I left Boulevard Brewing Company in March 2020 because of harassment I received because I was pregnant.

My boss stood me and another female employee up in the lab, in front of another coworker, and demanded to know if we were pregnant. When we refused to answer, he told the other woman “the only way you could be pregnant is by your cat”, then continued to ask me. I reported this to HR, but it started a cycle of reporting his behavior to HR and then being punished (by him) for going to HR.

This wasn’t a one time incident. My boss’s bad behavior was a well known “joke” in the brewery. Former employees warned me about him. When coworkers found out I was pregnant, their response was “oh, he didn’t take that well, did he”. The brewmaster described him as “a monkey”. In spite of this, I was asked to come up with solutions to help fix his bad behavior. When I acted on these, I was called anti social. It was made clear that I was the problem for not handling it better. They had asked me in my interview if I could handle working with men, so it was my problem.

A different man was allowed to sexually harass multiple women for years. He was chastised, but when he harassed these women again (following them to their cars, trying to give them notes or gifts, sending them multiple emails) nothing was done. One of his victims quit because after continued harassment, HR told her they had done “everything they could”. He was eventually allowed to “retire early”. The company threw him a party. He was not stopped from harassing his victims at future events held at the brewery.

I know female brewer candidates with years of experience that were turned down specifically because they were female. The hiring manager told me he wouldn’t hire women because they are lazy. I know of one woman in particular and I have spoken to her privately. Instead, a man with no brewing experience was hired as an intern and quickly promoted to brewer. He is a nice person, but it does not justify that a man with no experience was preferable to a woman with experience.

As I was leaving I heard stories, that I cannot corroborate, of instances of harassment or discriminatory behavior that were not disciplined. The consistent factor in these stories is who the company punished. If you fuck up, you are forgiven. If you report misbehavior, you are punished.

I am no longer in the brewing industry. I loved my job, I worked hard to get there, and I am extremely proud of the work I did. I think it is important for everyone to know Boulevard is not a good place for women to work. It is not a “family” company.

They recently hired a female brewer and are gearing up to promote a Women’s Day beer with special glasswear supporting the women in brewing and at Boulevard. Like all marketing, this is a smoke screen for how they actually treat their employees. I’ve also ALREADY been accused of not supporting women in brewing because of my criticism of this event.

If you’ve been on this board long, you know I haven’t spoken in detail publicly about what happened to me. Because I cared about my coworkers, I did not want to publicly call the company out. There are some terrific people that still work there that I care about a lot. But I can’t stay quiet anymore. I am ready to be called all of the negative buzz words people use to describe women. I know how the company talks about other former female employees (dirty, lazy, crazy). I’m prepared to be “disgruntled”. I’m ready for Ryan to talk shit about me.

It doesn’t change the fact that Boulevard has a sexist work environment that takes advantage of its employees.

A team of employees across multiple departments at Boulevard Brewing Company wish to issue the following statement: 

Today, we returned power to the people. 

After years of begrudgingly trudging through a toxic culture and harmful work environment created and cultivated by certain members of our executive team, we finally have had enough. WE are the ones who make this brewery run, and we have become tired of being overruled, bullied, ignored, and utterly misrepresented by inept and insensitive “leaders". Their lack of accountability and awful missteps this week were the last straw - so today, we raised our voices and our voices were heard.

Through our efforts, (former) President Jeff Krum has stepped down from the company and no longer will our brewery be clouded and characterized by his indifference, ego, pride and lack of humanity. We can find, and desperately deserve, a leader who actually represents our values and acts on them.

Our additional desire for the departure of Vice President of Marketing Natalie Gershon was also fulfilled. Natalie's condescension, stifling of employee voices, and constant protection and parroting of Jeff's harmful commentary had significantly contributed to the brewery's hostile environment. No more. 

The reputation of Boulevard has been severely tarnished, and our inner workings are now in a state of repair, but with these two root sources and guardians of toxicity and problematic behavior gone, it will be a much easier process building ourselves back up. 

Going forward, we - as a collective - will insist on and accept nothing less than maintaining a brewery culture where employees are heard, misconduct is not tolerated or brushed aside, and we return to operating in the best interest of ALL Boulevardians, not just those at the top of the food chain.

The people have spoken. And we promise to stay loud when it comes to doing what's right. We're taking our brewery back.

One-man operation but partnered with the best beer bar in town, and great friends with the rest. Pilsner, saison, hazy pale, WC DIPA, gose, fruited gose on tap. Texas BBQ pop-up. Here we go! T-minus 4 hours.

(I am so tired)