Former Atomos chief executive Estelle McGechie left the company in 2022, alleging “rampant illegal conduct” at the company, alongside an “insidious boys’ club culture” where she says she was told to keep quiet and excluded from meetings.
“If this is how the “boys’ club” treats their C-suite executives, how are they treating women throughout all levels of the company?” an attorney for Ms McGechie said in a statement.
Ms Bloom alleges the fellow employee kissed her on the mouth without consent, and then tried to convince her to sleep with them on several other occasions.
“Every time I thought I was going to see [them] I would have panic attacks,” Ms Bloom said.
‘Drug mules’
Ms Bloom was hired by Atomos as a travelling sales and brand representative in 2015, in a role otherwise known as a “road warrior”. She alleges she soon came to understand that part of her role was to ensure that cannabis and cocaine were available to certain Atomos employees.
“We were kind of their drugs mules,” Ms Bloom said.
This behaviour unnerved Ms Bloom, who grew up in a Mormon community, but she says it was normalised within the company.
Other employees within the company have confirmed that it was common practice for some to request cocaine and cannabis.
Atomos responded to questions regarding the settlement and pointed out that “procuring illicit drugs or expressing concerns about a ‘drinking culture’ at the company” did not feature “as part of the former employee’s claim”.
“Atomos is surprised that this matter has been raised several years after it was settled and suspect that it has been done so by a third party with vexatious motives,” the company said in a statement.
Ms Bloom alleges the first time she was sexually harassed was in 2016.
Ms Bloom says she did not quit the company at the time because she had four children and, apart from intermittent behaviour by the former employee, really enjoyed her job and working with audio technology.
Atomos settled with Ms Bloom in April 2017, but since then the company has been embroiled in a legal battle with former CEO Ms McGechie, who alleges she was wrongfully dismissed for speaking up about wrongdoings at the company.
Ms McGechie alleges Atomos engaged variously in “securities fraud and revenue manipulation”, “falsely reporting material sales forecast information”, “channel stuffing” (shipping excessive stock to distributors to artificially boost short-term sales figures), and “insider trading”.
Atomos has defended the dismissal, arguing Ms McGechie was fired because she had not relocated from the United States to the company’s head office in Melbourne swiftly enough.
In October last year, Ex-CarsGuide CEO Lauren Williams and former Toll executive Stephen Stanley quit their non-executive director roles blaming problems with the Atomos board’s effectiveness and “misalignment in decision-making”.
Ms McGechie alleges she was fired after she “dared to speak up about rampant illegal conduct at Atomos” and the “insidious boys’ club culture”.
Ms McGechie has been replaced by Trevor Elbourne, who is overseeing an $18 million capital raise for the company.
