Big Tech Layoffs Are Hitting Diversity and Inclusion Jobs Hard • Hacker News Board

Re: Big Tech Layoffs Are Hitting Diversity and Inclusion Jobs Hard

#21

Post by therealestbizzy » Wed, Jan 25, 2023, 5:32 PM UTC

My favorite part of the diversity sham is the race selector on the Bumble dating app. Asian has 5/6 options with all cardinal directions included. Yet White has one option. Certainly just like the South Asian is different than the North Asian you get the picture. Also the Greek European is different than the Norwegian. You get the picture.

Also the chess.com emoticon selector. If you don't pay you have to be OK with no emoticon or 2 icons which are Pro Ukraine. If you pay you have access to all emoticons.

Not quite sure exactly what the message is there, but doesn't really go well with freedom of choice. Especially when you have a platform which has a huge minor audience. I guess chess.com has bigger problems not that their site is suffering under extreme load due to poor planning.

Re: Big Tech Layoffs Are Hitting Diversity and Inclusion Jobs Hard

#22

Post by kenjackson » Wed, Jan 25, 2023, 5:34 PM UTC

zenzen wrote: post #14

8f2ab37a-ed6c wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's unclear what D&I consultants can do in order to conjure more non-Asian computer science students out of thin air to fill that pipeline.

It’s not a pipeline problem https://www.fastcompany.com/90596325/its-time-to-debunk-the-...

I didn't listen to the full podcast, but as someone who has spent much of my work time in the past few years trying to hire -- it seems surprising to hear its not a pipeline problem. I advertised and solicited from as many diverse venues as I could find and still found hardly any qualified applicants. In fairness it wasn't easy to find White or Asian qualified applicants too, but still found disproportionately more.

My biggest fear is that if we try to sweep the pipeline problem under the rug, we're not going to fix it. I do have a potential solution, but I think it's a tough sell...

Re: Big Tech Layoffs Are Hitting Diversity and Inclusion Jobs Hard

#23

Post by vanjajaja1 » Wed, Jan 25, 2023, 5:34 PM UTC

I worry that this is just messaging to build towards 'make DEI jobs immune from layoffs'. eg the quotes from comments: > "Instead, he said companies should consider race, gender and ethnicity when deciding who to let go." > 'Only software engineering and data science jobs saw larger declines, at 24% and 27%, respectively.' So the "hard" jobs are actually facing larger layoff waves than the DEI jobs.

Re: Big Tech Layoffs Are Hitting Diversity and Inclusion Jobs Hard

#24

Post by scottiebarnes » Wed, Jan 25, 2023, 5:35 PM UTC

elektrontamer wrote: post #18

The idea of activists/politicians having any say in who companies hire disgusts me. The average person might thing of them as professional useless people. But as someone who lives in a somewhat corrupt country, I fear it's far more sinister. Here, after every government change, public worker positions and state universities tend to get filled with by the winner with their incompetent cronies. But the private sector i…

The idea of activists/politicians having any say in who companies hire disgusts me

But does it disgust you when companies discriminate based on age/gender/sexual orientation/race/disability/religion/etc?

Should corporations be accountable to society in some way, or do we trust them to "do the right thing"?

Re: Big Tech Layoffs Are Hitting Diversity and Inclusion Jobs Hard

#25

Post by dropit_sphere » Wed, Jan 25, 2023, 5:35 PM UTC

kenjackson wrote: post #17

danjoredd wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think even in context its a bit dangerous. Who counts as diverse, and who gets cut in that consideration? Imagine there are three employees, and one of them has to go due to budget cuts. One is a straight African American male, one is a white homosexual male, and one is a white straight female. All of these might be considered diverse because they are all minorities in the tech industry in some way. However, taking…

I was thinking of it more like, if you look at who you're planning to layoff and it is 50% white females -- and your employee population is only 20% white female... then you should probably take a look at why. Has some unintended bias crept into your decision making.

The reverse, however, could also be true---how did you get all those fireable white females in the first place?

Re: Big Tech Layoffs Are Hitting Diversity and Inclusion Jobs Hard

#26

Post by kneebonian » Wed, Jan 25, 2023, 5:36 PM UTC

scottiebarnes wrote: post #24

elektrontamer wrote: post #18

The idea of activists/politicians having any say in who companies hire disgusts me. The average person might thing of them as professional useless people. But as someone who lives in a somewhat corrupt country, I fear it's far more sinister. Here, after every government change, public worker positions and state universities tend to get filled with by the winner with their incompetent cronies. But the private sector i…

The idea of activists/politicians having any say in who companies hire disgusts me But does it disgust you when companies discriminate based on age/gender/sexual orientation/race/disability/religion/etc? Should corporations be accountable to society in some way, or do we trust them to "do the right thing"?

Isn't that already illegal to discriminate based on most of those things?

Re: Big Tech Layoffs Are Hitting Diversity and Inclusion Jobs Hard

#27

Post by turtlesdown11 » Wed, Jan 25, 2023, 5:39 PM UTC

https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our...

> Gender diversity is correlated with both profitability and value creation. In our 2017 data set, we found a positive correlation between gender diversity on executive teams and both our measures of financial performance: top-quartile companies on executive-level gender diversity worldwide had a 21 percent likelihood of outperforming their fourth-quartile industry peers on EBIT margin, and they also had a 27 percent likelihood of outperforming fourth-quartile peers on longer-term value creation, as measured using an economic-profit (EP) margin (Exhibit 2).

> Top-team ethnic and cultural diversity is correlated with profitability. In our 2017 data set, we looked at racial and cultural diversity in six countries where the definition of ethnic diversity was consistent and our data were reliable.1 As in 2014, we found that companies with the most ethnically diverse executive teams—not only with respect to absolute representation but also of variety or mix of ethnicities2 —are 33 percent more likely to outperform their peers on profitability. That’s comparable to the 35 percent outperformance reported in 2014, with both figures being statistically significant (Exhibit 4).

Re: Big Tech Layoffs Are Hitting Diversity and Inclusion Jobs Hard

#28

Post by Volundr » Wed, Jan 25, 2023, 5:39 PM UTC

kneebonian wrote: post #26

scottiebarnes wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The idea of activists/politicians having any say in who companies hire disgusts me But does it disgust you when companies discriminate based on age/gender/sexual orientation/race/disability/religion/etc? Should corporations be accountable to society in some way, or do we trust them to "do the right thing"?

Isn't that already illegal to discriminate based on most of those things?

It's illegal to do a lot of things. That doesn't mean they don't happen or aren't common.

Re: Big Tech Layoffs Are Hitting Diversity and Inclusion Jobs Hard

#29

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Jan 25, 2023, 5:39 PM UTC

scottiebarnes wrote: post #24

elektrontamer wrote: post #18

The idea of activists/politicians having any say in who companies hire disgusts me. The average person might thing of them as professional useless people. But as someone who lives in a somewhat corrupt country, I fear it's far more sinister. Here, after every government change, public worker positions and state universities tend to get filled with by the winner with their incompetent cronies. But the private sector i…

The idea of activists/politicians having any say in who companies hire disgusts me But does it disgust you when companies discriminate based on age/gender/sexual orientation/race/disability/religion/etc? Should corporations be accountable to society in some way, or do we trust them to "do the right thing"?

[deleted]

Re: Big Tech Layoffs Are Hitting Diversity and Inclusion Jobs Hard

#30

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Jan 25, 2023, 5:39 PM UTC

kneebonian wrote: post #26

scottiebarnes wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The idea of activists/politicians having any say in who companies hire disgusts me But does it disgust you when companies discriminate based on age/gender/sexual orientation/race/disability/religion/etc? Should corporations be accountable to society in some way, or do we trust them to "do the right thing"?

Isn't that already illegal to discriminate based on most of those things?

[deleted]