Republicans are demanding FDIC Chair Martin Gruenberg’s resignation.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) failed to provide its employees a safe workplace free from “sexual harassment, discrimination, and other interpersonal misconduct,” a report released on May 7 concluded.
The more than 200-page report, produced by law firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, was ordered by the bank regulator. The independent review was overseen by the Special Committee of the FDIC Board of Directors after The Wall Street Journal published scathing reports identifying an objectionable work climate and misogynistic culture described as a “sexualized boys’ club environment.”
More than 500 individuals recounted the experiences of discrimination, sexual harassment, and “other interpersonal misconduct” they endured at the FDIC.
Heads of field and regional offices managed their offices like “fiefdoms” while commissioned bank examiners “controlled the destinies of junior examiners,” the report explained.
“Those who reported expressed fear, sadness, and anger at what they had to endure,” the report stated. “Many had never reported their experiences to anyone before, while others who had reported internally were left disappointed by the FDIC’s response.”
In one example, a female examiner received a photo of a senior FDIC examiner’s genitals and was told by others to “stay away from him because he had a ’reputation.’”
One employee feared for her safety after a co-worker stalked her and repeatedly shared “unwelcome sexualized text messages that feature partially naked women engaging in sexual acts.”
Women in a field office explained that their supervisor regularly talked about their breasts, legs, and sex lives.
Others noted that colleagues and supervisors would mock personnel with disabilities, calling one “Pirate McNasty,” and demoralize workers from underrepresented groups by telling them they were “token” employees hired to fill quotas.
“These incidents, and many others like them, did not occur in a vacuum,” the report stated. “They arose within a workplace culture that is ’misogynistic,‘ ’patriarchal,‘ ’insular,‘ and ’outdated‘—a ’good ol’ boys’ club where favoritism is common, wagons are circled around managers, and senior executives with well-known reputations for pursuing romantic relations with subordinates enjoy long careers without any apparent consequence.”
The investigation also uncovered prevalent retaliation against workers who complained about the misconduct, which helped foster a toxic work environment.
