Two managers left Shortcut following accusations of sexual harassment

In the figures from kode24’s latest salary survey among Norwegian developers, which has not yet been published, the proportion of women is as low as 13 percent.

And according to a survey we did in 2022, has every fifth female developer experienced sexual harassment at work.

One of these is now telling his story to E24, which wakes up on Saturday big attention in the Norwegian developer industry on LinkedIn, among others.

The article is long, and should be read in its entirety, but here are the most important things:

Assault at a summer party

Sofie, who does not want her full name in the E24 article, worked as a designer at the app company Shortcut. After the launch of their Æ app in 2019, they traveled to a summer party outside Oslo, with a seaplane and a private chef.

Here, Sofie is said to have been sexually assaulted by someone in Shortcut’s management team.

– It goes so fast. Suddenly he’s on top of me. I remember being pushed down hard into the metal bar at the back of the quad. He stuffs his tongue into my mouth, she tells E24, and he is said to have tried to get under her clothes, and Sofie is said to have ended up with bruises.

According to itself, E24 has been trying to get an answer from the man for three months, without success.

Ended with scrutiny

Sofie has several meetings with both the man and other Shortcut managers in the period that follows. She felt that she was not taken seriously, and that the episode should be hushed up.

Furthermore, she should have been thrown out of the Æ project, and she should not have been given much else to do, either.

After a dismissal, several meetings, and commitment from kode24 expert and former Shortcut developer Petter Klingen Wright, it all ends with a KPMG investigation of the working environment in the company.

– The investigation revealed behavior in the company that was contrary to ethical regulations and how we want the company to be as an employer, Shortcut CEO Marius Mårnes Mathiesen says to E24.

New job, new charges

The report leads to two managers quitting immediately – one of them the man who allegedly assaulted Sofie.

But again Sofie experiences being sexually harassed by Shortcut employees, through rude text messages. In the end, she gets a new job at Innovation Norway. But the story does not end here either.

Her new employer receives several anonymous e-mails, where it is alleged that Sophie has sexually harassed Shortcut colleagues, and that she allegedly sent “unfounded notification cases on “metoo””.

As a result of all this, Sofie must have been on sick leave several times, received help from a psychologist and struggled to function in her new job.

I think they have taken action

The chairman of Shortcut, Finn Olav Elde, calls what has happened to Sofie “shocking and unacceptable”, and apologizes to her and everyone concerned.

Shortcut’s managers also apologize that she was not taken seriously earlier, and believe that they have addressed and resolved the problems.

– We have to admit that for a period the company was not good enough to ensure a safe and good working environment for everyone. Afterwards, as chairman, I have been closely involved in making the new and strengthened notification routines well known among all employees, and working closely with our managers so that everyone is well looked after in the company, Elde tells E24.

Shortcut manager Marius Mårnes Mathiesen also apologizes.

– The investigations carried out in 2021/2022 showed that we had not been good enough to ensure a safe working environment – and I apologize for that. Subsequently, the company has taken a number of measures to improve routines, guidelines and management to ensure that we look after employees in a safe and good way, Mathiesen tells E24.