“Get Out of the Company”: A First-Person Story of Workplace Violence

We reached out to Irina and asked her to share the details, and that’s the story we heard.

“I am forced to publicize a disgusting situation that happened to me for the first time in my life: famous in the wine world, Denis Rudenko and Vladimir Glukhov punched me in the face and disgusting verbal insults after one work events.

Forced – because I don’t want anyone else to be me. I know with certainty that violence should not go unpunished. Now I have bruises on my face, and if you keep quiet, someone else could be hurt much more badly. I tell you the details.

I have been working in the alcohol industry since 2018. In June I got a new job in a wine trading company with a trial period of one month, after which, at the beginning of July, satisfied the each other, we signed a contract. I really liked the project, and I thought it had a great future that we were going to build together.

There were several marketers in the company before me, so the task was difficult: win over colleagues who don’t believe marketing works, and you can calculate all the costs and benefits. Everyone started to develop good relationships. My work format is remote, so we met with the rest of the employees no more than once or twice a week at town hall meetings or personal meetings to discuss work.

I personally met with the head of the development department, Glukhov, a maximum of six times. It was sometimes difficult to work with him. For example, for three weeks he didn’t give me the TK for our bar’s wine list, which I had to send to the designer. Whenever I asked about the map, Glukhov replied that it didn’t matter. On August 2, I asked the owner to go online and influence the speed of Vladimir’s work – as a result, he was reprimanded for a long time.

On Saturday August 6, 2022, another work event took place, where there was a wine bar from the company where I worked. I was responsible for the branding part and agreements with partners, while Glukhov was responsible for the delivered product and communication with the public. One of the attendees of the event was Denis Rudenko, a wine expert and wine blogger with a large audience. He came to the bar a few hours before the end of the event already under graduation and continued to drink.

I wanted to leave earlier, but the company paid for a taxi for everyone. Since the event took place 50 km from Moscow, a taxi would have cost me more than 3,000 rubles. So we decided to wait for the car together: at the time, that seemed reasonable to me.

There were four of us: me, Glukhov, Rudenko and a young companion of one of the men named Nadezhda. While waiting for a taxi, Vladimir and Denis struck up a conversation about how women shouldn’t have any rights, their job is to “shut up in a rag.” I could not stand it and said that I did not agree with it, but my participation in the conversation was not drawn into a dispute, all the more heated, – I simply inserted a remark, expressing my opinion. So I didn’t expect the sequel.

Glukhov approached me and punched me in the face saying I had to “get out of business”. I was surprised and confused, but “crisis management” worked in my head, and I turned on the recorder to prove later that I was being assaulted. (We cannot publish the audio due to the abundance of obscene language – editor’s note.)

I don’t know the reasons for the hostility towards me, my position is marketing manager. Maybe I ruined someone’s plans when I got this job.

In addition, there were continuous insults and threats. I quote in fragments, but verbatim: “Sheep… Get out of here before they bury you here.” Nadezhda cheered up two drunken men and acted like she really enjoyed what was going on.

I pulled away to gather my thoughts, turned off the recorder, and called a cab. We had to wait 20 minutes, we were in the field. Rudenko came to me with threats and hit me in the face – harder than Glukhov, I got a bruise. Vladimir began to stop him with the words: “Denis, it’s also impossible.” This episode, as well as the blow, was filmed by surveillance cameras. I made several entries on the phone. I didn’t have a lot of places to go – at night and in the field.

After that, I called the police. After some time, I was contacted by an employee who advised me to go to the emergency room to remove the blows. Why no one came to the scene of the attack, I don’t know.

I waited for a taxi and went to the emergency room. In the morning, the first thing I did was write a statement to the police and ask the organizers for the surveillance camera recordings. Fortunately, although one of them is located very far away, the moment of Rudenko’s impact is visible. I also managed to fix a lot of things myself – there are audio and video recordings. All the documents were handed over to the police along with the statement and the beatings recorded in the emergency room.

The district police officer has already contacted me and told me that this is enough to confirm that everything I say is true. Although in various audiences, including our professionals – for people in the alcohol field, they still write that I am lying, slander and public relations, that it is my fault, that I am not feminine enough, not enough cultured, that “they don’t take the dirty laundry out of the hut.

I am still amazed that this is even possible, and even more so in a professional sommelier environment, where there is no “too much”.

Now I have bruises on my face, but soon they will pass. I was fired from the company after posting on social media what happened, without giving reasons. I will not forget the insult or the aggression. No one should endure such humiliation in the future. Violence should not go unpunished – people unable to contain their aggression, who understand that they cannot be held responsible for their actions, are dangerous to others.