7 ms·
Surprise surprise, managers behave badly and it doesn't matter what their background is. Usually engineers have to go through rigorous interviews; maybe it's t
by omouse 10y ago
Surprise surprise, managers behave badly and it doesn't matter what their background is.
Usually engineers have to go through rigorous interviews; maybe it's time that was stepped up for managers with better behavioural questions.
- whatever_dude 10y agoUnfortunately managers also tend to be a product of their environment. I've seen female managers/leads take extremely male-centric sexist positions on issues just because it's the way they've learned. In other words, they had become "one of the boys" and were expecting other women under them to do the same. I've come to assume it's especially true of Women on their 40s or so who have been in the tech industry for a while; a generational problem if you will.
- endymi0n 10y agoThis. If you look how Uber HR "handled" all these problems by completely ignoring them, it's a large part of the problem.
- apercu 10y agoHR only exists to keep the company free from liability.
- lafar6502 10y agoso this time they failed - is throwing mud on the Internet the only way of settling this? Or just most convenient and with best chance of payout? Something smells fishy here - many many people see the big pile of money at Uber and get some ideas
- arcticbull 10y agoWhat money? They've got a -140% profit margin. Any money is already pre-committed to be paid out to the people using the system.
- MBCook 10y agoPart of keeping the company free from liability is not enabling massive sexual harassment problems that end up causing multi-million (or billion) dollar (possibly class-action) lawsuits. Even an ultra-strict "HR only does what's good for the company" should lead to them preventing sexual harassment issues due to legal landscape.
- btilly 10y agoHR has to operate within the constraints of the larger organization. Under normal circumstances, HR tries to get the organization to behave reasonably, and employees to not get too upset about it, during or after their period of employment. The actions of both are actually out of their control, but they push both ways. It is a classic case of responsibility without authority. If the organization refuses to take HR concerns seriously, then you get the result you see at Uber. The only thing that HR can do is try to get employees to toe the company line. Good HR people will leave. But there is always someone left to do the job. (It is just like death marches in software development. Which also seems to be a problem at Uber.)
- watwut 10y agoThat does not excuse them just as it would not excuse males. It is important to hold women to the same standard even in this area. Moreover, some women are abusive even without males teaching them that. Out of curiosity, what did you meant by male centric position?
- whatever_dude 10y agoI meant a sexist position that benefits men. Like someone being told that "girl, I never had any respect from men in my career, so don't expect any either" (this was not said from a manager to me, it was part of a conversation a woman I know had with her boss).
- bgun 10y agoOr stop promoting engineers to management roles they aren't educated for or socially prepared for.
- ar15saveslives 10y agoWhat exactly do you mean by "socially prepared for"?
- stagbeetle 10y agoA lot of engineers have never held a position of leadership in any respect. As well, they're stereotypically tech-focused, rather than people-focused. This makes them less prepared for the stress and less in-tune with the emotions of others, i.e socially unprepared to be leaders.
- kchoudhu 10y agoAcculturation takes time, which HR and upper management is pyschopathically unwilling to provide. They're too busy moving fast and breaking shit.
- stagbeetle 10y agoIs complete acculturation practically possible? It seems that all cultures have foundations that never go away. How about partial acculturation? Has it successfully been done before? Has a company ever managed to completely change their inner workings without becoming something unrecognizable?
- kchoudhu 10y agoI'm not asking for Borg-style assimilation: I'm asking for basic management standards followed by all managers. Upper management's pervasive refusal to pay anything more than token lip service to this standardization makes 99% of technology organizations a political hell to work in.
- david-cako 10y agoIs 2017 the year of the managerial whiteboard interview?
- kchoudhu 10y agoIt may be the year of taking "fit" interviews seriously.