This weekend, I came across yet another article from a wealthy woman in the tech field complaining about being a woman in tech.
In this case, it was mutli-millionaire Amy Bohutinsky, COO of Zillow, talking about how different women with kids are treated compared to men with kids. All with the normal Harvard research studies to back it up.
LinkedIn is becoming a parade of wealthy or otherwise successful women in tech complaining about how mistreated women in tech are.
Sure they are. No doubt. I’m not doubting the bias. But there are at least 100 other biases also afflicting people in tech. And outside of tech. And outside of work. Affecting people. All people. In the world.
We’re all biased and we all subject others to our biases. Hell, the Bubbler is all about bias. In this case, my bias against thoughtless people. If you are thoughtless, and you are interviewing or working with me, you will not enjoy working with me as much as thoughtful people might.
But that’s all a digression.
I’ve never heard a woman complaining about the workplace: their salaries, harassment, being mom’s, etc, stop and consider there might be another reason why they don’t get hired or treated “the same.”
If I’m hiring someone, the last thing I need is a revolutionary. If I can detect it in the interview, I will never hire someone I think is going to come in and start ginning up all of these controversies and creating victims because this group or that group is being kept down by the man.
This is not dissimilar to being wary of hiring someone you think will come in and try to unionize your team.
I just want people who are going to come in, do great work, and be fun to be around while we’re all doing it. Not too much to ask. If you can do that, you’ll get paid what I can afford to pay you
But these days, everyone is busy dividing the workforce into blacks, black men, black women, pregnant women, older women, older men, white men, asians, foreign workers, millennials, baby boomers, gays, disabled, gluten free, transgendered, etc. Who the heck has any time to get any work done? No wonder we’re spending so much more money on human resources departments these days.
I worked in a company where my boss was leading a “women in leadership” initiative. There were discussion groups about being a woman in tech. There were book clubs. They had presentations. It was very divisive. All the men were trying to figure out what to do?. Were they invited to the events? Should they go? What do they say to appear down with the cause?
It was particularly offensive and off-putting to men who’d never even thought of it. Just treated women like they treated everyone else. Wherever you stood, it turned one workforce into several and made everyone a bit more uncomfortable.
People started reading into every decision. Did that person get hired because they’re a woman? Did he not get promoted because he’s a man?
I’m not sure people would notice all of these meaningless differences if we didn’t have activists pointing them out all the time just to make the point that we should all be treated the same. Just take it for granted that we’re all going to treat people well, and in those rare instances when there’s a problem, the person with the problem can point it out.
You want people treated well at work? Start coming to work and performing, and all shall be well.
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