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Antisocial Coding: My Year at GitHub

where.coraline.codes

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Re: Antisocial Coding: My Year at GitHub

#301

Post by noufalibrahim »

hosh wrote: post #297
pyre wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess the other issue is why was the review happening 4 months after the period ended, especially if they had started working on improvements in the meantime. What was the point of all that work / those improvements, if they were just going to ignore it because it wasn't in the "correct period?" Shouldn't the review have happened closer to the end of the period, so that all of that progress could be part of improve…

There's a book (I can't recall the name) written by a former HR professional on the actual function of HR in a corporation: a way to mitigate liability when firing people. That seems like the most plausible scenario given what I am reading from this blog post. If you were going to fire a well-known activist and you did not want to give away any ammunition for getting sued, there's a whole song and dance to make sure…

That sounds like an interesting book. I'd appreciate if you could let me know if you recollect the name.

As someone who has poohpoohed the idea of a human resources department in a large company, I've almost done a 180 on it now that I have a small company of my own and I'd be very interested in reading some good books on the utility and function of the organisation in a large company.

Re: Antisocial Coding: My Year at GitHub

#302

Post by jldugger »

wutbrodo wrote: post #273
opportune wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the reason my employer is successful at recruiting women is actually precisely because they stay away from public involvement in the social justice sphere. You think that entails "giving up on that crew entirely", when in reality it does the exact opposite. I think a lot of women/transgender/POC employees don't want to be thought of as an X software developer, just to be thought of as a developer who happens…

> They've pissed off "broflakes" What does this mean? I've never heard the term. Tbh,i don't really understand the "brogrammer" thing either. I got my CS degree, then was at Google, and then the first employee at a tiny startup and none of those experiences gave me any inkling of what the brogrammer stereotype might be. Isn't the programmer stereotype literally the opposite of a "bro"?

Portmanteau of bro and snowflake. Presumably as in "special snowflake" but maybe also "easily destroyed by sunlight."

Re: Antisocial Coding: My Year at GitHub

#303

Post by sethrin »

myko wrote: post #79
azinman2 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The maintainers instant reply was super flippant and worthy of retort. Never really wanted to use opal before, but if this is who is behind it...

Wow. That particular maintainer is really off the deep end - here is their writeup on the incident (which is pretty fucked up reading IMO): http://meh.schizofreni.co/random/lulz/2016/01/08/tales-from-...

What a perverse individual. God help this country that has such people in it.

Re: Antisocial Coding: My Year at GitHub

#305

Post by acobster »

throwaway8800 wrote: post #128

There's a couple of issues that stand out to me: Github is engaging in risky behaviour by reaching out to individuals (specifically activists) for hire explicitly on the basis of "diversity" and trying to incorporate those individuals in a highly merit-based environment. Secondly, Coraline seems to think that human relationships are a one way street: that she is entitled to be direct and even confrontational or insen…

She was right, and as a senior engineer she was in a mentor role.

I don't think that directly communicating a relevant fact - that trans is not a gender - to someone contributing to a survey intended to collect data about marginalized people is the same as expecting her peers to walk on egg shells. That's just asking them to get their facts straight.

Where you see an instance of her co-workers being accused of attacking her, I see her lines of communication being shut down from above. A simple one-on-one conversation probably could have resolved that situation very easily, but GH management seems in this case to have insulated that person from learning from their mistake. Not the kind of effort I would expect from an organization that's truly trying to be "inclusive.

Re: Antisocial Coding: My Year at GitHub

#306

Post by pmiller2 »

hosh wrote: post #297
pyre wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess the other issue is why was the review happening 4 months after the period ended, especially if they had started working on improvements in the meantime. What was the point of all that work / those improvements, if they were just going to ignore it because it wasn't in the "correct period?" Shouldn't the review have happened closer to the end of the period, so that all of that progress could be part of improve…

There's a book (I can't recall the name) written by a former HR professional on the actual function of HR in a corporation: a way to mitigate liability when firing people. That seems like the most plausible scenario given what I am reading from this blog post. If you were going to fire a well-known activist and you did not want to give away any ammunition for getting sued, there's a whole song and dance to make sure…

I believe the book you're referring to is called _Corporate Confidential_. People think I'm cynical when I talk about that book, but I've seen the scenarios you mention play out word for word multiple times.

Re: Antisocial Coding: My Year at GitHub

#307

Post by captainkb »

I'd love to hear the other side of the story. The only thing that I could think about was if the author's resume came across my desk one day: Receive resume, Google applicant, See this blog post, toss resume in order to avoid drama and future blog post about me.

Re: Antisocial Coding: My Year at GitHub

#308

Post by whywhywhywhy »

superplussed wrote: post #99
emodendroket wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't get it though. Didn't they want to bring her on specifically because her political profile gave them cachet with people they wanted to make overtures to?

Top-down hirings for the sake of culture change don't really work, though do they? It seems like the inevitable outcome is exactly this, a bright-eyed, and then soon-disenfranchised new hire, butting up against an resistant and entrenched culture.

Think this is only one side of the story though, what about people who had worked there just doing their job and you're being told there is something wrong with your culture and this person is being brought in to fix it.

It's a big company the whole thing can't just be a frat house there must at least be some percentage of decent people trying to do a job that are now being told there is something wrong with them.

(Not to mention the whole idea of a remote worker involved in any sort of culture change is utterly absurd)

Re: Antisocial Coding: My Year at GitHub

#309

Post by acobster »

thatswrong0 wrote: post #133
opportune wrote: post #49

The main thing I've taken away from the whole github situation is that, as a tech company, you should just entirely stay away from public involvement in the social justice sphere. That doesn't mean exclusively hiring white men and sending out Kalanick-style emails; it means keeping your work environment as professional and politically neutral as possible unless absolutely necessary. My employer does a good job of thi…

> assume mistakes are honest and be polite in correcting them. I think many social activists, esp. those I see on social media, could use a heavy dose of this kind of thinking. People are human, humans make mistakes, and most people I run into in life are too busy with their own affairs to always be perfectly conscious about their words and actions.

True. And at the same time, people submitting their code for review could use some thicker skin.
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