Boulevard says the source of toxicity is gone.

It’s been a crazy couple of weeks for Reddit – and we’re not even talking about GameStop stock. Several executives have left Boulevard Brewing after allegations of sexual harassment surfaced on the social media site.

Boulevard is a brewer of craft beer and maker of (rather delicious) Fling canned cocktails, as well as Quirk hard seltzer.

In a thread titled “Boulevard Brewing Co and women,” Redditors described a climate of sexism and sexual harassment that protected alleged perpetrators while punishing people who dared to report their experiences.

As a result of the misconduct, which appeared in the subreddit TheBrewery, Jeff Krum has resigned as president, a position he has held since 2016. Krum had been with the brewery for 25 years.

“As president, one of my oversight responsibilities was to ensure that all our workplaces were free of any form of real or perceived harassment or demonstrations of unwanted attention,” Krum told employees.

“Disclosures of recent days make it clear that this was not always achieved. Any and all failures in this regard are mine alone.”

The Reddit post accused the brewery of pregnancy discrimination and sexual harassment, among other issues. “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,” said the Redditor who started the thread.

The First Response

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The Kansas City, MO-based company released an initial statement in response to the claims made online, vowing that the women’s claims were “thoroughly and impartially examined.”

“The investigation determined that certain situations could and should have been handled with greater sensitivity, but clearly established that there was no harassment or discrimination,” the company said. “We are not perfect, but we have not, and we will not, tolerate harassment, mistreatment, or prejudice in any form.”

The investigation doesn’t end there, however. Boulevard is commissioning a task force of “top female leaders” to study the allegations and “spearhead the effort to fully empower the women of Boulevard.”

Folks on social media weren’t thrilled with Boulevard’s initial response, claiming that they attempted to downplay the severity of the accusations.

The Modified Response

The groundswell prompted the brewery to release a second statement, beginning with “We are sorry.”

“We have heard accounts of personal experiences that have shaken us to our core,” the statement said. “It has become undeniably clear that harassment did in fact occur, clear that we have issues — serious issues that we have failed to address.”

In that post, Boulevard apologized to the employees it had hurt while stating that they had parted ways with an unnamed executive, who – according to anonymous sources – is chief financial officer Matthew Szymanski.

Following Krum’s departure, Natalie Gershon, the brewery’s vice president of marketing, also announced that she was parting ways with Boulevard, noting that she was “gutted” by that week’s events.

“But let me be clear,” Gershon said. “The words of the company were not my words. The decisions made were not my decisions,” she wrote. “Like the rest of my colleagues, I was kept in the dark and offered a variety of truths from a seemingly endless bucket of lies.”

While it has been a crazy week for Boulevard, we appreciate the fact that the brewery is willing to do the work and take a hard look at its internal culture. The company’s employees released a statement of their own in response to the initial Reddit thread.

“The reputation of Boulevard has been severely tarnished, and our inner workings are now in a state of repair,” the statement said, “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.”

Erin Grafton
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