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My open letter to the tech industry on sexism, HR, and Linus Tech Tips (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 1 year ago by sweeny@sh.itjust.works to c/technology@lemmy.world

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The Linus Tech Tips abuse allegations are yet another reminder that something absolutely needs to be done about the rampant sexism in the tech industry. If you haven't heard them yet you can read about them here, but be warned, there is some potentially very triggering abuse and self harm detailed: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1691693740254228741.html

Madison's story is not unique - we have heard stories like hers time and time again. As a tech professional it makes me sick to share an industry with these horrible people, and to know that little is being done to reign them in.

So, what can be done about this? I don't have all of the answers, but one thing that comes to mind is that HR departments desperately need actual unbiased oversight, perhaps even from a governing body outside of the company. It has become common knowledge that HR’s primary purpose is to protect the company, and this prevents employees from speaking out and driving internal change even in terrible situations like Madison Reeve and countless others have faced. The way things are run clearly needs to fundamentally change

Let me know in the comments if you have any ideas on how we as a tech community might be able to address these issues, I am truly at a loss. All I want is for tech to be a safe space for everybody to find their passion and success, and it saddens me that we clearly aren't there yet.

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[–] Saturdaycat@kbin.social 31 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm a woman and I work in tech, as well as had nerdy techy hobbies since I was a child. I've definitely not experienced what Madison has experienced in my tech career but I have had plenty of sexist encounters in my time as a retail employee before my current career.

I've had a small few creepy incidents in my tech jobs but... Unfortunately what she experienced sounded a lot more like a dude bro gaming circle than an actual company. I've seen that behavior, just not in my career. Maybe I'm lucky, but I think the issue is so deeply rooted in LMG that I wouldn't know how to fix it. It's a weird gamer culture from what I can gather

[–] DoomBot5@lemmy.world 18 points 1 year ago (2 children)

The problem here is how "The Tech Sector" is grouped. There are plenty of companies in all sorts of fields with all sorts of different work environments and cultures grouped in under this umbrella.

[–] Saturdaycat@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago

That's true, I've always considered LTT "consumer electronics" hobby more than anything IT related but tech quickie in it's infancy taught me a lot and got me started

[–] Clevermistakes@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 year ago

Yeah, I mean to be fair I’d not consider tech reporting as the tech sector or industry. Like what she’s doing. Eng, product, hardware, applied science, eng managers and maybe program if you’re lucky to have tech program managers. But otherwise you don’t need any engineering degree for their work.