{"id":467417,"date":"2026-09-18T02:02:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T02:02:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/467417\/"},"modified":"2026-09-18T02:02:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T02:02:15","slug":"former-employee-accuses-sf-standard-chief-of-harassment-and-wrongful-termination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/467417\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Employee Accuses SF Standard Chief of Harassment and Wrongful Termination"},"content":{"rendered":"

The lawsuit alleges a male-dominated culture where sexual comments were tolerated and male employees were protected.<\/p>\n

Sep 17, 2026<\/p>\n

Updated 5:51 pm PT<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The local news site employs about 75 people, including reporters, editors, photographers, software engineers, data analysts and social media producers, according to its website.\u00a0\u00a0(Photo illustration by Martin do Nascimento\/KQED)<\/p>\n

A former employee of the San Francisco <\/a>Standard accused the news outlet\u2019s CEO and its ownership of sexual harassment, discrimination and retaliation.<\/p>\n

A lawsuit from Julia Ryan, the former director of growth at the Standard, against CEO Griffin Gaffney and Here\/Say Media, which does business as the Standard, paints a portrait of a male-dominated culture where sexual remarks were tolerated and where female employees were treated differently.<\/p>\n

The suit, filed in San Francisco Superior Court earlier this month, alleges that the Standard wrongfully terminated Ryan as \u201ca scapegoat for a broader issue caused by several teams of men\u201d \u2014\u00a0 while protecting and supporting the careers of male employees.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had never seen a culture that was so inappropriate and unprofessional and sexist, where remarks like this were made and not addressed, where there were such different standards, different performance standards for men and women,\u201d Ryan told KQED. \u201dI believe deeply in the value of local news, and I believed in the mission of what we were trying to accomplish. And this kind of culture holds organizations back from accomplishing their work and their mission.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"The San Francisco Superior Courthouse in San Francisco on May 29, 2026.\u00a0(T\u00e2m V\u0169\/KQED)<\/p>\n

Ryan is seeking emotional and financial damages, though she and her attorneys declined to state an amount. In a phone call with KQED on Thursday, Ryan alleged that Gaffney made \u201csexualized and sexist comments\u201d to her, creating situations that she felt were difficult to navigate. She described attending an event in San Francisco where Gaffney allegedly made belittling and highly critical remarks about women, and mocked them as having \u201ccrazy eyes\u201d or \u201cgoing on Ozempic.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was very dismissive about female colleagues at other companies in ways that I found really concerning and distressing,\u201d Ryan said. \u201cIt didn\u2019t stay in the professional realm \u2026 it became personal attacks on that woman\u2019s appearance, on her credentials, on how she got her job.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"San Francisco billionaire Michael Moritz listens to speakers during a panel discussion during an event releasing Crankstart report \u201cStreets to Stability\u201d In the Dianne and Tad Taube Atrium Theater at the San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center on Tuesday, April 1, 2025 in San Francisco.\u00a0(Lea Suzuki\/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Ryan, who lives in Rhode Island, was hired in 2024 as a remote employee, and traveled to San Francisco frequently for work, she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Instead of a dedicated Human Resources officer, the company\u2019s Chief of Business Operations served both roles, the suit states. The CBO, also a woman, was \u201cvery close with Mr. Gaffney and reported directly to him,\u201d which left Ryan without a meaningful avenue to address her concerns about the behavior of the CEO, she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2025, she discussed with other managers her observations that Gaffney applied different performance standards to men, compared to women. Ryan also \u201copposed the employment of at least two other men on the ground that they exhibited gender-biased behavior,\u201d the lawsuit says.<\/p>\n

Despite those issues, Gaffney expressed satisfaction with Ryan\u2019s work, she said. Ryan, who is now 35, got her start working in editorial strategy and developing audiences for news with the New York Post and Airmail.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m proud of the work that I was doing for more than a year,\u201d she said. \u201cAll of the feedback I got was very positive in nature.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the days leading up to her termination, however, Gaffney confronted Ryan for poor performance, she said. She then confronted Gaffney about the double standard he had for men and women, and in response, the lawsuit says, Gaffney raised his voice and his tone became markedly more aggressive.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"AThe San Francisco skyline seen from Bernal Heights Hill in San Francisco on Dec. 7, 2020.\u00a0(Jeff Chiu\/AP Photo)<\/p>\n

\u201cGriffin became irate, and angry with me that I was pointing this out. And it was shortly thereafter that he terminated me,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Two days later, Gaffney fired Ryan, she said. He stated that The Standard was not meeting key performance indicators, and then blamed Ryan, as the director of growth. Gaffney gave her no time or support to improve her alleged performance issues, the lawsuit states.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ryan said she\u2019s been using the year since her termination to understand how to use \u201cthe legal system to stand up to this kind of harassment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the lever that I have available to me right now to stand up and speak out about wrongdoing and problems,\u201d Ryan said. \u201cThis is my opportunity to speak out about an injustice.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The lawsuit alleges a male-dominated culture where sexual comments were tolerated and male employees were protected. Sep 17,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":467418,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-467417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=467417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467417\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/467418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}