Assuming most of y'all have already seen this but was surprised to see it doesn't appear to have been posted: WSJ News Exclusive | Ex-Rivian Executive’s Discrimination Suit Airs Questions About Business Plans as IPO Looms
And here's Ms. Schwab's personal statement on the matter: Life Outside the Boys Club: Why I Spoke Up About Rivian’s Toxic Bro Culture (and Got Fired).
Ms. Schwab is highly credible and her resume is impeccable. She was one of the few people on the Rivian executive team that had extensive and successful automotive industry career experience. Her comments regarding the lack of a sophisticated marketing and communications team, productions delays, the plan to sell to employees first, and the inability to set and communicate reasonable expectations around production issues are all aligned with experiences many of you have had with Rivian to date. I'm inclined to believe every word she says. In these types of situations, "innocent until proven guilty" does not apply (technically, that only applies in criminal cases anyhow). Rivian is guilty until they can establish they fired her for cause, which I sincerely doubt they will be able to do.
Furthermore, even if not one word of it were true (which I absolutely do not believe and am not suggesting), the level of managerial incompetence evidenced by choosing to fire her days before executing an already in-progress IPO, when the company is legally barred from even attempting to defend its position, is extremely damning. If RJ has his wits about him, or has good PR people and lawyers advising him, he should fire the Chief Growth Officer and probably the head of HR tomorrow for sheer incompetence in the way this was handled. Even if they had excellent and well documented cause to fire her (which, again, I sincerely doubt), they should have waited until after the IPO and conducted a thorough internal investigation of her discrimination claims.
I'm a late pre-order holder and wasn't invited to participate in the DSP, but if I were, I'd be having serious second thoughts this evening. Buyers be ware...
And here's Ms. Schwab's personal statement on the matter: Life Outside the Boys Club: Why I Spoke Up About Rivian’s Toxic Bro Culture (and Got Fired).
Ms. Schwab is highly credible and her resume is impeccable. She was one of the few people on the Rivian executive team that had extensive and successful automotive industry career experience. Her comments regarding the lack of a sophisticated marketing and communications team, productions delays, the plan to sell to employees first, and the inability to set and communicate reasonable expectations around production issues are all aligned with experiences many of you have had with Rivian to date. I'm inclined to believe every word she says. In these types of situations, "innocent until proven guilty" does not apply (technically, that only applies in criminal cases anyhow). Rivian is guilty until they can establish they fired her for cause, which I sincerely doubt they will be able to do.
Furthermore, even if not one word of it were true (which I absolutely do not believe and am not suggesting), the level of managerial incompetence evidenced by choosing to fire her days before executing an already in-progress IPO, when the company is legally barred from even attempting to defend its position, is extremely damning. If RJ has his wits about him, or has good PR people and lawyers advising him, he should fire the Chief Growth Officer and probably the head of HR tomorrow for sheer incompetence in the way this was handled. Even if they had excellent and well documented cause to fire her (which, again, I sincerely doubt), they should have waited until after the IPO and conducted a thorough internal investigation of her discrimination claims.
I'm a late pre-order holder and wasn't invited to participate in the DSP, but if I were, I'd be having serious second thoughts this evening. Buyers be ware...