4 ms·

Oh please. You signal that by saying "we have a fun and diverse team", not "Which do you want, beer at your desk or your own team of European women?"

alipang 13y ago
Yeah, a better idea might have been to put up a picture of the team to communicate the same thing. On the other hand, if the intent is to communicate the same thing, should we really be that upset about it? The ad is a bit crass I admit, but I don't really think the spirit of it was bad, and this whole thing with "omg, they're equating women with free beer" is just hyperbole.
- PebblesRox 13y ago
  We should definitely give them the benefit of the doubt with regards to their intent, but I think it's still worth pointing out the negative connotations conjured up by the wording. It's important to write carefully because connotations don't go away just because you didn't intend for them to be there.
  - alipang 13y ago
    True, but sensationalizing this type of issues also does harm. What we get here is a description that hints at omgsexism, and some deeper misogynist motives from the authors since that gets your blog more attention. I don't think those motives are there, and that the authors are genuinely happy about having several female employees from diverse backgronds, but maybe expressed it in a clumsy way. We should be careful not to fall into this trope of female victimization for no reason.
falcolas 13y ago
The phrase "we have a fun and diverse team" contains so much recruiting hyperbole as to not have an actual meaning.
- TheCraiggers 13y ago
  Not only that, but they all say that. Maybe the company full of suits (not naming any names, but we all know of some like these I bet) that thinks a "fun work environment" is a forced after-work party to the pub on Fridays, and 'diverse' means 'we force our employees to take diversity training'. It's right up there with "can manage multiple tasks simultaneously" on a resume.
- PebblesRox 13y ago
  So add more details. If you actually have a fun and diverse team, you should have some stories, right? So tell them! "We love to hear S's stories about growing up in France." "W has the yummiest recipes to share." "One time we were struggling with this issue and J had this insight that we never would have thought of because we were so used to looking at it from such-and-such perspective." "At lunch last week, D taught us this great game she used to play as a kid; we've been having so much fun with it since then and P told us it reminded him of this other game so now they're working on remix together and they won't tell us anything about it until it's done." I was in an interview yesterday and my interviewers were telling me about how they bring their kids in to the office sometimes, and how they have tomato plants growing on the roof and how they take Good Friday off because "I grew up Roman Catholic, so it's a holy day for me. I need it to bake cookies!" Those kinds of things don't appeal to everyone of course, but they're right up my alley. They made me even more interested in the job than before.
  - falcolas 13y ago
    This seems to fall victim to the same "sin" as the original post - calling out the women in a way which could be easily misconstrued as a Playboy centerfold biography.
    - PebblesRox 13y ago
      I didn't mean to give the impression that all the stories would be about women. I think it would work best if you had several stories about a variety of people; the goal is to illustrate the diversity you have instead of going with the banal "we value diversity" claim with nothing to back it up. Of course having a team that actually is fun and diverse is a prerequisite to this strategy.
pessimizer 13y ago
Oh, please? I don't know what you mean by "fun and diverse." Is it a clumsy euphemism for "we employ women and non-Americans"? Because I'm not hearing it.
- jrs235 13y ago
  "fun and diverse"? Doesn't that just mean "we have a foosball table and some in staff voted democrat and others republican"? They should say, "work with a team of both genders and different nationalities, a truly diverse team" and not place one gender on a string to dangle from a stick in front of the other gender, all while assuming heterosexuality.
tapatio 13y ago
Mmm. Smart Euro girls FTW!!!

alipang 13y ago

Yeah, a better idea might have been to put up a picture of the team to communicate the same thing. On the other hand, if the intent is to communicate the same thing, should we really be that upset about it? The ad is a bit crass I admit, but I don't really think the spirit of it was bad, and this whole thing with "omg, they're equating women with free beer" is just hyperbole.

PebblesRox 13y ago
We should definitely give them the benefit of the doubt with regards to their intent, but I think it's still worth pointing out the negative connotations conjured up by the wording. It's important to write carefully because connotations don't go away just because you didn't intend for them to be there.
- alipang 13y ago
  True, but sensationalizing this type of issues also does harm. What we get here is a description that hints at omgsexism, and some deeper misogynist motives from the authors since that gets your blog more attention. I don't think those motives are there, and that the authors are genuinely happy about having several female employees from diverse backgronds, but maybe expressed it in a clumsy way. We should be careful not to fall into this trope of female victimization for no reason.

falcolas 13y ago

The phrase "we have a fun and diverse team" contains so much recruiting hyperbole as to not have an actual meaning.

TheCraiggers 13y ago
Not only that, but they all say that. Maybe the company full of suits (not naming any names, but we all know of some like these I bet) that thinks a "fun work environment" is a forced after-work party to the pub on Fridays, and 'diverse' means 'we force our employees to take diversity training'. It's right up there with "can manage multiple tasks simultaneously" on a resume.
PebblesRox 13y ago
So add more details. If you actually have a fun and diverse team, you should have some stories, right? So tell them! "We love to hear S's stories about growing up in France." "W has the yummiest recipes to share." "One time we were struggling with this issue and J had this insight that we never would have thought of because we were so used to looking at it from such-and-such perspective." "At lunch last week, D taught us this great game she used to play as a kid; we've been having so much fun with it since then and P told us it reminded him of this other game so now they're working on remix together and they won't tell us anything about it until it's done." I was in an interview yesterday and my interviewers were telling me about how they bring their kids in to the office sometimes, and how they have tomato plants growing on the roof and how they take Good Friday off because "I grew up Roman Catholic, so it's a holy day for me. I need it to bake cookies!" Those kinds of things don't appeal to everyone of course, but they're right up my alley. They made me even more interested in the job than before.
- falcolas 13y ago
  This seems to fall victim to the same "sin" as the original post - calling out the women in a way which could be easily misconstrued as a Playboy centerfold biography.
  - PebblesRox 13y ago
    I didn't mean to give the impression that all the stories would be about women. I think it would work best if you had several stories about a variety of people; the goal is to illustrate the diversity you have instead of going with the banal "we value diversity" claim with nothing to back it up. Of course having a team that actually is fun and diverse is a prerequisite to this strategy.

pessimizer 13y ago

Oh, please? I don't know what you mean by "fun and diverse." Is it a clumsy euphemism for "we employ women and non-Americans"? Because I'm not hearing it.

jrs235 13y ago
"fun and diverse"? Doesn't that just mean "we have a foosball table and some in staff voted democrat and others republican"? They should say, "work with a team of both genders and different nationalities, a truly diverse team" and not place one gender on a string to dangle from a stick in front of the other gender, all while assuming heterosexuality.

tapatio 13y ago

Mmm. Smart Euro girls FTW!!!