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Julie Ann Horvath Describes Sexism and Intimidation Behind Her GitHub Exit

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Re: Julie Ann Horvath Describes Sexism and Intimidation Behind Her GitHub Exit

#102
post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the dude going back and deleting her code after the rejection seems pretty hostile to me.

Good point. What probably needed to happen was whoever was in charge of that project should have recognized these two employees now didn't get along, and reassigned one or both of them away from the project.

no. what needed to happen was that the guy should have been fired for deleting someone's code over a personal issue. "these two employees now didn't get along" makes it sound like there was fault on both sides, which is emphatically not the case.

Re: Julie Ann Horvath Describes Sexism and Intimidation Behind Her GitHub Exit

#103
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the implication is that none of this would have happened, or at least would not have been tolerated, if she was male. And it sound like the basis of her relationship with the founder's wife being "crazy" was that she was a female employee. So I'd say sexism played a significant role here.

Uhm, it was female on female. Is male on male intimidation, sexism? Because men are the primary victims of violence, and their sex being highly relevant to that, is that sexist? I don't think you would say that in this case it is. Not to say there can't be girl/women on girl/women sexism.

There is plenty of woman on woman/girl on girl sexism. Women are socialized into the same world as men and tend to underestimate other women the same way as men do.

If you have been raised to think you can not do x cause you are women, you will assume that other woman are unable too.

Re: Julie Ann Horvath Describes Sexism and Intimidation Behind Her GitHub Exit

#105
post #64

I don't think this was an instance of institutionalized sexism. Rather, the founder's wife seems like an unbalanced individual, and nobody effectively set any boundaries. The other founders and HR seemed unaware or unable to set the situation to right. As for her romantically inclined co-worker -- I don't see how his behavior qualifies as sexist or hostile. Merely a bit clueless, but isn't it to be expected that empl…

He responded poorly (understatement) to the rejection of someone who he knew was in a relationship at the time. This is why I have a rule of never dating anyone who works where I work, not even in other departments. It just creates too much trouble. Once it's known that you date people in the office, others who are interested in you (but you may not be interested in them) may pursue you. Once you start rejecting them you can't give a blanket response of: I don't date people from work. Feelings get hurt, and people do stupid things once that happens.

Re: Julie Ann Horvath Describes Sexism and Intimidation Behind Her GitHub Exit

#106

Crazy how women can turn even canonically geeky/boring things like Github into soap operas like "General Hospital". You've got to wonder what kind of drama occurs in actual hospitals, with alpha-doctors and nurses side-by-side. I've heard stories.

Of course, it's always the women that make things dramatic. Not the power fetish of the founder's wife, the unwanted advances of coworkers, or the reverting of legitimate contributions to the team's project. Can't you see past the fact that she's a woman? Don't you see how demoralizing any of this would be?

Can I ask a question about phrasing for a minute? What's inherently wrong with an unwanted advance?

Advances have an unknown state until they're responded to. If she had accepted it, it would've been a welcomed advance. There's no way to know that until you walk up to a woman and say "Hey, I think you're pretty cool. Want to go get a drink sometime?"

If she says no, that's unwanted, but I don't see how it's inappropriate.

Re: Julie Ann Horvath Describes Sexism and Intimidation Behind Her GitHub Exit

#107
post #20

Two women are dancing to music at work in a tech company and the author compares this to a scene at a strip club as men are watching this. Unless this was a regular exercise, what was everybody expecting? Nobody taking notice?

If a dude got up and started dancing in my office, I would stare too. Who wouldn't?

Re: Julie Ann Horvath Describes Sexism and Intimidation Behind Her GitHub Exit

#108
post #64

I don't think this was an instance of institutionalized sexism. Rather, the founder's wife seems like an unbalanced individual, and nobody effectively set any boundaries. The other founders and HR seemed unaware or unable to set the situation to right. As for her romantically inclined co-worker -- I don't see how his behavior qualifies as sexist or hostile. Merely a bit clueless, but isn't it to be expected that empl…

You're missing the point. From this story alone, it seems the company is run by individuals who never mentally developed out of high school. Those incidents you mentioned are merely a red flag of the immaturity of some of these people. Awkwardly hitting on an employee to a point of discomfort, messing with someone's work cause they turned you down to a date, creepily staring at an employee in the gym; you should at least know well into your 20s and 30s that is inappropriate behavior at a workplace.

I would agree in that I wouldn't call this an instance of industry-wide sexism. The root of the problem is the immaturity at the leadership level of this company. If the leadership is as immature as this story is making it out to be, than these sexist incidents wouldn't have happened. Still, I shall reserve my judgment on GitHub until I hear more sides to this story.

Re: Julie Ann Horvath Describes Sexism and Intimidation Behind Her GitHub Exit

#109
post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Guy also probably deserved a good reprimand. Messing with code because of personal issues is a great way to tank your reputability as a developer.

If it is true and clear that the developer tampered with the codebase because of a personal issue with another developer, I am not even sure that is an issue to let HR resolve; I would want that developer fired immediately. Intentionally fucking with the product, or any other sort of company property, is inexcusable in my mind. Tanking the reputation of that developer is putting it nicely.

I was trying to be measured in the language because I don't consider the TechCrunch article to be completely unbiased on the man, but yes, in general I agree. Intentionally sabotaging code should have you out the door on your ass.

Re: Julie Ann Horvath Describes Sexism and Intimidation Behind Her GitHub Exit

#110
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the implication is that none of this would have happened, or at least would not have been tolerated, if she was male. And it sound like the basis of her relationship with the founder's wife being "crazy" was that she was a female employee. So I'd say sexism played a significant role here.

Uhm, it was female on female. Is male on male intimidation, sexism? Because men are the primary victims of violence, and their sex being highly relevant to that, is that sexist? I don't think you would say that in this case it is. Not to say there can't be girl/women on girl/women sexism.

It sounds like the male founder initiated the interaction, so the implication would be the cause of the problems was his sexism. I was not actually saying the wife's behavior was sexism.
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