True scope vs reported
While I was there, someone posted a video about a female engineer being talked down to aggressively. She claimed that every female engineer at Google experienced this. When challenged, she then claimed that every female engineer at Google experienced it every day.
I called ******** on the first claim, let alone the second. I've not been at that many companies, (AMD, IBM, and Google being the ones you will know) but everywhere that I've gone, there has been a strong culture of zero tolerance for harassment. (This includes the overnight retirement of a director at IBM.)
We live & die by our code, and harassed individuals don't produce their best code.
Of course, people who are scared to talk to each other, or to joke around also don't produce their best code. So we carry on. I've seen a guy do a long-form virtual seppuku during standup. I"ve had a manager discuss defenstration. (The day after I was reported for ceremonially banging my head on a wall.) We are also sensitive to stepping over the line. On multiple occasions, I've seen people check themselves. I've been asked a few times if I was bothered.
We're all human. We all have our strengths, weaknesses, and foibles. Respect means backing off when requested. It means watching out for the possibility that you might have touched something unintentionally. It also very much means assuming that there was no ill intent until proven otherwise.
So I am in possession of proof that at least some of the women at Google are making ludicrous claims of harassment. As another mentioned, this makes things worse, potentially much more so, for those who actually are suffering from it.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
