How (and Why) to Avoid Hiring That Terrible Google Dudebro

2018-06-17

annie feighery

2017-08-06

Tell me about the strong women in your life…

it begins at hiring: ask a potential boss/colleague/partner/co-founder/employee: “Tell me about the strong women in your life.”
You want to work with men who have years' experience with strong women […]. You do not want to be a colleague’s first encounter with a woman in an alpha role. You definitely do not want to be the first woman to tell a man he is wrong about something.

Men who stay in college to earn at least a bachelors degree are likely to have been on teams in classes that made them work with women. […] A man who goes directly into tech from his high school years is at a very high risk of clinging to his high school view of women. FOr many men in tech, that’s not a pretty view.
Aside from the years of maturity it can add, I typically find finishing a 4-year degree is positively associated with a broader worldview. College exposes one to different ideas and ways of thinking. Finishing college is something of a litmus test for surviving four (or five or six) years outside of your cultural safe space. Colleges with humanities cores are especially great at challening young people. […] Extra points for men who have degrees outside of tech.

Gut decisions make up a lot of decisions in tech.
When men talk to each other, especially white men, they already share 99% of their cultural norms.
When men challenge a woman’s gut direction on a decision, they ask her to explain it, to break it down into evidence. Since it is a gut feeling and not an evidence-based decision, her ideas break down quickly under scrutiny.
if we don’t trust the men we are working with due to previous hostile experiences, just being questioned can be enough to make us abandon our post defending our argument. Sheryl Sandberg calls this Leaning Out. It might be a one-off small slight, but it becomes death by a thousand cuts. […] At some point, our backs are in pain from all the leaning in. Save our backs by having our back in these fights.

From the leadership of a company through every level, a culture of speaking with deliberate words to convey maturity and a level of respect must always be a) demonstated, and b) upheld.

That old tech adage is wise: hire slow and fire fast. Get rid of Dudebros when you spot them. They are going to ruin your company if you tolerate them even briefly. Don’t fall for the weak thoughts of immature men: htey aren’t worth it and they aren’t going to change.