The executive suing Amazon Web Services: ?I wouldn?t want my worst enemy working there?

But just over a year after she joined, the promising job had become a nightmare.

Her lawsuit is one of several Amazon is currently facing over allegations of workplace discrimination, and it underscores the challenges women face from the bottom to the top of the tech industry.

Amazon, like many tech companies, categorizes workers into tiers of responsibility and pay. Warner was one of few female executives at her level in the department, she said, and according to the lawsuit she was hired at a lower tier than she felt she qualified for.

Rather than being disciplined, the lawsuit alleges, the male AWS employee who berated Warner was ultimately promoted into the same role she had been discouraged from pursuing. Warner, meanwhile, remained at a lower position and compensation.

Anderson, the Amazon spokeswoman, said the company had investigated and was unable to substantiate issues raised in the post.

Warner described such responses as typical for the company.

Directly after Pao’s case, Tina Huang filed a suit against Twitter alleging its promotion system unfairly favored male employees, and the former Facebook employee Chia Hong filed a suit against Facebook alleging sexual and racial discrimination.

And Warner isn’t the only one alleging bad behavior at Amazon. The law firm handling her case is currently pursuing lawsuits from five other employees, including Charlotte Newman, an Amazon Web Services senior manager who has alleged both sexism and racist behavior.

The recent wave of complaints has prompted a backlash within Amazon. The LinkedIn post from Williams, as well as Warner’s suit, were cited in an internal petition at Amazon Web Services that was signed by more than 1,000 employees in July 2021, demanding an independent investigation to be completed by November.

In response, the AWS chief executive, Adam Selipsky, emailed the petition’s authors to confirm the company would investigate the allegations through an outside firm, though he did not commit to a timeframe. Anderson, the Amazon spokesperson, said that investigation was continuing and that a date for completion had not been confirmed.

The scrutiny of Amazon Web Services has put Andy Jassy - a former AWS executive who took over for Jeff Bezos as CEO of Amazon in July 2021 - under the microscope.

Warner said she continued to receive inquiries from former employees at Amazon and other tech firms asking for advice on similar allegations. Nearly six months after filing the lawsuit, she is still job hunting, saying the experience left her wary of entering similar roles in the tech industry.