Rosette Laursen, a young woman who worked as an assistant at a Hollywood talent agency, has taken to Facebook to reveal details of an email which she received when her boss accidentally included her in a thread aimed at her two males co-workers.
After Rosette requested to take an unpaid day of leave in order to attend a march in honour of International Women's Day last March, she was met with a barrage of misogynistic abuse from her boss, who she initially referred to as 'Jorkle' in her post.
"Are you f*cking kidding me. At the end of pilot season. Someone should sew her vagina shut. I’m never hiring a girl ever again." wrote Michael Einfeld of Michael Einfeld Management.
Taking Rosette's request as an opportunity to make his stance on the issue clear, he continued: "No bonus for anyone that strikes or leaves early in pilot season. No one is striking in show business we are all against Trump."
"Uppity Selfish c*nt. Heather went to work," Michael ranted. "I’m sure anyone at a casting office or agency would be fired.”
Having realised that he inadvertently sent the email to the subject of his sexist abuse, Rosette revealed that Michael then contacted her via text to apologise.
In a wholly bizarre message, Michael wrote: "I apologize for venting like a misogynistic f*ggot. I was letting off steam I didn’t mean to hit reply all."
"I’m an a**hole. If you come back we can play Nazi death camp. You can beat me and put me in the oven. Or feed me cabbage and lock me in the shower. I am truly sorry."
Rosette uses her Facebook post to outline the chain of events which followed in the aftermath, and explains that she initially quit before being encouraged to return by her co-worker.
"One of my male coworkers, obviously realizing he would be experiencing “a day without a woman” for the indefinite future and would have to do more work, encouraged me to come back into the office saying, “It was just a joke'," Rosette wrote.
"My coworkers had worked there for years and my only guess is that they slowly became desensitized to Jorkle’s behavior to the point where the line of what is normal or acceptable didn’t just blur, it disappeared. Which is sad, because I otherwise liked them," Rosette reasoned.
Rosette sought to highlight the predicament many women find themselves in a professional setting by admitting that she struggled to rectify Michael's hateful remarks with the man she worked with on a daily basis.
"Sometimes he was actually really cool and funny and nice. He even bought me a really hilarious Jurassic Park Christmas sweater," Rosette wrote. "No one is bad constantly. The point of this article isn't to humanize Jorkle for you, but that's the truth, he isn’t all bad."
"And that's why it's harder to get out of these situations," she reasoned.
"It is similar to feeling trapped with a physically abusive partner or family member. I’ve also been in that position and it would have been a lot easier to leave quickly if they were only awful. But no one is. That is the truly sad thing about leaving an abusive situation, because you are leaving someone who is sometimes human and good."
"As one of thousands applying for assistant jobs in writing rooms, I was determined to work my way up by gaining experience at entertainment desk jobs in LA. I figured that I’d have to deal with over the top personalities like Jorkle in the entertainment industry to varying degrees, so I should just get used to it, laugh it off, and let it go until I was offered another job."
Rosette revealed she eventually quit, but felt compelled to highlight Michael's despicable conduct, writing: "It felt wrong to let another unknowing assistant wander into the position with the possibility that they will also be deemed an uppity selfish c*** who should have her vagina sewn shut. "
After Rosette decided to pursue legal action, Michael reportedly "ignored every letter, phone call and email from the lawyer, essentially refusing to settle privately."
"The next step was either to let it go, or take Jorkle to court," Rosette explained. "If the case is filed and taken to court, the emails become public record. Since the money is not important to me, I decided to skip the trial, and make the emails public with this delightful essay."
"Please don’t let anyone treat you like this, and to paraphrase the great Mike Birbiglia – If you have to say it was a joke, it wasn’t a good joke."
Michael has since issued an apology, stating: "Let me say without reservation – I am sorry. I used language that was tasteless, humourless and completely inexcusable."
"I believe deeply in workplace diversity regardless of race, gender, creed or sexual orientation, and I am mortified that the things I have said have worked against my commitment to inclusion. As I’ve searched for a response to all this, what I’ve discovered is that words fall woefully short of my extreme remorse – I am so sorry."
“I will be undertaking some obviously needed introspection, and want to thank those of you who have expressed a willingness to standby me," he continued.
"To those that feel they need space from me – I am heartbroken but understand. If it were possible, I wouldn’t mind space from myself right now. Again, to everyone – I am sorry. If this is something you are willing to hear from me in person please call, or send me a note and I’ll call you. I am devastated, and hope in time you will consider giving me the chance to earn your forgiveness."
