Boulevard Responds to Employee Allegations

From Boulevard:

As you may have read, a former employee recently took to social media to level various allegations against Boulevard Brewing Company. Know that we take these charges very seriously.

For 31 years, we have endeavored to act with honor and integrity in all things, and to treat our people and our community with respect and dignity, guided by our founder’s dictum that “it’s never wrong to do the right thing.”

While we cannot delve deeply into personnel or employment matters, it is worth noting that these charges were thoroughly and impartially examined a year ago. 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. We are not perfect, but we have not, and we will not, tolerate harassment, mistreatment, or prejudice in any form.

We will use this situation as an opportunity to learn and to grow. While the entire brewing industry has work to do, we will not sit on the sidelines. There are many ways in which we can improve, can do better and be better, can build a more inclusive, supportive and nurturing environment for all of our people, but especially for the many women throughout the company. Today, we are convening a task force headed by several of our female leaders to take another look at the allegations, and to spearhead the effort to fully empower the women of Boulevard. We are committed to doing what needs to be done to ensure that each and every one of our people feel safe, supported, and respected.

This was added 26 Jan 2021 by Boulevard:

We are sorry.

In the last few days, we have heard from our employees, our former employees, and our community. We have learned a lot about ourselves. We have heard accounts of personal experiences that have shaken us to our core. It has become undeniably clear that harassment did in fact occur, clear that we have issues – serious issues that we have failed to address.

To those of you that we hurt, those we let down, those we failed to protect, we are deeply sorry.

Words won’t change anything, or fix anything, only actions. So starting today, we are taking the first steps.

Based on additional, corroborated information, we parted ways with a company executive.

We are hiring an independent third party human resources firm to undertake an independent investigation of all issues that have been raised, with full access to all our people and all our records. We will share the results with our teams, and will take all recommended actions.

We are instituting new procedures to enable anonymous reporting of workplace concerns, and reexamining our policies to ensure that all issues are handled in a thorough, independent, and fair manner.

We are instituting enhanced and mandatory harassment, bias, and discrimination training throughout the organization, and committing to improving diversity and inclusion.

This is the beginning of a long but necessary journey, a journey that has begun too late. While we cannot undo the mistakes of our past, we are resolved to do better, and to be better.