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Sexism at Uber from Female Management

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Re: Sexism at Uber from Female Management

#221

Post by kkhire »

zaidf wrote: post #65
RickS wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

During my exit from a previous employer over a CEO whose sexual misconduct makes Uber look like the ACLU, one of our investors gave me the advice that "the CEO sets the culture". The context there was that if the CEO and I didn't see eye to eye on something, that was never going to change while this person was CEO. In the time since, I've found that advice to be so reliably true that it's one of the core things I use…

...if the CEO and I didn't see eye to eye on something, that was never going to change while this person was CEO. This advice may be reliably true but I would also argue there are major exceptions. For example, take founder & ceo of any billion dollar company and you will find that they evolved drastically (in good and bad ways) over the years. Zuckerberg has radically transformed himself from an immature frat boy to…

lol zuck wasn't an "immature frat boy"

dude spent his time studying latin, programmming and taking psych courses.

evan spiegel of snapchat is more your typical transformation from immature college kid to billion dollar company CEO

Re: Sexism at Uber from Female Management

#222

Post by reinhardt »

raarts wrote: post #190
Marconium wrote: post #189

Let's face it, some clothes that women wear are distracting for men, including a tank top. It is an animal instinct to look at beautiful women and be attracted to them. It is like putting a chocolate infront of you and saying you cannot eat it. Of course, you will resist but it will make focusing harder for you.

A tank top doesn't make a woman beautiful. It makes some women more attractive yes. If you are too distracted by it, it's you who are to blame for lack of self control. Find ways around that, it's called character building you'll find it useful in life in general.

> If you are too distracted by it, it's you who are to blame for lack of self control. Find ways around that, it's called character building you'll find it useful in life in general.

Cool. Likewise, if you are a woman distracted by guys staring at your boobs, it's you who are to blame for lack of self discipline. Find ways around that, it's called character building you'll find it useful in life in general.

Fair's fair.

Re: Sexism at Uber from Female Management

#223

Post by nojvek »

Marconium wrote: post #202
nojvek wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do men rape every women they find attractive on the street? We are human because we can resist the urge. Yes, women will be attractive to men and vice versa, its biological, but a tank top and I guess nowadays yoga pants are quite normal. Not getting promoted because you wore tank top a couple of times is like saying to a guy "you wear shorts and your calves are sexy, so we won't promote you". The fact that a female…

The point is self-control requires will-power that is not unlimited and if you need to be productive it is not good to spend your will-power on other stuff. Sexism is rooted in Uber because two women from a company with 6700 employees wrote a post how they felt discriminated?

According to your logic there shouldn't be any women in the workplace with men at all since having attractive women will make men less productive.

My niece is studying to become a CS major and she has heard this argument once.

The culture is set by the worst behavior an organization is willing to tolerate.

Re: Sexism at Uber from Female Management

#224

Post by stale2002 »

huffmsa wrote: post #93
Neliquat wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is an easy way to drive away talent. Myself, and I feel, many others, would gladly take a similar job where the culture and dress were relaxed, instead of fixed. The fix is to hire socially competent people, and be clear to them when they are pushing it early and often.

"Naw man, I'm not going to work there because I _need_ my bedazzled dungarees to code well." Please.

A dress code is a red flag.

It is not about being forced to wear clothes. It is about working with a management team who is so incompetent that they would do something so stupid as implement a dress code.

Re: Sexism at Uber from Female Management

#225

Post by stale2002 »

caminante wrote: post #114
MBCook wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The comments about the tank top were blatant sexism. The rest just seemed like terrible management.

I'm struggling to understand how that's sexism. Can you explain your criteria for sexism? (I'm asking in good faith.)

I, as a man, have literally never had my boss give me feedback on the clothes that I am wearing.

That has never happened.

Re: Sexism at Uber from Female Management

#226

Post by raarts »

reinhardt wrote: post #222
raarts wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A tank top doesn't make a woman beautiful. It makes some women more attractive yes. If you are too distracted by it, it's you who are to blame for lack of self control. Find ways around that, it's called character building you'll find it useful in life in general.

> If you are too distracted by it, it's you who are to blame for lack of self control. Find ways around that, it's called character building you'll find it useful in life in general. Cool. Likewise, if you are a woman distracted by guys staring at your boobs, it's you who are to blame for lack of self discipline. Find ways around that, it's called character building you'll find it useful in life in general. Fair's fa…

Two different things can look similar when phrased in similar terms. But they're still very different.

Re: Sexism at Uber from Female Management

#227

Post by dang »

m3rc wrote: post #135

Uh, you can still be sexist and also be a jerk... are you asking if people can only be one? And FFS, just look at women in their goddamn eyes, like a normal person. Not being sexist is like the easiest thing in the world, just don't be weird.

This comment breaks the HN guidelines. Commenters here need to remain civil regardless of how wrong someone else appears to be.

We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13785092 and marked it off-topic.

Re: Sexism at Uber from Female Management

#229

Post by zaidf »

naravara wrote: post #176
zaidf wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

...if the CEO and I didn't see eye to eye on something, that was never going to change while this person was CEO. This advice may be reliably true but I would also argue there are major exceptions. For example, take founder & ceo of any billion dollar company and you will find that they evolved drastically (in good and bad ways) over the years. Zuckerberg has radically transformed himself from an immature frat boy to…

>charitable, intelligent billionaire CEO. The creepy and megalomaniacal strains of his personality, though, still seem to be there in full force and are reflected in his company and product.

creepy and megalomaniacal strains of his personality

If you choose to, you could attach those super subjective labels to almost any founder of a billion dollar consumer tech company.

Re: Sexism at Uber from Female Management

#230

Post by omouse »

HeyLaughingBoy wrote: post #80
voidlogic wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>It's a source of constant amazement to me that people who will drill incessantly on red-black trees won't put in a modicum of effort to learn even a little bit about the inherently more complicated business of managing people. This isn't really an issue if you promote an engineer to mgmt when they have demonstrated that can manage people, rather than before and assume they can grow.

There's an alternative: put them in management and enforce mandatory management training. A former employer of mine had a rule that anyone at a "management level" (including engineers of a certain rank, even if they weren't actually managing anyone) had to complete a set of training courses within a certain period of being promoted. As an engineer entering management, I found the courses to be surprisingly useful in…

I would highly recommend this. I didn't understand why a WBS made sense to do or how to keep a list of risks, but after attending a project management class it made sense. Not only that, but as we worked through a project in the class, it enforced how tasks and communication work properly for projects.

Basic finance and negotation are a must.

It's amazing how many people don't have much training in these skills.

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