'Protect yourself:' Julie Ann Horvath leaves Github on alleged gender harassment

A distinguished female engineer at GitHub has left. While being a staunch defender of the company against attacks from feminists, Julie Ann Horvath has had enough and has decided it is time to stop and leave the company.

Horvath, creator of a monthly technology talk called "Passion Projects" that promotes the role of women in the industry, left GitHub due to alleged gender harassment. While the developer has not detailed her complaints or ordeals while working for the company she has hinted of her sufferings on Twitter.

"I regret defending GitHub's culture to feminists for the last two years. I'm sorry to everyone I've hurt in doing so," Horvarth, who goes by @nrrrdcore on the microblogging site, tweeted.

"I've been harassed by 'leadership' at GitHub for two years. And I am the first developer to quit," she posted.

"I also hope they ask persons responsible for abuse and harassment to step down," Horvath stated in another tweet.

Horvath joined the company in 2012. GitHub, which has been a popular tool for collaborating programmers, has been known to have a work culture where sexist or racial slurs are incorporated to computer codes. Horvath's Passion Projects helped changed this image and encouraged women to enter the technology industry.

In an emailed statement to TechCrunch, Horvath related that the criticisms of her colleagues on her work and works of other female colleagues as a "serious problem." She also shared that it was hard for her to feel welcome in GitHub's working environment.

Horvath also shared with the technology blog that she tried to stay away from the wife of a certain founder and the founder himself so she will not be trapped in what she described as unhealthy situation.

"I met her and almost immediately the conversation that I thought was supposed to be causal turned into something very inappropriate. She began telling me about how she informs her husband's decision-making at GitHub, how I better not leave GitHub and write something bad about them, and how she had been told by her husband that she should intervene with my relationship to be sure I was 'made very happy' so that I wouldn't quit and say something nasty about her husband's company because 'he had worked so hard,'" Horvath told TechCrunch.

She also said she felt bullied by someone with perceived power and influence over her personal relationship and her career at GitHub. The said wife of the founder was pulling strings inside the company and found her way to verbally attack Horvath.

Horvath shared that this wife and founder were threatened of her employees and that the wife even hired "spies" inside the firm to check chat room logs of employees.

The story described by Horvath as "bananas" went on to describe how the wife of the founder pulled strings until human resources requested a meeting with her to inquire about out-of-work conversations. The said wife also purportedly showed a certain pattern of behavior that the female developer described as passive-aggressive.

According to Horvath, the founder accused her of threatening his wife, who she had not interacted with or contacted since the wife asked her out to drinks. Horvath cried during the episode, as she said the founder both 'chastised' her and called her a 'liar.' Horvath said the founder ended the meeting by saying that it was "bad judgment" to date coworkers (referring to her relationship, which was with another employee at GitHub) and then left. Horvath recalls sitting there after his departure both "crying and shaking uncontrollably," reported TechCrunch.

Horvath's said partner was also asked to resign but did not.

She also related a story about another person working at GitHub who liked her but whom she rejected. This employee started deleting codes she created without her permission. Another story was men ogling female co-workers who were hula hooping to some music.

"I'm only interested in telling my story so that others can learn from it. It seems like my comments here may have been enough," Horvath tweeted.

"To women who may be considering their own situations, reach out and more importantly, hire an employment lawyer and seek council asap," she said in another tweet.

GitHub on Sunday posted an update on its blog. The wife's founder is no longer allowed in the office. The company also asked the founder and the male colleague of Horvath to go on leave.

At the moment, details are very vague but this case will surely be a PR nightmare for GitHub.