An HR executive at the New York Times has drawn the wrath of the Gray Lady’s LGBTQ staffers after asking them to stop complaining about the company on a Slack channel.
On April 3, executive Natalia Villalobos made the comments in a post on a channel called TimesOut, a group dedicated to LGBTQ employees, reports the Daily Beast.
“I just wanted to share a comment about discussing or reporting on your work experience to make sure everyone is aware of our resources,” the post read.
Villalobos, who previously served as Head of Developer Inspiration & Inclusion at Google, asked Times employees to contact a manager directly with a complaint, go to Human Resources or use the Ask the Company Slack channel.
“In the future, I want to encourage people here to raise concerns or concerns through the places above ^^^^ rather than in this ERG channel,” Villalobos added.
New York Times HR manager Natalia Villalobos, pictured here, made the comments in a post on a channel called TimesOut, a group dedicated to LGBTQ employees
This is just the latest scandal to hit the gray lady after more than a dozen of the New York Times’ top reporters signed a letter attacking their own union for supporting wakeful staffers who criticized the outlet’s coverage of transgender issues in February
The comments were met with immediate reactions from Times employees.
“I can’t help but feel lately that I’m expected to just shut up and face the negativity because some of my colleagues might feel uncomfortable if I say something,” read one answer, according to the Daily Beast.
“It feels utterly surreal and disrespectful to have corporate swag flagged with a pride flag when we are instructed not to publicly discuss our experiences as queer people in the workplace,” said another.
Less than 24 hours later, Villalobos responded to the concerns by saying her intention was to “support the community by providing channels for reporting workplace issues such as discrimination and harassment,” to ensure she assessed by the relevant person.
“It was not intended to reduce sharing, disable community support, or stifle community building,” she continued.
The director said that when she returns from personal leave, she will make her office hours public.
In her response, Villalobos did not comment on the timing of her request.
In February, more than a dozen top New York Times reporters signed a letter attacking their own union for supporting awakened employees who criticized the outlet’s coverage of transgender issues.
New York Times contributor Jeremy Peters, left, published a letter criticizing New York President Susan DeCarava, right, for saying employees who criticize the Times’ coverage of transgender issues are protected from a ” hostile work environment’
GLAAD parked a mobile billboard outside the Manhattan office of The New York Times in February
The letter, written by correspondent Jeremy Peters, accused the newspaper’s union — known as its guild — of effectively stifling journalistic independence.
It’s the latest chapter in a story that began in February when 1,000 current and former writers criticized the Times for its increasingly skeptical coverage of transgender issues in an open letter.
Editor-in-chief Joe Kahn responded by emailing staff not to participate in “protests organized by interest groups.”
He noted that participating in “such a campaign is against the letter and spirit of our Ethics Policy.” Some unnamed staffers would have been punished for signing the letter.
Susan DeCarava, president of the News Guild of New York, then sent a letter to members of the Times – on a private mailing list – saying that the employees who wrote the letter are protected from a “hostile work environment.”
But in his letter, Peters argued that the union was improperly involved in editorial decisions – suppressing “journalistic independence”.
The letter from Peters – and the Times’ defense of journalism – marks a remarkable turnaround for a newspaper whose bosses were once seen as intimidated by the urging of awake employees to cover controversial social stories in a skewed fashion that matches their own beliefs.
The first letter was the one signed by current and former donors.
Meanwhile, GLAAD (the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) and the Human Rights Campaign coordinated a separate public letter, signed by celebrities and activist groups, in which the New York Times condemned “irresponsible, biased coverage of transgender people.”
They singled out the science team for special condemnation, arguing that they had begun “undermining support for transgender youth by ‘just asking questions’ writing stories about medically-approved best practices for gender-affirming healthcare.”
And they criticized the poll for publishing articles by staff columnist Pamela Paul, insisting The New York Times was wrong to “give space to its baseless thoughts about how LGBTQ people should define themselves.”
The New York Times published an op-ed defending JK Rowling’s views on transgender people a day after two open letters signed by celebrities, campaign groups and hundreds of the newspaper’s own writers accused the Times of bias in its coverage of trans issues
The same month, the iconic newspaper published an op-ed in defense of controversial author JK Rowling, in a piece written by former book editor Pamela Paul.
She referenced Megan Phelps-Roper’s new podcast “The Witch Trials of JK Rowling” – a former member of the infamous Westboro Baptist Church – based on nine hours of interviews with Rowling in which she shares her views on trans issues and the backlash. what she had to deal with.
The op-ed reads: “As Rowling herself points out on the podcast, she has written books where bullying and authoritarianism are considered one of the worst human ills from the first page.
Those who accuse Rowling of silencing her critics ignore the fact that she stands up for those who have self-silenced to avoid the job losses, public slander and threats to physical safety that other critics of recent times have faced. have had to deal with gender orthodoxy.’