Ah yes, the "cool tech girl" position. https://code.likeagirl.io/the-myth-of-the-cool-tech-girl-786...
I'm glad she has a positive experience. It's far from common. I wish her good luck on the road of discovering empathy.
I'm glad she has a positive experience. It's far from common. I wish her good luck on the road of discovering empathy.
Are things really that different between here and there?
All the stuff described in your linked piece: I've never seen any of it in tech.
In garages? Sure they are full of what would otherwise be nsfw. But IT? Can't remember ever seing anything. 5 years ago I heard a couple of colleagues discussing the title of an NSFW video that someone had started playing or their computer as a prank after they left it unlocked. And about the same time we had what I consider ann @$$ as manager in the department next to mine.
He would attack girls yes but he would also attack anyone else so I think it was more about being a general @$$.
And I've worked at a few places.
As for the "never experienced" - you're lucky. Or just didn't see. I've worked at openly sexist companies, I've worked with teams that had a regular lunch at a strip club, and I've seen a lot of the "oh, girls can't code" bullshit. I've seen black and latinx people completely excluded from team activities.
A lot of the people doing that weren't aware of what they were doing, but that doesn't excuse it. And if you look at things like the Petri Multiplier[1], it will help you understand why minorities are more affected by this than majorities.
None of that would fly around here.
So you are right: the things you mention are deeply unprofessional.
As a guy, I didn't use the foosball table or the ping pong table all that much. They said it was a "brogrammer" thing, but I don't understand how other people wanting to compete on the table top sports among themselves is a somehow bad sign. If anything, it's good that the members of team that want to can bond over fair competition in something unrelated to job performance.
That is where the problem comes from. You'll be excluded from the "inner circle" unless you participate in a specific kind of activity.
Clearly, this is not limited to foosball tables. Or even typically male activities. The core problem is having only bonding experiences of a specific kind.
The biggest thing is, it's unnecessary. As a European, the US attitude of having entertainment at work continues to puzzle me. I go to work, I put in 8 hours of work, I go home and have fun. Why we need foosball tables (or reading groups, or wine tasting clubs, or whatever) is beyond me.
But if you must do it, you should be sure to offer diversity.
This was not the case. Some women did participate, but the ones who did not participate did not miss it. They went home or somewhere else because they have the wisdom of work-life balance.
> The biggest thing is, it's unnecessary. As a European, the US attitude of having entertainment at work continues to puzzle me. I go to work, I put in 8 hours of work, I go home and have fun. Why we need foosball tables (or reading groups, or wine tasting clubs, or whatever) is beyond me.
The men I've seen (in my case in Canada, not the U.S. [but probably similar]) tend to have less work-life balance. Since they spend most of their time at work, they more likely want to have closer relationships with their colleagues. Basically everyone I spend any amount of free time with was/is either a colleague, a client, or somebody I split rent with. Here in Toronto, it seems pretty rare to really meet anyone outside of family or work. Hobby clubs/classes are okay, but most people don't really go to many of them. If you live downtown, you probably don't know the names of your neighbours. You might never have even said a word to them.
Cities like mine, and I suspect areas in Si Valley, tend to encourage loneliness. Businesses are trying to build a social group to satisfy that need, and hopefully through that improve performance, reduce the cost of HR, reduce employee turnover, and reduce total compensation. This is what my office managers and HR folks have told me. In the U.S. I think it's exacerbated a bit by the relative low density of most cities, which makes it so that you have to drive to see people.
They offer company soda for the same sorts of reasons: Sugar intake increases blood glucose, which improves brain function (especially when stimulated with the company coffee), and it tends to keep employees sitting in their desks, where they are more likely to be doing work.