4 ms·

Bit disingenuous wording - they don't exclude men from photos & age. The US has summary firing. In Japan if you're a permanent employee you can reasonably expe

Bit disingenuous wording - they don't exclude men from photos & age. The US has summary firing. In Japan if you're a permanent employee you can reasonably expect to remain so. From the people pissing in bottles at Amazon your protections don't sound any better. Hiring discrimination against child bearing aged women is universal - it's just in the US they have to be more careful how they do it.

gyomu 3y ago
Yep. I once had the CEO of an early stage, venture backed SF startup I worked for confide to me: “you know, every time we interview a woman in her late 20s/early 30s, I just have to wonder if she’ll take maternity leave 6 months in to working with us. As a startup we just can’t afford that”. Of course the public face of the company was all about fighting inequality, supporting diversity, etc.
- Gibbon1 3y ago
  Yeah that's spot on because like nope never have I had a male friend go now that my wife and I have a kid what I need is more money and flexible work hours. So bye. Okay I'm breaking the site guidelines because every man I knew at my age has done that.
- gnu8 3y ago
  I wonder if that CEO was dropped on his head as a child or what else might have been wrong with him to have such a bizarrely spiteful attitude towards humans, and I would have asked him that. People with that type of attitude need to be confronted wherever they are found whenever they express something that fucking stupid. Hopefully he was able to mend his ways.
  - jj999 3y ago
    Being angry about this only hurts your chance of understanding why one will think this way and enact change.
- stackedinserter 3y ago
  But startups really can't afford it, what else can they do?
  - vhcr 3y ago
    Insurance?
    - burnished 3y ago
      Is that a real thing or are you just guessing? I'm trying to imagine an insurance policy that a) protects against financial losses related to losing a pivotal member and b) pays out because they got pregnant, and it sounds insane.
    - zeroCalories 3y ago
      You can't insure against losing someone important in the early days of a startup. You lose the context and knowledge invested into the person, and replacing them will take time, which is even more valuable for a startup. Sure, things don't matter at a megacorp that has enough of a buffer to weather these leaves, but I'm sympathetic to startups that don't want to hire women. I don't know what the solution is, but it can't involve maternity leave. Maybe the state should provide free daycare so that the women can get right back to work.
      - Dalewyn 3y ago
        It's not just startups. Airline companies of all sizes are really hesitant to hire women pilots, because training and certifying pilots is fucking expensive in both money and time. They really do not want to invest in a new pilot only for her (or him, for that matter) to say "Yeah, I'm quitting/taking leave for my new baby." and have to write off their investment that could have gone to another would-be pilot who would fly with them for many decades.
        zeroCalories 3y ago
        Yes, but that's more of an accounting problem. Airlines will either have to increase ticket prices, or the state could insure them, or maybe non of that matters because there is a critical shortage of pilots right now. For an early stage startup the potential loss of an important person is incalculable. 3 month delay could put you irrecoverably behind in the market, it could cause you to run out of funding as your efficiency tanks. Treating it statistically the same way you would for airlines does not work for startups that are fundamentally about being an exception to statistics.

gyomu 3y ago

Yep. I once had the CEO of an early stage, venture backed SF startup I worked for confide to me: “you know, every time we interview a woman in her late 20s/early 30s, I just have to wonder if she’ll take maternity leave 6 months in to working with us. As a startup we just can’t afford that”. Of course the public face of the company was all about fighting inequality, supporting diversity, etc.

Gibbon1 3y ago
Yeah that's spot on because like nope never have I had a male friend go now that my wife and I have a kid what I need is more money and flexible work hours. So bye. Okay I'm breaking the site guidelines because every man I knew at my age has done that.
gnu8 3y ago
I wonder if that CEO was dropped on his head as a child or what else might have been wrong with him to have such a bizarrely spiteful attitude towards humans, and I would have asked him that. People with that type of attitude need to be confronted wherever they are found whenever they express something that fucking stupid. Hopefully he was able to mend his ways.
- jj999 3y ago
  Being angry about this only hurts your chance of understanding why one will think this way and enact change.
stackedinserter 3y ago
But startups really can't afford it, what else can they do?
- vhcr 3y ago
  Insurance?
  - burnished 3y ago
    Is that a real thing or are you just guessing? I'm trying to imagine an insurance policy that a) protects against financial losses related to losing a pivotal member and b) pays out because they got pregnant, and it sounds insane.
  - zeroCalories 3y ago
    You can't insure against losing someone important in the early days of a startup. You lose the context and knowledge invested into the person, and replacing them will take time, which is even more valuable for a startup. Sure, things don't matter at a megacorp that has enough of a buffer to weather these leaves, but I'm sympathetic to startups that don't want to hire women. I don't know what the solution is, but it can't involve maternity leave. Maybe the state should provide free daycare so that the women can get right back to work.
    - Dalewyn 3y ago
      It's not just startups. Airline companies of all sizes are really hesitant to hire women pilots, because training and certifying pilots is fucking expensive in both money and time. They really do not want to invest in a new pilot only for her (or him, for that matter) to say "Yeah, I'm quitting/taking leave for my new baby." and have to write off their investment that could have gone to another would-be pilot who would fly with them for many decades.
      - zeroCalories 3y ago
        Yes, but that's more of an accounting problem. Airlines will either have to increase ticket prices, or the state could insure them, or maybe non of that matters because there is a critical shortage of pilots right now. For an early stage startup the potential loss of an important person is incalculable. 3 month delay could put you irrecoverably behind in the market, it could cause you to run out of funding as your efficiency tanks. Treating it statistically the same way you would for airlines does not work for startups that are fundamentally about being an exception to statistics.