And one occasion in June 2007, eBay employee Young Mi Kim claimed that the current Republican candidate for governor of California became angry and "forcefully pushed her" in a conference room -- an incident that resulted in a six-figure settlement: Settlement Was Paid in Whitman Shoving Incident.
According to several current and former eBay employees, the incident with Ms. Kim took place on the morning of June 1, 2007, when Ms. Whitman was preparing for an interview with the news wire Reuters on an online virtual world called Second Life, where people appear as cartoonlike avatars.According to multiple former eBay employees with knowledge of the incident, the company paid a six-figure financial settlement to Ms. Kim, who still apparently works at eBay and says she's now cool with Whitman. ($200,000 often has a way of smoothing over rocky relationships).
Ms. Kim was briefing Ms. Whitman for the interview that morning by writing talking points on the whiteboard in Ms. Whitman's personal conference room at eBay's headquarters in San Jose, Calif.
Details of the dispute are somewhat vague, since no one else appears to have witnessed it. But according to employees familiar with the incident, Ms. Whitman became angry with Ms. Kim before the interview, partly because Ms. Whitman felt unprepared for the conversation with Reuters.
Ms. Kim later told at least one colleague that Ms. Whitman used an expletive and shoved her. According to one of the eBay employees knowledgeable about Ms. Whitman's version of the incident, Ms. Whitman said that she had physically guided Ms. Kim out of the conference room.
Ms. Kim left eBay's offices later that day, and in the ensuing weeks, Ms. Whitman tried to reach out to Ms. Kim several times to apologize, according to one former eBay employee close to Ms. Kim. Later, eBay suggested supervised mediation to resolve the matter, and Ms. Kim agreed.
However, my guess is, you won't be seeing Ms. Kim appearing in a Meg Whitman for Governor campaign ad anytime soon.
