4 ms·
My company is undergoing a big diversity initiative. Although the company is 75% female, the first task to is increase the number of women in tech. Race is also
by donretag 10y ago
My company is undergoing a big diversity initiative. Although the company is 75% female, the first task to is increase the number of women in tech. Race is also a factor. When asked about what is being done about age discrimination, there was a roundabout answer that did not address anything. Age diversity is not trendy.
EDIT: I should clarify that I have nothing against the diversity initiative in general, just pointing how despite all the work that is/was done, age discrimination was not even considered.
- crimsonalucard 10y agoMost diversity initiatives are discriminatory by nature. Assuming your company hires people exclusively based on skill.... In order to artificially balance certain ratios your company must discriminate on who they hire. In the educational world this is called affirmative action.
- mywittyname 10y agoI disagree. Diversity is about hiring people based purely on merit, rather than letting prejudices about gender/age/race taint the hiring process. Nobody's suggesting that we hire under-qualified women/elders/blacks, but they are saying the merely being such is not an indication of inferior ability or lack of "culture fit."
- toomuchtodo 10y ago> I disagree. Diversity is about hiring people based purely on merit, rather than letting prejudices about gender/age/race taint the hiring process. What if that means you end up mostly with white males due to women and minorities being drastically underrepresented in the total tech employee pool? Diversity is great until you hit the statistics wall.
- luis_espinal 10y agoWell statistics tells us two things: 1. Yes, minorities and women are underrepresented in the body of students pursuing tech careers. 2. That discrepancy does not explain the wider discrepancy found in tech employment. Everyone can take and pick bits of statistics to make up faux points (specially when they do not like the actual picture that comes when we use statistical data as objectively as possible.)
- toomuchtodo 10y agoI don't agree with point 2, but we're just arguing opinions currently without data. As soon as you start actively seeking candidates based on underrepresented classes, you're practicing reverse discrimination in the name of "diversity".
- renaudg 10y ago> Nobody's suggesting that we hire under-qualified women/elders/blacks How else are you supposed to meet arbitrary diversity quotas, when the pool of applicants is overwhelmingly white and male ?
- gaius 10y agoBut it isn't - unless you are counting Asians and Jews as "white".
- mywittyname 10y agoThey aren't arbitrary quotas, they are based on demographics, such that, randomly hiring qualified applicants should produce the desired results.
- karmajunkie 10y agoI think this is the first time I've ever seen someone argue that diversity is enabled through the meritocracy. The big flaw in that argument is that "merit" is not an objective measure, which then leads to a very narrow and slanted version of "merit".
- gaius 10y agoHence the Github rug scenario.
- hnbroseph 10y ago> Assuming your company hires people exclusively based on skill i would wager the number of individual hiring events that (at least ballpark) quantify "skill" is negligible.