I started to write an article on a proper diet for high intensity athletes, but ended up with a much more incredible story. Let me set the stage for you. Being a former lifting enthusiast, I learned the importance of a healthy diet focused on your sport of choice. I would eat a high protein low carb diet for maximum mass gains while lifting. This has made me wonder about additional sports and their focused diets. I could always do a research online, but sometimes it’s best to go to the pros for inside tips. Cue professional cycling.
While interviewing a team chef for a major professional team, I started to ask simple questions like, “How long have you been a chef?” and “Where do you live when you’re not with the team?” The answer to the next question really surprised me: “What’s the best thing about working with the team?” I expected her to say that she got to meet great riders and be a part of the team’s success, but she said “Not much.” I dug a little deeper and found that the team was very insensitive to women and created a sometimes downright hostile work environment.
She described and showed pictures of how they had half-naked pictures of women on the walls and watched porn in her work area. How she endured the stares, sexist comments, and forceful advances of men involved on the team. She was also required to sleep in quarters that were open and available to anyone that wanted to enter at anytime for a snack. I was completely appalled and it sounded like a wild story that I might not have believed if it weren’t for the pain I could clearly see in her eyes as she relived those experiences. What she was describing to me was something that I wouldn’t wish on anyone. She was being treated as an object, not a professional, because of her gender.
Many may think that it’s to be expected in a male dominated sport, and to them I ask: should it be expected? We all have the right to go to work and not be harassed for gender, race, sexuality, religion, or any other reason. After all if this is supposed to be a “professional” sport I would think that they would be professionals in all aspects of the day to day operations I would blame the ones in charge for this unsafe, unprofessional, and degrading environment. As an example, one of the team executives used to called the chef “princess”. You might think that’s cute or funny, but this diminutive comes with negative implications of both age and inexperience. This attitude carries down to the rest of the team, proliferating the abuse. They pay the women on the team far less than the men, a mechanic sat down at her table even though there were several other tables available and told her to get up and leave so the team could eat at that table, and a truck driver called all women “stupid and useless.” The list of harassment and mistreatment went on and on.
While researching laws in Germany where this team is based out of, I found that they had no law on the books that dealt with sexual harassment. Instead, I learned about a term called “mobbing.” It is essentially a collective that singles out an individual and makes their work difficult and near impossible to perform so they can be terminated. German law guarantees that “(h)uman dignity is inviolable.” After reading examples of court findings against German companies, I was not surprised to see that everything they had done to the chef was a cited example.
This is very troublesome for the sponsors and their target consumers because their name will be associated with this sexist model for degradation. The team in question is Bora Hansgrohe. They are a manufacturer of home bathroom and kitchen fixtures around the world. I doubt that the company knows what is taking place on a team they have sponsored but, it would be best to investigate, intervene, or pull funding.
I hope that by bringing this pervasive attitude towards gender bias out of the darkness it will affect real change in an anything-but-professional sport where children and families look up to riders as role models. It leaves a sour taste in my mouth to think of the example they are giving to young girls and boys about their individual worth and dignity.
Post Edit: I have found out that the chef has been terminated for undisclosed reasons. The only verbal reason cited was that she complained about the porn and pictures of naked women she was forced to have in her work area. In effort to keep her silent for three years, they threatened her with a huge fine for mentioning anything of what she had to endure.
Thoughts?
While interviewing a team chef for a major professional team, I started to ask simple questions like, “How long have you been a chef?” and “Where do you live when you’re not with the team?” The answer to the next question really surprised me: “What’s the best thing about working with the team?” I expected her to say that she got to meet great riders and be a part of the team’s success, but she said “Not much.” I dug a little deeper and found that the team was very insensitive to women and created a sometimes downright hostile work environment.
She described and showed pictures of how they had half-naked pictures of women on the walls and watched porn in her work area. How she endured the stares, sexist comments, and forceful advances of men involved on the team. She was also required to sleep in quarters that were open and available to anyone that wanted to enter at anytime for a snack. I was completely appalled and it sounded like a wild story that I might not have believed if it weren’t for the pain I could clearly see in her eyes as she relived those experiences. What she was describing to me was something that I wouldn’t wish on anyone. She was being treated as an object, not a professional, because of her gender.
Many may think that it’s to be expected in a male dominated sport, and to them I ask: should it be expected? We all have the right to go to work and not be harassed for gender, race, sexuality, religion, or any other reason. After all if this is supposed to be a “professional” sport I would think that they would be professionals in all aspects of the day to day operations I would blame the ones in charge for this unsafe, unprofessional, and degrading environment. As an example, one of the team executives used to called the chef “princess”. You might think that’s cute or funny, but this diminutive comes with negative implications of both age and inexperience. This attitude carries down to the rest of the team, proliferating the abuse. They pay the women on the team far less than the men, a mechanic sat down at her table even though there were several other tables available and told her to get up and leave so the team could eat at that table, and a truck driver called all women “stupid and useless.” The list of harassment and mistreatment went on and on.
While researching laws in Germany where this team is based out of, I found that they had no law on the books that dealt with sexual harassment. Instead, I learned about a term called “mobbing.” It is essentially a collective that singles out an individual and makes their work difficult and near impossible to perform so they can be terminated. German law guarantees that “(h)uman dignity is inviolable.” After reading examples of court findings against German companies, I was not surprised to see that everything they had done to the chef was a cited example.
This is very troublesome for the sponsors and their target consumers because their name will be associated with this sexist model for degradation. The team in question is Bora Hansgrohe. They are a manufacturer of home bathroom and kitchen fixtures around the world. I doubt that the company knows what is taking place on a team they have sponsored but, it would be best to investigate, intervene, or pull funding.
I hope that by bringing this pervasive attitude towards gender bias out of the darkness it will affect real change in an anything-but-professional sport where children and families look up to riders as role models. It leaves a sour taste in my mouth to think of the example they are giving to young girls and boys about their individual worth and dignity.
Post Edit: I have found out that the chef has been terminated for undisclosed reasons. The only verbal reason cited was that she complained about the porn and pictures of naked women she was forced to have in her work area. In effort to keep her silent for three years, they threatened her with a huge fine for mentioning anything of what she had to endure.
Thoughts?
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