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Dell Autism Hiring Program

jobs.dell.com

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Re: Dell Autism Hiring Program

#91

Post by rtpg »

black-tea wrote: post #54
daniel_iversen wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I guess it's no more exploitative than employing anyone else. I think it’s way more exploitative because you’re not leveraging a person’s (by average definition) “strengths” to your/the company’s benefits, you’re using their weaknesses (and weaknesses are relative, but I’d say the list of traits above most people will probably think might complicate or hinder the persons long term success or happiness - in fact it…

That list contained both weaknesses (no social skills) and strengths (doesn't engage in politics).

Doesn’t engage in politics (in that list) means that they will become a pawn for other people’s politics.

Show me an office without politics and I’ll show you one with unlimited vacation time

Re: Dell Autism Hiring Program

#92

Post by SquareWheel »

loriverkutya wrote: post #62
ndnxhs wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, I used to work with someone who ticked every one of those boxes. Incredibly knowledgeable and spent all of their free time reading spec documents and programming. Unfortunately they could be emotionally unstable at times which was had to work around.

Please don’t call autistic people as “they”, we are human and please remember if you met one autistic person, you met only one autistic person. We are as different as neurotypical persons are different.

They (ndnshs) seem to just be referring to a single person here. Not a group.

Re: Dell Autism Hiring Program

#93

Post by pjc50 »

BadassFractal wrote: post #10

I'm curious to see what's going to happen when an employee, secretly part of a neurodiversity hiring program, says something that makes someone uncomfortable and that gets reported to HR. Will someone's comfort levels take precedence over the desire to employ someone with difficulty with social cues? Or will we visibly "tag" employees who are neurodiversity hires so that you know that if they somehow offend you, that…

> says something that makes someone uncomfortable and that gets reported to HR

If it's a one-off, not part of a pattern of behaviour, and the person is willing to apologise, they can usually be forgiven.

(Doubling down on "I'm right and they were wrong to be offended", on the other hand, is a terrible idea)

If you want a visible physical disability analogy, imagine that someone with a wheelchair runs over someone else's foot.

"I'm sorry, I didn't realise you were there" = everyone's friends again

"I'm sorry, you shouldn't have been standing there" = probably OK in the long run but unpopular

"You should have got out of my way" = unacceptable response.

Re: Dell Autism Hiring Program

#94

Post by ndnxhs »

loriverkutya wrote: post #62
ndnxhs wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, I used to work with someone who ticked every one of those boxes. Incredibly knowledgeable and spent all of their free time reading spec documents and programming. Unfortunately they could be emotionally unstable at times which was had to work around.

Please don’t call autistic people as “they”, we are human and please remember if you met one autistic person, you met only one autistic person. We are as different as neurotypical persons are different.

I refer to everyone as they. I don't see why you have a problem with this. My comment doesn't need to contain details of gender.

Re: Dell Autism Hiring Program

#95

Post by ndnxhs »

loriverkutya wrote: post #79
rimliu wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uhm. I usually call other humans “they”. How else I am supposed to call them?

Sorry I was not clear, please do not refer autistic people as “group”, autism is a spectrum and each autistic individual can be very different. Not all of us are emotionally unstable. This kind of generalisation is pretty harmful.

Seems to be a miscommunication. I use they as a gender neutral way of referring to individuals as the English language doesn't offer a better alternative.

Re: Dell Autism Hiring Program

#96

Post by black-tea »

rtpg wrote: post #91
black-tea wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That list contained both weaknesses (no social skills) and strengths (doesn't engage in politics).

Doesn’t engage in politics (in that list) means that they will become a pawn for other people’s politics. Show me an office without politics and I’ll show you one with unlimited vacation time

Not necessarily. Like anything it could be good or bad in certain situations. I interpret it as meaning the person will be driven to do what's right according to logic and merit as opposed to politics. It's another way of saying they are a disagreeable employee which are known to be very valuable to companies.

Re: Dell Autism Hiring Program

#97

Post by tapland »

black-tea wrote: post #54
daniel_iversen wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I guess it's no more exploitative than employing anyone else. I think it’s way more exploitative because you’re not leveraging a person’s (by average definition) “strengths” to your/the company’s benefits, you’re using their weaknesses (and weaknesses are relative, but I’d say the list of traits above most people will probably think might complicate or hinder the persons long term success or happiness - in fact it…

That list contained both weaknesses (no social skills) and strengths (doesn't engage in politics).

Weakness: No social skills

Strength: Gets trampled cause no social skills

Sounds pretty horrible.

Re: Dell Autism Hiring Program

#98

Post by anoncake »

odessacubbage wrote: post #33
ericzawo wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How could anyone stand to work for someone who so swiftly limits the breadth and depth of a person via their mannerisms such as this? it's dehumanizing, full stop.

it kinda came across as a tongue-in-cheek shitpost to me. is this guy known to be an unironically terrible individual or was he just taking the piss out of the semi-exploitative & work fetishising culture of the industry?

Ironically shitposting about autists is a great idea. Theyre very good at recognizing irony.

Re: Dell Autism Hiring Program

#99

Post by jmkd »

By maintaining >50% engineering staff for so long, Google has inadvertently created a fascinating study of the interplay between two spectrums: autistic and psychopathic.

More on the similarities and differences here, namely aspects related to empathy: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3826592/

It seems of no coincidence that so many of Google's social products have misfired - due in part to this interplay - influenced by the empathic dissonance found in managers from both sales and engineering departments.

I suppose it is another way of saying that Google (insert other SV giants here) employees are not only demographically dissimilar to the customers they serve, but that they cannot hope to represent them faithfully due to this empathic dissonance at senior decision-making levels.

Perhaps this is part of the fate that befalls most large and successful companies.

Re: Dell Autism Hiring Program

#100

Post by CSMastermind »

Sniffnoy wrote: post #74

Here's what I'm wondering: if they think this separate process is more reliable than traditional interviewing... why keep it a separate process rather than using it for everyone?

I've encountered this type of program before. The interviews often include tasks that traditional candidates would find boring and lots of repetition.
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