TESTY

Bloomberg's Gruff Days in Court

2009 testimony made public this week.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg shows his true colors under oath. When Bloomberg L.P. was sued in 2007 on behalf of 65 employees who said that the business had discriminated against pregnant woman who took maternity leave, the company's majority shareholder was called to testify. In a 2009 transcript just released, he was patronizing to lawyers, sarcastic and irritable in tone, and critical of disloyal employees, calling them "bad people." Even before the case was filed, Mr. Bloomberg and his company had a reputation for being a boys' club, with Bloomberg rumored to have said that if women took time off to have children, men should be able to take time off to work on their golf games. But at the end of his second testimony, he insisted that, "Around the world we treat everybody the same."