Maybe we need a new term for 'unacceptable workplace situation exacerbated by gender issues'. This story is more complex than what I expected from the title.
Julie Ann Horvath Describes Sexism and Intimidation Behind Her GitHub Exit
651–660 of 1001 posts
Re: Julie Ann Horvath Describes Sexism and Intimidation Behind Her GitHub Exit
#652Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Nebulous semi-employee with unspecified responsibilities related to a founder? This is the point that stands out for me. That the wife is not an employee of Github but claims to be able to access private company chat records, and also is able to "work" from within the office and interact with the staff. Even with allowances that company property remains company property and private chat rooms are in fact non-privat…
"Who can access private company data, why, and for what reason?" This seems to me to be the major takeaway for organisations outside github from this sorry affair. I'm sort of surprised you are the only person to raise this so far. In the UK, the employee who resigned could have a successful day in an employment tribunal. And one aspect of the hearing would be privacy and the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act pr…
But you live in the UK, which is still part of Europe, where people are still people that have rights. Your only right in the USA is the right to leave.
Re: Julie Ann Horvath Describes Sexism and Intimidation Behind Her GitHub Exit
#653I hate not understanding the politics of an organization and community I depend on so much. I dislike not knowing how to feel about all this.
I can't help but be exasperated that the concept of an "open company" is not more common for such critical infrastructure as GitHub. I'm frustrated that I can't simply peer into all these private interactions and social exchanges and chat logs and make my own judgment
Re: Julie Ann Horvath Describes Sexism and Intimidation Behind Her GitHub Exit
#654Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm sick of it. Goodbye, Hacker News. I know this is going to come across as unfriendly, but I'm always bemused when people make these little plays for attention. It's a massive site, you're not one of the notable commenters, if HN isn't delivering value why not just stop reading it quietly rather than announcing it to the world?
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.
But what's wrong with expressing an opinion on someone else's action? You are the one that is socially inept. No, wait, you are just expressing your opinion on someone else expressing their opinion on someone else expressing themselves. Oh, chripes, what was I trying to say again?
Re: Julie Ann Horvath Describes Sexism and Intimidation Behind Her GitHub Exit
#655Earlier quoted context omitted.
I found that episode terribly confused, and I never understood the rationale behind it. Isn't "meritocracy" a value and environment that feminists have told us over and over again is a positive development for women? Don't women want to work in a "meritocracy" precisely because their work will be valued and appreciated not because they are women but because excellence at work knows no sex, colour, or creed?
The reasoning goes like this: "Meritocracy is all well and good as a theory. It's all about who decides what merit is. If it's a privileged group of people who decide the merit, then it's going to be biased. Thus championing meritocracy in this organisation means upholding a hierarchy which is unfair, biased and oppressive to those outside of the people at the top". In other words, meritocracy = an aristocracy of whi…
When I look for libraries to use on github I don't know or care about the race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religious beliefs of the person who wrote the code...
I'm amazed the company wouldn't respond to her by saying: while the tech industry is a very imperfect meritocracy, and our company is still an imperfect one, the service we provide attempts to be a true meritocracy. The rug is about the goal, not the status quo.
Re: Julie Ann Horvath Describes Sexism and Intimidation Behind Her GitHub Exit
#656Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I mean, someone reverting your code because of a personal vendetta? I laughed out loud when I read this and several other specific details in the story. It sounded very familiar. I have several friends and many acquaintances who work at Valve. One very senior engineer initially worked on Source 2 about three years ago but had to quickly switch projects because another, more tenured engineer was expressing his disag…
It really surprises me that somebody can get away with such destructive behaviour as reverting someone else's commits without reasonable cause. What justification is there for not firing on the spot anybody who puts their own personal vendettas over the good of the project?
At Sun, where there was a structured management chain, there was a time when one of the folks in my group reverted a big chunk of changes I had committed, and I went to our common manager and demanded satisfaction. The response was 'if we left them in he threatened to quit, there isn't anything we can do', and the only conclusion from that statement was that if one of us quit, the manager would rather it were me than this other person. Needless to say it was really annoying.
Re: Julie Ann Horvath Describes Sexism and Intimidation Behind Her GitHub Exit
#657This sounds really bad . I am crossing out Github from the list of companies that i'd wish to work for.
Re: Julie Ann Horvath Describes Sexism and Intimidation Behind Her GitHub Exit
#658Earlier quoted context omitted.
If someone is rendering a public performance, aren't you supposed to look at it? When does hula hooping in a public space transfer to a public performance? Is it public immediately because it's in plain sight? Does it only become public after an audience gathers and the hula hooper continues to hula hoop? What if someone sees the gathered audience and joins in so that they won't be considered rude for not taking inte…
I agree with your points, and also I really have a hard time believing that the women hula hooping to music in the middle of the office were not aware of the effect they were having. While personally I think its creepy to just hang out and leer at them, it's not really against societal norms in any way. It's not like these guys broke into the girls bathroom to watch this or something.
Well maybe something is wrong with societal norms then? Because honestly if the focus was just watch attractive women hula hoop I would think it's creepy too but I wouldn't just say it's alright because of societal norms.
But I think it's impossible to really judge this situation without the context. Did other people decide to participate or was it really just two girls hula hooping the whole time? It boils down to was the mentality from the males perspective "oh hey, cool, people are hula hooping!" or "oh hey, the two attractive girls are hula hooping and I want to gawk at them!" The first one is fine, the second one is not.
Re: Julie Ann Horvath Describes Sexism and Intimidation Behind Her GitHub Exit
#659There seems to be several problems. Not entirely sexism. 1. Founder's wife asked Horvath out and gave her a lecture about who is the boss. Probably out of jealousy. 2. Founder's wife physically inanimate Horvath, making her unwelcome and scared. 3. Founder did not stop the wife and protect his wife. 4. Horvath was approached by a male co-worker and according to her her rejection had caused tension between her and tha…
To clarify for many of you, you don't need someone shouting "I HATE WOMEN" for sexism to be occurring. The sexism in this scenario is subtle and persistent, something that likely tainted all of the workplace interactions at github, allowing a female employee's problems at work to be continually ignored. This eventually built up to the issue most people are focusing on, a founders spouse being allowed to harass an emp…
Roll eyes. Men get treated as eye candy too. Honestly, if you do that at work, it doesn't matter who you are, you are going to get gawked at.
Most of this seemed like a poor performer who socialized too much at work. The problem was the crazy wife. Two bad drivers meet at an intersection..
And for people saying the guys don't get worked over in pull requests or have their code passively aggressively reverted, all I can say is LOL.
Re: Julie Ann Horvath Describes Sexism and Intimidation Behind Her GitHub Exit
#660Earlier quoted context omitted.
I guess I'm too jaded, but I question getting married. If you hit the lottery and you become a successful Founder, your wife will own 1/2 of all those aching hours sitting in front of that screen. If she's the type of chick that will stick with you when you loose everything and work the paint booth at HD, by all means marry her, but those women just don't exist anymore. Women look at men so differently than we judge…
I seriously hope you consider rethinking this position. There are a tremendous number of incredible women in the world, and most of them are not looking for a sugar daddy. Many women also work hard for their careers, passions, or some combination of both, and understand that both success and failure happen. I will also say that in many instances, if you have this opinion about women (or any group of persons), it's pr…
What advantages would marriage provide over a non-legal partnership? The latter seems to carry all of the benefits of marriage without any of the risks.