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Coddling social anxiety is not a good argument for WFH. There's a difference between introversion (needing time away from people to recharge) and social anxiet
by scottLobster 4y ago
Coddling social anxiety is not a good argument for WFH. There's a difference between introversion (needing time away from people to recharge) and social anxiety (not speaking up or interacting differently in person vs online). Unless you're banking on some cyberpunk future where people only ever interact online, social anxiety is a maladaptive disorder to be confronted, not a personality quirk.
And FYI there are plenty of extroverted engineers. Some of us actually enjoy team sports as well as technical problems.
- danaris 4y ago"Coddling?" Social anxiety is a genuine mental illness, and a protected disability. This kind of arrogant, ableist crap is exactly why we need to destroy the cultural norm that everybody being in the office all the time is the only way to do work.
- thingification 4y agoIt sounds like you use "protected" here with the intention of forming part of an argument -- presumably that social anxiety should be protected? Isn't that circular?
- NoraCodes 4y agoIn the United States, 'protected" in this context means 'legally protected', in this case by the ADA. Employers are required to give reasonable accommodations to employees with disabilities.
- danaris 4y agoI'm using "protected" in the sense that it is a genuine disability, recognized by modern medicine and law, and as such anyone who suffers from it is entitled to the full protection of the ADA in the US. It also means that anyone disparaging it like that in the workplace is guilty of discrimination against a disabled person, just as if they had called someone with an amputated leg a "worthless cripple", or mocked a hearing-impaired person for not being able to hear them when they whisper in a meeting.
- blub 4y agoSocial anxiety is as much of a mental illness as the fear leaving a bad impression on a date, fear of spiders or fear of doing poorly at an interview and enjoys the same kinds of legal protections. Which is none.
- danaris 4y ago...You do know that social anxiety disorder is a genuine and recognized mental illness, right? Or are you just one of those people who thinks that all mental illness is just a lack of sufficient gumption?
- chrsig 4y agoI'm inclined to ask what your qualifications for such an opinion are.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- Apocryphon 4y ago> Unless you're banking on some cyberpunk future where people only ever interact online ...you're in one!
- shrimp_emoji 4y agoYeah... or at least the beginning of one. Let's face it: we're all heading towards neon Japan.
- sam0x17 4y agoYou could flip the script right back at the people afraid of interacting with people online.