4 ms·

But is it the fault of the "corrupt media" that bad publicity hit this company? Or is it the fault of Caldbeck? Lashing out and claiming that it's the media's

by pyre 9y ago

But is it the fault of the "corrupt media" that bad publicity hit this company? Or is it the fault of Caldbeck? Lashing out and claiming that it's the media's fault seems like it's trying to just redirect blame.

grandalf 9y ago
I think the sentiment he's trying to capture with that description is the enthusiasm with which stories about the tech industry being hostile to women are written, and how those stories tend to cast a broad net with respect to who gets blamed. Increasingly, this is becoming national news. I read a story about the Binary Capital fiasco in the WSJ -- a few years go it would have been in Valleywag and probably not even made Techcrunch. The problem is the narrative that comes with these stories is overly general. Most startups hire based on merit and require hard work but have a supportive, kind-hearted culture. Yet stories run with headlines like "Why is Google still so white and male?" etc. Stories like these overlook the deeper social problems that make it less likely for women and minorities to get hooked on building technology at a young age, and focus on the idea that it's backward-thinking male managers who are causing this from the top down. In other words, the lay reader is nudged into thinking that there's some sort of boy's club and that women and minorities aren't welcome. The public is sensitized to this at present after some of the recordings of Donald Trump. We're all ready to send a mob after the next male villain. Teo himself has invested in many female founded companies and the female founders I know who have worked with him consider him one of their most valuable sources of insight and support.
- x0x0 9y ago
  Binary is being sued by a former employee > Lai left Binary because of its “sexist and sexual environment,” including inappropriate conduct with female staff at company outings, a female-specific dress code and statements about the attractiveness of Lai and other women such as startup founders, according to the lawsuit. [1] I'm extraordinarily skeptical something like this went on right in front of Tai without his implicit consent. [1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-29/former-employee-sues-binary-for-post-resignation-harassment https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-29/former-em...
  - grandalf 9y ago
    I agree based on your link that skepticism is in order. I'm sympathetic to the idea that certain topics should be 100% forbidden in a work environment, but then I catch myself and realize that ultimately a lot of what is deemed appropriate vs inappropriate has to do with the tastes of the people involved. Even in cases where there isn't "org chart" status at play in a company, there are other forms of status, and so any kind of inappropriate talk could be abusive in some way. This is not to say we should accept these problems without trying to make the world better, just that work culture is a hard thing to understand. Maybe when a customer calls up angry, the team refers to the person as an asshole. To some this would be highly offensive, to others it would not. Maybe someone who worked there went along with it but did so resentfully and then they find another job and write a blog post outing the team for being vulgar. The point I'm trying articulate is that the bigger issue is that we (humans) are bad at understanding how status dynamics impact our own willingness to engage in certain topics of conversation, banter, humor, even flirtatious behavior. I've seen one sales guy who would go into the main office and kiss each of the secretaries on the cheek as part of a sort of greeting ceremony, full of high fives, etc. They all seemed like great friends who did that little ritual willingly, but it's possible one or more of the secretaries hated it and dreaded his arrival at the office. It was confusing to me at the time because I thought how I really wouldn't want to be touched by him, but I figured it wasn't really my place to judge since they all seemed to be enjoying it. Probably the best way to handle it is for firms to establish a code of conduct for workplace interaction that forbids certain problematic topic areas explicitly, but such things are hard to enforce and seem to me to be better handled by positive examples being set by leaders and clear, zero tolerance policy toward any form of abuse of power (regardless of whether it's harassing, sexual, etc.)

by pyre 9y ago

grandalf 9y ago

I think the sentiment he's trying to capture with that description is the enthusiasm with which stories about the tech industry being hostile to women are written, and how those stories tend to cast a broad net with respect to who gets blamed. Increasingly, this is becoming national news. I read a story about the Binary Capital fiasco in the WSJ -- a few years go it would have been in Valleywag and probably not even made Techcrunch. The problem is the narrative that comes with these stories is overly general. Most startups hire based on merit and require hard work but have a supportive, kind-hearted culture. Yet stories run with headlines like "Why is Google still so white and male?" etc. Stories like these overlook the deeper social problems that make it less likely for women and minorities to get hooked on building technology at a young age, and focus on the idea that it's backward-thinking male managers who are causing this from the top down. In other words, the lay reader is nudged into thinking that there's some sort of boy's club and that women and minorities aren't welcome. The public is sensitized to this at present after some of the recordings of Donald Trump. We're all ready to send a mob after the next male villain. Teo himself has invested in many female founded companies and the female founders I know who have worked with him consider him one of their most valuable sources of insight and support.

x0x0 9y ago
Binary is being sued by a former employee > Lai left Binary because of its “sexist and sexual environment,” including inappropriate conduct with female staff at company outings, a female-specific dress code and statements about the attractiveness of Lai and other women such as startup founders, according to the lawsuit. [1] I'm extraordinarily skeptical something like this went on right in front of Tai without his implicit consent. [1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-29/former-employee-sues-binary-for-post-resignation-harassment https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-29/former-em...
- grandalf 9y ago
  I agree based on your link that skepticism is in order. I'm sympathetic to the idea that certain topics should be 100% forbidden in a work environment, but then I catch myself and realize that ultimately a lot of what is deemed appropriate vs inappropriate has to do with the tastes of the people involved. Even in cases where there isn't "org chart" status at play in a company, there are other forms of status, and so any kind of inappropriate talk could be abusive in some way. This is not to say we should accept these problems without trying to make the world better, just that work culture is a hard thing to understand. Maybe when a customer calls up angry, the team refers to the person as an asshole. To some this would be highly offensive, to others it would not. Maybe someone who worked there went along with it but did so resentfully and then they find another job and write a blog post outing the team for being vulgar. The point I'm trying articulate is that the bigger issue is that we (humans) are bad at understanding how status dynamics impact our own willingness to engage in certain topics of conversation, banter, humor, even flirtatious behavior. I've seen one sales guy who would go into the main office and kiss each of the secretaries on the cheek as part of a sort of greeting ceremony, full of high fives, etc. They all seemed like great friends who did that little ritual willingly, but it's possible one or more of the secretaries hated it and dreaded his arrival at the office. It was confusing to me at the time because I thought how I really wouldn't want to be touched by him, but I figured it wasn't really my place to judge since they all seemed to be enjoying it. Probably the best way to handle it is for firms to establish a code of conduct for workplace interaction that forbids certain problematic topic areas explicitly, but such things are hard to enforce and seem to me to be better handled by positive examples being set by leaders and clear, zero tolerance policy toward any form of abuse of power (regardless of whether it's harassing, sexual, etc.)