Monday, August 7, 2017

When less is more

The token is seldom a net benefit:
One of the guys I mentor recently took a job at a large tech company and has seen this problem firsthand. On the SWE team he works with, there are four engineers and one token woman. He complained to me that "it is like having one less engineer," my response was "no, it's like you traded an engineer for a commissar." His boss and many other people in management truly seem to want to fire her, but "their hands are tied." In the worst case scenario, which this seems like: an SJW enters the company, does almost no work, reduces morale across the department, and subtly threatens complaint or even litigation should they be removed.
Who, precisely, ties those hands? This is a failure of management. Document, discipline, and fire. It's not that hard.

18 comments:

Al From Bay Shore said...

This is the theory behind the #MakeMineMilkshake hashtag. The female editors at Marvel, it is argued, fabricated an instance of sexism in order to protect their positions. It wasn't about a negative comment from social media, though they claimed this. It was about indirectly floating a job discrimination narrative in the air.

Anonymous said...

well, the failure to document, discipline and fire is one of middle management
...
the problem being that this middle management problem is being created by a combination of upper management and HR.

HR tells upper management that lack of diversity indicates a "problem". upper management tells middle management to make the diversity hire "work" ... to solve the "diversity problem".

as opposed to a Production problem.

Kentucky Headhunter said...

My brother worked at the local office of a company HQ'ed in Europe. He said trying to get rid of the useless diversity hires was almost impossible because the office followed some EU type HR policies. These people could basically sit around all day for months doing nothing, do the very minimum right before evaluations to show "improvement" and then go back to doing nothing until the next eval.

Troy Lee Messer said...

HR tells upper management that lack of diversity indicates a "problem". upper management tells middle management to make the diversity hire "work" ... to solve the "diversity problem".

The judges that invented the McDonnell-Douglas Test, I
E. Adverse impact, should be put up against a wall.

Anonymous said...

HR tells upper management that lack of diversity indicates a "problem". upper management tells middle management to make the diversity hire "work" ... to solve the "diversity problem".

@((( bob kek mando )))
Then upper management should fire HR, or at the very least not take anything they say about diversity seriously.

JH said...

This lines up with what I have seen as a SWE Consultant. The term we use is 'net negatives'. When you get a woman and/or outsourced third world talent on the job its not like being shorthanded they are actually resource sinks that make things even worse.

Tatooine Sharpshooters' Club said...

@ Kentucky Headhunter - Those EU HR policies sound a lot like most EU housing policies. Squatters are a nightmare to get rid of, and that's what most diversity hires are: job squatters.

Anonymous said...

VFM #7634 said...
Then upper management should fire HR



that is the obviously proper Business Decision, yes.

the problem being that this would immediately subject the company to 'disparate impact' and discrimination lawsuits and would land Jesse "Putting the Black in Blackmail" Jackson on the front stoop of corporate HQ.

ain't nobody got time for dat.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFEoMO0pc7k

dc.sunsets said...

Are courage & testosterone related?

In a world run by debt-finance (AKA fraud) & lawyers, management seems a bastion of invertebrates.

I've worked for three corporations. The bigger the firm, the more having a spine disqualified a candidate for advancement.

Bob said...

The issue I've noted as well with a lot of companies software / interfaces, getting nearly 100% negative feedback on a feature or design, and pushing it anyway.

And then not only doing that, but doubling down on it too. This isn't just "vision", this is straight up, "I'm NOT wrong, it must be x x x x that's wrong. I'll prove how not wrong I am by doing it even more, there! See!".

Likely females behind a lot of this, explains a lot based on their attitudes.

Anonymous said...

"One of the guys I mentor recently took a job at a large tech company and has seen this problem firsthand. On the SWE team he works with, there are four engineers and one token woman."

...there it is again...

Thanks, J. said...

NuWhite male burden. OWN WORST ENEMY...SMH.

Unknown said...

Speaking of, did you guys hear about the Google not-so-internal memo that got leaked about how women perform tech jobs? Pretty brutal shit. I dig how everyone, even Fox News below is referring to it as "anti diversity" and when they do interviews, it's mostly women and the token white knight getting interviewed about how white men are evil and they hate others yadayada. Talk about bias.

http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2017/08/07/google-employees-anti-diversity-manifesto-prompts-torrent-responses-sparks-wider-debate.amp.html

Rex Little said...

Who, precisely, ties those hands?

As others have noted, usually it's top management (or SJWs with influence at the top), the threat of lawsuits, or a combination of these.

Document, discipline, and fire. It's not that hard.

No matter how carefully you do this, you can still be sued, and you might lose. Even if you win, the cost of defending the suit and the negative publicity might outweigh the cost of leaving the token in place and working around her.

BriarRabbit said...

I was a mid-level manager for a Fortune 100 company - call center environment. I have hired and fired hundreds, if not thousands.

A manager worth his salt documents EVERYTHING. ANYONE can be fired. It may take a minute, but all it requires is some effort and documentation. Set performance standards and metrics, measure, hold folks accountable. If her performance is lacking, give feedback, document, give more feedback (always with a witness, preferably recorded) and document, then proceed to disciplinary action.

Best case scenario, she quits. Worst case, after a verbal warning, a written warning and final warning, she is terminated and one has all the documentation necessary to bounce the unemployment benefits as well as shield during litigation.

Skylark Thibedeau said...

One of the usual items found in the Department Code of Conduct is a prohibition against visiting non work related websites. The manager can say any site you visit is not work related and can you for violating corporate policy.

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

the "anyone can be fired! document everything!" stuff makes me laugh - we will never learn, will we?
Lie & Cry. a woman can get away with anything, up to and including murder. I bet you thought a pre-nup would save you too, eh?

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