4 ms·

These guys are wasting taxpayer dollars.

wslack 11y ago
I work at 18F, but am speaking for myself. It takes about a minute to add a Slackbot response, and posting the article helps us attract better candidates by showing our commitment to a good working environment.
- kookiekrak 11y ago
  I would argue that this article may actually harm your efforts at attracting better candidates. The slackbot responses are equivalent to public shaming for using a widely accepted gender neutral phrase to address a group of people. This makes 18F seem like a highly PC environment to work in.
  - JBReefer 11y ago
    Yeah, I would never work there after reading this. This makes it look like a place where passive-aggressively policing behavior is common. I'm not even one to say racist or do sexist things! This just smells ... bitchy I guess?
  - wslack 11y ago
    I appreciate the feedback, and I don't consider 18F to be "highly PC" (at least to other places I've worked). I guess personally, while "guys" is a common term, it doesn't seem like a truly gender neutral phrase - I wouldn't ever call a woman a "guy," so why would the plural work? In reading further about this just now, one interesting note is that "guy" is not neutral, and "guys" in the 3rd person is not neutral, but "you guys" (the second person) is used more generally. Here are some links: http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/11816/is-guy-gender-neutral http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/11816/is-guy-gend... https://www.quora.com/Is-the-word-guys-gender-neutral https://www.quora.com/Is-the-word-guys-gender-neutral http://www.economist.com/blogs/johnson/2012/10/slang http://www.economist.com/blogs/johnson/2012/10/slang https://www.reddit.com/r/genderqueer/comments/2kr0m0/is_the_phrase_you_guys_genderneutral_xpost/clnww2v https://www.reddit.com/r/genderqueer/comments/2kr0m0/is_the_...
- brandonmenc 11y ago
  > helps us attract better candidates I'd be curious to know if better programmers recoil at the gender-neutral "guys."
  - LyndsySimon 11y ago
    Doubtful, but this generates controversy, which in turn exposes members of the tech community to the brand.
supercoder 11y ago
Did you mean drones ?

I work at 18F, but am speaking for myself. It takes about a minute to add a Slackbot response, and posting the article helps us attract better candidates by showing our commitment to a good working environment.

kookiekrak 11y ago
I would argue that this article may actually harm your efforts at attracting better candidates. The slackbot responses are equivalent to public shaming for using a widely accepted gender neutral phrase to address a group of people. This makes 18F seem like a highly PC environment to work in.
- JBReefer 11y ago
  Yeah, I would never work there after reading this. This makes it look like a place where passive-aggressively policing behavior is common. I'm not even one to say racist or do sexist things! This just smells ... bitchy I guess?
- wslack 11y ago
  I appreciate the feedback, and I don't consider 18F to be "highly PC" (at least to other places I've worked). I guess personally, while "guys" is a common term, it doesn't seem like a truly gender neutral phrase - I wouldn't ever call a woman a "guy," so why would the plural work? In reading further about this just now, one interesting note is that "guy" is not neutral, and "guys" in the 3rd person is not neutral, but "you guys" (the second person) is used more generally. Here are some links: http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/11816/is-guy-gender-neutral http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/11816/is-guy-gend... https://www.quora.com/Is-the-word-guys-gender-neutral https://www.quora.com/Is-the-word-guys-gender-neutral http://www.economist.com/blogs/johnson/2012/10/slang http://www.economist.com/blogs/johnson/2012/10/slang https://www.reddit.com/r/genderqueer/comments/2kr0m0/is_the_phrase_you_guys_genderneutral_xpost/clnww2v https://www.reddit.com/r/genderqueer/comments/2kr0m0/is_the_...
brandonmenc 11y ago
> helps us attract better candidates I'd be curious to know if better programmers recoil at the gender-neutral "guys."
- LyndsySimon 11y ago
  Doubtful, but this generates controversy, which in turn exposes members of the tech community to the brand.

supercoder 11y ago

Did you mean drones ?