As Adria Richards backlash grows violent, SendGrid publicly fires her
A firestorm over a careless joke turned disturbing after violent threats were sent to the woman at the heart of the incident. Now Adria Richards, who caused an online outrage after she tweeted a photo of two men who were laughing about “big dongles” at a programmers’ conference called PyCon, has been fired—publicly, on Facebook.
Richards’s picture of the guffawing PyCon attendees caused one of them to lose his job, at a company that sponsored the event. But as the debate around his firing turned public—and ugly—SendGrid, Richards’s employer, terminated her contract. The company released a statement on Facebook:
Effective immediately, SendGrid has terminated the employment of Adria Richards. While we generally are sensitive and confidential with respect to employee matters, the situation has taken on a public nature. We have taken action that we believe is in the overall best interests of SendGrid, its employees, and our customers. As we continue to process the vast amount of information, we will post something more comprehensive.
