Reddit has lost yet another top female employee: Chief Engineer Bethanye Blount, who’s leaving the company just days after the site dismissed AMA coordinator Victoria Taylor and saw the departure of interim chief executive Ellen Pao.
Blount told Re/Code that she decided to leave Reddit after only two months on the job because “there are going be some big bumps on the road ahead for Reddit.”
Blount’s decision comes amid a tumultuous time for Reddit. Taylor’s departure sparked what amounted to a moderator mutiny at the site over the management’s treatment of volunteer workers and the community at large. Some particularly aggressive Reddit users attacked Pao over the site’s issues; an online petition calling for her resignation gained around 200,000 signatures. Pao left the company Friday, writing that “the board asked me to demonstrate higher user growth in the next six months than I believe I can deliver while maintaining reddit’s core principles.” Reddit co-founder Steve Huffman is taking over as CEO.
Blount told Re/Code her decision to leave Reddit was not wholly due to Pao’s exit. She said that while Pao’s departure was tied up in gender discrimination, “I wouldn’t say my decision to leave was directly related to my gender.”