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I imagine that Google, famous for their participation in an illegal wage fixing cartel and with its literal army of high-paid attorneys, isn’t too afraid of the

I imagine that Google, famous for their participation in an illegal wage fixing cartel and with its literal army of high-paid attorneys, isn’t too afraid of the legal consequences of discriminating against one woman. Well, so long as the NYTimes doesn’t write about it at least.

kentm 8y ago
I doubt the lawyers would OK such a thing, even if they weren't afraid of the legal consequences. Interviewers are just employees on the loop with minimal training, and as such you're likely to run into a non-trivial portion that do dumb things in the interviews.
lhorie 8y ago
Google isn't a person and high-paid attorneys aren't antibodies. It's much more likely that people doing the interviews don't have a clue how to do it (likely because their expertise is software engineering, not recruiting) The sooner we stop blaming faceless corporations and start acknowledging that each person involved in recruiting (including you and me) needs to take training and ethics more seriously, the better.
- PinballWizard 8y ago
  As a previous hiring manager, it's easy to getting stuck in the mindset that when you are doing shitty things for that faceless Corp that it isn't you doing that shitty thing, it's you doing what the Corp wants. It's hard to have the presence of mind to realize you are doing something for a entity that rarely is moral, but many times is amoral or even immoral
- bitwize 8y ago
  > Google isn't a person and high-paid attorneys aren't antibodies. Obviously you don't live in the USA.
- giantsloth 8y ago
  When people say corporation they clearly mean the board, the C level execs and regulations need to be put in place that promotes a culture of morality for the people that comprise and make these businesses function. You're blaming the individual for a cultural context that has been set by poor and morally bankrupt leadership.
  - lhorie 8y ago
    There's obviously room for C-level execs to improve just as well as there is room for the engineers conducting interviews. It's not an either-or situation. Perhaps ironically, I currently work at Uber (you know, the media darling). Here, I (and many others) feel strongly that the responsibility of fixing things is on everyone at every level, rather than something that comes exclusively from above. Somehow after people lost faith in the old leadership, and gained faith in the new leadership, they built up the awareness and courage to speak up. There has been some stuff coming from above (mandatory training about harassment, for example), but for the most part, initiatives to fix recruiting (and other aspects that have been in limbo) are self-organized by the engineers via interest groups, with awareness efforts in guild meetings, etc, and then those efforts bubble up the org chart sort of as an FYI. We tie these into what we call citizenship goals, which essentially work as an organizationally-blessed reason to do good. Obviously I don't wish for other companies to go through the mud like Uber did, but it would great if the ethically-minded employees at other companies could find some other catalyst to take matters into their own hands. Even here, there's still a lot to do, and it has to be an ongoing effort, but I'm hopeful.

kentm 8y ago

I doubt the lawyers would OK such a thing, even if they weren't afraid of the legal consequences. Interviewers are just employees on the loop with minimal training, and as such you're likely to run into a non-trivial portion that do dumb things in the interviews.

lhorie 8y ago

Google isn't a person and high-paid attorneys aren't antibodies. It's much more likely that people doing the interviews don't have a clue how to do it (likely because their expertise is software engineering, not recruiting) The sooner we stop blaming faceless corporations and start acknowledging that each person involved in recruiting (including you and me) needs to take training and ethics more seriously, the better.

PinballWizard 8y ago
As a previous hiring manager, it's easy to getting stuck in the mindset that when you are doing shitty things for that faceless Corp that it isn't you doing that shitty thing, it's you doing what the Corp wants. It's hard to have the presence of mind to realize you are doing something for a entity that rarely is moral, but many times is amoral or even immoral
bitwize 8y ago
> Google isn't a person and high-paid attorneys aren't antibodies. Obviously you don't live in the USA.
giantsloth 8y ago
When people say corporation they clearly mean the board, the C level execs and regulations need to be put in place that promotes a culture of morality for the people that comprise and make these businesses function. You're blaming the individual for a cultural context that has been set by poor and morally bankrupt leadership.
- lhorie 8y ago
  There's obviously room for C-level execs to improve just as well as there is room for the engineers conducting interviews. It's not an either-or situation. Perhaps ironically, I currently work at Uber (you know, the media darling). Here, I (and many others) feel strongly that the responsibility of fixing things is on everyone at every level, rather than something that comes exclusively from above. Somehow after people lost faith in the old leadership, and gained faith in the new leadership, they built up the awareness and courage to speak up. There has been some stuff coming from above (mandatory training about harassment, for example), but for the most part, initiatives to fix recruiting (and other aspects that have been in limbo) are self-organized by the engineers via interest groups, with awareness efforts in guild meetings, etc, and then those efforts bubble up the org chart sort of as an FYI. We tie these into what we call citizenship goals, which essentially work as an organizationally-blessed reason to do good. Obviously I don't wish for other companies to go through the mud like Uber did, but it would great if the ethically-minded employees at other companies could find some other catalyst to take matters into their own hands. Even here, there's still a lot to do, and it has to be an ongoing effort, but I'm hopeful.