3 ms·

Sexism at Uber from female management

28 points by sethbannon 10y ago

perfmode 10y ago
How is it that engineering managers are able to have such an outsized influence on company culture?
- BuuQu9hu 10y ago
  Because managers are part of the corporate power structure, and the corporate power structure is the biggest determinant in the nature of internal discourse. Never forget that companies are people and structure. Either the people or the structure are to blame.
HeavenBanned 10y ago
She acts like if you get an internship at a unicorn, that interns shouldn't put in 100 hours and get paid for 40. How the hell are you going to secure long-term employment with a good company when jobs are scarce? Does she know that we are in a de-facto economic depression? This isn't a boom in the economy. There are a glut of new grads and many of them are easily expendable. For the wheat-tier of developers, they may have "no problem" with their "free burritos" and "20% time off" but for the VAST, VAST FUCKING majority of new grads and people transitioning to a new career or pivoting, this is a tough, tough fucking time. This is as much the fault of the _economy at large_ than it is at Uber. If you think that that problem of overworked/underpaid interns is not endemic and is merely an isolated case at Uber than you are frankly really, really stupid. I stopped reading the article the minute I read that. Are you kidding me? How can I be charitable when they're making arguments like that? If I EVER. EVER. Got an internship at a unicorn, I would bleed to survive. Not with the economy the way it is. It's a dog-eat-dog world right now and there's no room for slacking off. I may want a Marxist utopia privately, but that doesn't mean I should ignore the reality of the world that I live in.
justinclift 10y ago
Kind of wondering if her manager was somehow feeling threatened/insecure by the writer. Of the "she's a better engineer than me" or (sic) "she's both prettier and smarter than me" (etc) kind of threat... and was purposely belittling and attacking her self-esteem due to that. The old "put down" approach. Ugh. It's something I've seen done by insecure & mis-competitive individuals. Normally outside the workplace. It would seriously suck to have it coming from your workplace manager. :(
dang 10y ago
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13784509 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13784509
grizzles 10y ago
Woman can be very sexist to other women. This is news apparently to a lot of men. Exhibit A is Patti Sanger on the reality show, Millionaire Matchmaker. She's a full blown misogynist from the Howard Stern / Trump school. When I see that show I'm watching through splayed fingers.

28 points by sethbannon 10y ago

perfmode 10y ago

How is it that engineering managers are able to have such an outsized influence on company culture?

BuuQu9hu 10y ago
Because managers are part of the corporate power structure, and the corporate power structure is the biggest determinant in the nature of internal discourse. Never forget that companies are people and structure. Either the people or the structure are to blame.

HeavenBanned 10y ago

She acts like if you get an internship at a unicorn, that interns shouldn't put in 100 hours and get paid for 40. How the hell are you going to secure long-term employment with a good company when jobs are scarce? Does she know that we are in a de-facto economic depression? This isn't a boom in the economy. There are a glut of new grads and many of them are easily expendable. For the wheat-tier of developers, they may have "no problem" with their "free burritos" and "20% time off" but for the VAST, VAST FUCKING majority of new grads and people transitioning to a new career or pivoting, this is a tough, tough fucking time. This is as much the fault of the _economy at large_ than it is at Uber. If you think that that problem of overworked/underpaid interns is not endemic and is merely an isolated case at Uber than you are frankly really, really stupid. I stopped reading the article the minute I read that. Are you kidding me? How can I be charitable when they're making arguments like that? If I EVER. EVER. Got an internship at a unicorn, I would bleed to survive. Not with the economy the way it is. It's a dog-eat-dog world right now and there's no room for slacking off. I may want a Marxist utopia privately, but that doesn't mean I should ignore the reality of the world that I live in.

justinclift 10y ago

Kind of wondering if her manager was somehow feeling threatened/insecure by the writer. Of the "she's a better engineer than me" or (sic) "she's both prettier and smarter than me" (etc) kind of threat... and was purposely belittling and attacking her self-esteem due to that. The old "put down" approach. Ugh. It's something I've seen done by insecure & mis-competitive individuals. Normally outside the workplace. It would seriously suck to have it coming from your workplace manager. :(

dang 10y ago

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13784509 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13784509

grizzles 10y ago

Woman can be very sexist to other women. This is news apparently to a lot of men. Exhibit A is Patti Sanger on the reality show, Millionaire Matchmaker. She's a full blown misogynist from the Howard Stern / Trump school. When I see that show I'm watching through splayed fingers.