations of harassment.”
“Since then, she has been paid by anti-Facebook activists and this is simply a continuation of that work. Whistleblower status protects communications to the government, not disgruntled activists trying to sell books.”
