Worcester Business Journal

10 Worcester Business Journal | July 26, 2021 | wbjournal.com T he cra beer industry was taken by storm in May, aer Brienne Allan, a brewer at Notch Brewing in Salem, began sharing stories of sexism, racism, harassment, and other discriminatory incidents alleged to have taken place at breweries across New England and beyond. e explosion happened the way boiling points like these oen do: via social media, as a deluge of whistleblow- ers and victims shared their experiences working for and tangential to breweries both large and small. e connective tissue between many, if not most, of the alleged incidents, was a strong tendency for brewing workplaces to operate as havens for toxic masculinity, or, more colloquially, bro culture. In Central Massachusetts, the greatest fallout appears to have taken place at Wormtown Brewery in Worcester, where the bulk of leadership stepped back in May from the company's daily operations aer allegations circulated about discrimina- tion, racial comments, and sexual harassment targeting staff members who were women, members of the LGBTQ community, and/or people of color. e company quickly acknowledged the complaints and promised to institute changes, which were announced in July Toxic masculinity and bro culture are amorphous terms, but in the workplace, they manifest in clear ways, said Valerie Zolezzi-Wyndham, founder and owner of Promoting Good in Upton, a diversi- ty, equity and inclusion consultancy. Among those indicators is a proliferation of jokes and comments of sexual nature, about sexuality, about femininity or masculinity, and an understanding those jokes are common and accepted, she said. In some instances where bro culture has taken hold, those kinds of jokes may actually be encouraged. "ose are the most toxic environments, where you can say that joke out loud in front of the CEO and he laughs along or engages in that behavior," Zolezzi-Wyndham said. In more insidious instances, company leadership may not actively participate in these behaviors, but implicitly en- dorse them by not holding staff account- able when they happen, she said. Among the anonymous complaints at Wormtown was an allegation sexual harassment was perpetrated by multi- ple people at the company, including management. One report alleged, upon trying to report harassment issues to one of Wormtown's owners, the unnamed owner responded he had been sexually harassed by women at the company, too. Tolerance of oppression can allow it to multiply, Zolezzi-Wyndham said. Al- lowing sexist comments can make way for allowing homophobic comments and racist comments, too. One anonymous allegation from Wormtown, made by someone who described themselves as a woman of Asian descent, alleged an employee at the company was sexually harassed by a former colleague more than one time, and accused Wormtown management of falsely claiming pay equity was in place among taproom employees. In reality, the anonymous poster alleged, oppor- tunities for advancement were provided for white staff members. e same anonymous person claimed a company owner suggested naming a beer aer her, using a racist trope as the theoretical beer's name. Valerie Zolezzi- Wyndham, owner of Promoting Good Creating a culture of respect BY MONICA BENEVIDES Worcester Business Journal Senior Staff Writer Allegations of harassment in the cra beer industry, where companies oen are founded by friends and rapidly grown, show the importance of deliberately building a healthy workplace The Redemption Rock Brewing Co. leadership team (from left) Co-owner & Head Brewer Greg Carlson, Co-owner & CEO Dani Babineau, Head of Sales Bronwyn Vogler, Co-owner & Director of Marketing Dan Carlson, and Co-owner & Taproom General Manager Kevin Kirkness PHOTO/MATT WRIGHT

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