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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

#171

Post by XorNot »

ZoF wrote: post #128
eruditely wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

What? The sexist part of this isn't the Founder's Wife's behavior(that sounds standard crazy), it's everyone at Github's behavior. /* Let me preface this by saying we have only seen half the story at this point, so I wouldn't make absolute judgements yet and the below is based on the hypothetical situation in which the linked article is 100% factual. */ If my founder was female and her husband was coming into work re…

It's also worth considering that we have no idea if the founder's wife was also doing this to other male employees. She may have been - and gender perceptions being what they are, we're even less likely to hear about it.

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

#173

Post by gaius »

ilovecomputers wrote: post #108
csense wrote: 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 l…

it seems the company is run by individuals who never mentally developed out of high school

Github is developed in Ruby. Enough said.

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

#174

Post by freshfunk »

dangero wrote: post #62
lindig wrote: 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?

Yeah this section really damaged her credibility for me. She says the guys were "gawking", so they were not saying anything inappropriate, just "staring openly and stupidly". I can picture a professional business environment where gawking would be inappropriate, but I have a hard time picturing that environment with women hula hooping to music. Plus is gawking a crime? Yes, those random employees were being unprofess…

Same. This just makes it look like she's overly sensitive and perceiving things in a very skewed and unfair light.

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

#175

Post by MarkTee »

Aqueous wrote: post #120

I'm not entirely sure the hula-hooping incident - merely observing girls hula hooping is not a crime, is it? - by itself constitutes a hostile atmosphere for women, unless inappropriate comments were being made. What we have here is some completely inappropriate, cloak and dagger, soap opera shit being perpetrated by the wife of the cofounder, who has no business meddling in the affairs of his employees. (If true, th…

I don't know what the day-to-day is like at GitHub, but if people were hula-hooping to music at my place of work, I'd probably be pretty interested in watching them too (male or female).

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

#176

Post by notastartup »

okay so from a quick scan of that article, it appears that

a) she was not made welcome for whatever reasons

b) founder's wife appears to wear the pants in the relationship

c) founder's wife saw her as a potential sexual partner for her husband and wanted to do a preemptive strike.

This incident does damage Github's street cred (if true), it actually sickens me that this engineer was bullied out of her job (if true), and this just is the final cherry on top of Homakov's discoveries of security vulnerabilities in github.

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

#177

Post by ZoF »

pbateman wrote: post #142
jd0 wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because human beings have a desire to express opinion and emotion? Your attitude is the same as a lot of the socially inept that roam the valley and this message board. If This Isn't The Most Efficient Logical Course Of Action (according my perspective) Then It Bemuses Me.

socially inept Good to see we're staying classy. Next time you might like to work in a zinger about autism, neckbeards and/or fedora ownership.

I've always been fond of an errant "plebian" myself.

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

#178

Post by balladeer »

lgleason wrote: post #92

I'm not going to get into what is right or wrong. With that being said, in the US HR is not your friend as an employee. Their job is to protect the company. http://abcnews.go.com/Business/20-job-tips-hr-exec/story?id=... Any way you look at it you have a bad situation. This sounds like a clash of personalities. While the behavior is not right, the fact is that a lot of companies will 'manage out' people unfairly etc.…

> Be it right or wrong, that is the question that is going to be asked in the board room

I am asking because you have stated this after "..would this cause enough of a legal liability...". So, in the end, does the board room decide what to do with the founder, his wife, and the company, or the court room?

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

#179

Post by enneff »

oh_sigh wrote: post #170
enneff wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Dropped the ball" ?!?!!??!?!?! This is so far beyond inappropriate. If it is even 10% true then there are serious organisational problems at that company. I am gobsmacked that people are leaping to downplay these accusations, without knowing anything about it.

You a liar/thief/vagabond/ruffian/scoundrel/bully/shithead/asshole/arsonist/murderer/sexist/racist. If even 10% of that is true, it is a serious allegation against you. You are not to be trusted.

My point was not so much about the veracity of the claims, but rather as a comment on the severity of the issue (true or not).

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

#180

Post by enneff »

zaqokm wrote: post #156
enneff wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why are you making excuses for these people? What purpose does it serve? I'm especially shocked to see you trivialise the actions of the jilted engineer. Reverting someone else's work without explanation is a blatantly hostile and disrespectful act that should be treated seriously in isolation, and is made more serious still in the context of the inappropriate sexual stuff.

> Why are you making excuses for these people? Probably because there are ample reasons why someone may revert someone's code for legitimate reasons.

Without discussion? No, there is no legitimate reason for that.
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