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I was laid off in retaliation for anti-discrimination whistleblowing

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Re: I was laid off in retaliation for anti-discrimination whistleblowing

#31
post #6

Honestly, while I believe a lot of the perspective shared, there always seems to be a huge lack of objective assessment of options for these folks. In tech there are many incredibly high paying jobs - taking control over your situation has a low bar. if you don’t like your manager, taking the view that if you escalate a formal complaint to HR (in doing so lose all trust you manager and HR may have in you), you’ll be…

If we just accept that abusive managers are unassailable and move around, pretty soon we'll find no place free from abuse.

Not to mention that not everyone has the luxury of being able to move around easily.

Re: I was laid off in retaliation for anti-discrimination whistleblowing

#33
post #6

Honestly, while I believe a lot of the perspective shared, there always seems to be a huge lack of objective assessment of options for these folks. In tech there are many incredibly high paying jobs - taking control over your situation has a low bar. if you don’t like your manager, taking the view that if you escalate a formal complaint to HR (in doing so lose all trust you manager and HR may have in you), you’ll be…

If we just accept that abusive managers are unassailable and move around, pretty soon we'll find no place free from abuse. Not to mention that not everyone has the luxury of being able to move around easily.

[deleted]

Re: I was laid off in retaliation for anti-discrimination whistleblowing

#34

I noticed this submission had become "dead" due to flagging, and retaliation for whistleblowing seems like exactly the type of thing that a coordinated group would try to bury. I vouched for it. I don't have feelings one way or another on who is being wronged, but I thought the information was well-presented and coherent, and deserves consideration without being flagged. If the other party believes this is inaccurate…

[flagged]

Go cry about your bigoted, pathetic worldview elsewhere.

Re: I was laid off in retaliation for anti-discrimination whistleblowing

#35
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

My reading of that claim is 10 out of 10 people laid off were from marginalized groups. Not 20% of 10. > Approximately 20% of the company was laid off, and to the best of my knowledge 100% of them were members of historically marginalized groups. Women, people of color, queer folks, and multiple people on disability and even maternity leave were specifically and disproportionately targeted.

Interesting quote. Statistically, if you add up all these 'historically marginalized groups', it seems like you end up with the overwhelming majority of the population.

Women are a bit over half. Then add on all non-straight people, all non-white people, all people with some serious health (mental or otherwise) diagnosis. Globally this covers like 95% of the human population. Even in America these 'historically marginalized groups' are like 75-85% of the population.

I suspect the complainant is casting a wide net when they try to define who counts as 'historically marginalized groups', to the point where this could happen by random chance. Though it's hard to know without knowing the full profiles of everyone at the company.

Also we can note that these 'historically marginalized groups' tend to concentrate in certain types of jobs; if a company were to downsize their HR department for example, they'd be firing nearly all women even without targeting women, just as if they were to downsize programming they'd be firing nearly all men.

Re: I was laid off in retaliation for anti-discrimination whistleblowing

#36
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As another trans person that's been in a similar position before, it's really frustrating how many loops I've gone through where the moment I'd get to some part where it wasn't voice only anymore, you could just hear the tone shift and get rejected shortly after. Combine that with the current tech market being on a downswing and it's not unreasonable that this would take a while to find a new place.

I've met more than one hiring manager who tacitly refuses to hire anyone who is transgendered. Of course this is only revealed in confidence, and they'll deny it if asked. The reason is typically one or more of: - they don't want the rest of the team to have to walk on eggshells regarding pronouns and so on, or - they don't want to have to deal with any fallout from female employees getting pissed about males using t…

It's not understandable. Some things you don't let yourself do and speak up when other people do.

Re: I was laid off in retaliation for anti-discrimination whistleblowing

#37
A person who knows what they are doing versus someone who has difficulties learning the given tasks have two very subjective views of the workplace situation.

One is at the mercy of their colleagues, constantly and rightfully interrupted to correct their mistakes, while the other is chugging away in the zone.

We need the viewpoints of both levels of expertise to make sure that there is a whistle to blow.

Re: I was laid off in retaliation for anti-discrimination whistleblowing

#38
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

My reading of that claim is 10 out of 10 people laid off were from marginalized groups. Not 20% of 10. > Approximately 20% of the company was laid off, and to the best of my knowledge 100% of them were members of historically marginalized groups. Women, people of color, queer folks, and multiple people on disability and even maternity leave were specifically and disproportionately targeted.

Problem is that when you have with so many marginalized groups and increasing number of people claiming their membership in them, majority of the company could belong to at least one group. So it could easily be just a chance that no non-disabled white straight male was laid off. As for firing people on disability and maternity leave, it's kind of understandable - when you have a choice of firing 2 roughly equally productive people and one of them has additional needs that you must accommodate, it's obvious who will you choose. With maternal leave it's similar.

Re: I was laid off in retaliation for anti-discrimination whistleblowing

#39
post #6

Honestly, while I believe a lot of the perspective shared, there always seems to be a huge lack of objective assessment of options for these folks. In tech there are many incredibly high paying jobs - taking control over your situation has a low bar. if you don’t like your manager, taking the view that if you escalate a formal complaint to HR (in doing so lose all trust you manager and HR may have in you), you’ll be…

"Cut and run" doesn't work if you're on a visa, if you've already had to do that once or twice in the last couple years, or if you don't have enough of an emergency fund. It also doesn't work if you're not a tech worker - remember that discrimination affects HR reps and program managers and mechanical engineers and fabrication technicians and research scientists just as much as it affects SWEs.

Re: I was laid off in retaliation for anti-discrimination whistleblowing

#40
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

It's not that 20% of those laid off were from minority groups. It's that 20% of the company was laid off and they're all from historically underrepresented groups in tech.

Since when are trans underrepresented in tech? If anything they are overrepresented
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