I agree with you too. Speaking up is a privilege. Hard to do with a mortgage and a family. That's why when I worked at Redfin, employees rather leave instead of complain. Retaliation is real.
An aside that seems relevant to a general discussion of "name vs not name": I've noticed that you (or a set of users that share your very unique username, perhaps) spend a ton of time attacking Redfin on various social media accounts (HN, Reddit, Facebook). I used to work there, too, and it's strange that you consistently describe the company in a negative way that is unfamiliar at best and completely unwarranted to the best of my knowledge.
It sounds like you had a really bad experience, which of course is your prerogative. But generalizing your experience to attack an entire company seems to demand a higher burden of evidence and credibility -- a standard that is tough to ascribe to an anonymous hit-and-run commenter who seems to have the sole motive of flinging as much dirt as possible.
I guess the question I'm posing, to you and to this forum, is the following: to what extent can you take a non-specific, general denunciation seriously without a name and a real reputation behind it? Penny did a brave, good thing in writing about her experiences for public consumption. If you want anyone to take you at your word, I'd encourage you do the same. I look forward to reading about your perspective, with a name and context attached, since it's worlds apart from mine.
A ton of time is an exaggeration. I think this is the first time Redfin is mentioned by name on HN.[1] And I don't think my account is anon if you and Glenn both can figure out who I am. I enjoyed working at Redfin, and I believe they are disrupting real estate in a good way. I would say I love the site. I spend a ton of time advocating for Redfin. But I wish Glenn tried to build a more inclusive work environment.
When I worked at Redfin, a number of people complained about racist and sexist incidents. All of them were minor. For example, boss touching a black woman's natural hair. No one wanted to escalate it to management, because they didn't feel it was safe or that people wouldn't care. Some co-workers were empathetic, while others expressed disbelief and defensiveness. Many were dismissive because "it's worlds apart" from their experiences. A couple of us eventually escalated to management. The lack of empathy was disappointing but not unexpected. A handful of my friends have left or want to leave partly due to these incidents. That's not good.
What would you do? Feel free to PM me. I think a private conversation would be more honest and involve less posturing.
Thanks for sharing these experiences, man. I never heard of an incident like the one you describe, but I can totally believe that experiences like these happen by the law of large numbers. To employ a tired but accurate adage, no organization of any meaningful size is immune to this category of concerns, especially not in the tech world.
Which of course is no excuse; where my experience remains different than yours is in your characterization of the management team. I've found them to be proactive and sensitive in forwarding inclusiveness and educating employees on the ways inadvertent discrimination can cause harm -- and as a minority, I never had any problems. As I'm early in my career I don't have much of a benchmark, but I'd love to PM you to understand what you would have done better. Above all, thanks for engaging productively -- I apologize for coming in hot, but hope you understand that I feel loyal to an organization and leadership team that, in my view, has done a fantastic job making me feel welcome.
You are still being dismissive. In an office of ~200 people, I personally know four women who left for reasons ranging from the hair incident to being told that having a child is a career limiting move. I don't think a 2% departure rate is due to the law of large numbers when the company culture is small enough to be shaped by Glenn.
Anyway, when did you work there? There is a good chance you benefited from a more sensitive management team caused by a few awkward exits.
It's fine, I'm pretty sure I know the guy. I think he's an engineering manager. Managers like him are why so few are willing to speak up. People get defensive real quick. See the video posted below.
He knows my facebook account so I don't see how he thinks I'm trying to stay anonymous. Though I'm flattered he read thousands of my tweets to find the four or five about Redfin.
I am not an engineering manager -- and for what it's worth, not a manager at all, just a regular old line employee (or was until a few months ago). As I said, I'm just an ex-Redfinnian who is a minority and experienced an environment that is very different from what you describe, which made me very curious to understand the gap between our experiences -- and if I'm being completely honest, eager to defend a company which has been generally wonderful to me with regards to fostering an inclusive and safe work environment, and unequivocally not one that "retaliates" in the manner you describe.
Okay, so you worked there after me. When I started, devs still checked sex jokes into the code base. Just one of the many things I tried to fix. You are welcome, I guess?
You're right that it isn't the best word choice -- I meant to say that it's not my place or anyone else's to comment on the lived experience of an individual at or with an institution. What I take issue with is generalizing a subjective experience to color and characterize an entire institution.
