Tag: Diversity

The Data Targeters Who Couldn’t Shoot Straight

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The NewCo Daily: Today’s Top Stories

Janna | Flickr

Since Donald Trump’s upset victory in November, there’s been a steady stream of stories crediting at least some of his win to an obscure data-analysis company called Cambridge Analytica. The company promised to use “psychographics” to target individual voters with digital ads. Its know-how, according to some accounts, helped surface a wave of Trump voters that conventional polls failed to measure.

Trouble is, Cambridge Analytica didn’t actually employ any of its psychographic profiling techniques on Trump’s behalf, and its actual role in the presidential campaign was modest at best (The New York Times). Some coverage has been skeptical from the start.

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To Uber: Many in Tech Have Gotten Harassment Against Women in the Workplace Right for Decades

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I am a huge fan of the New York Times, but today’s article, “Uber Case Could Be A Watershed for Women in Tech,” really pissed me off.

Yes, it is absolutely true that many forms of harassment against women in the workplace have been going on forever, and yes it is true that sometimes, the individuals responsible for said harassment go unpunished. And it is also true that there are many bro-grammer cultures that can’t seem to figure out how to treat all employees fair and equally.

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An open letter to my boss, IBM CEO Ginni Rometty

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Dear Ms. Rometty,

My name is Elizabeth Wood and I am a senior content strategist within the IBM corporate marketing department, based in New York City. I have worked hard to get to this stage in my career, and have been a valued member of my team at IBM. However, I have chosen to resign, as I can no longer contribute to an organization that would ignore the real needs of its workforce.

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Secession Is a Cop-Out. Back to Work, Everyone.

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Hakan Dahlstrom | Flickr

Don’t like how the election turned out? Let’s secede! American history has a long tradition of threats like that, but people almost never act on them. That’s a good thing — since the one time it happened, we got four years of war, misery, death, and wounds that still haven’t healed a century and a half later.

Still, secession cries are ringing out again, and not from Dixie. Shervin Pishevar, the investor and Hyperloop One founder, has called for California to leave the Union, and he’s picked up some support in Silicon Valley (Fusion).

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Battle of the Sexists

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On Women and Tech

I am scared. About sharing my thoughts publicly. For the first time. And that’s unlike me. But engaging about women in tech is a minefield and so many choose to stay on the sidelines. Then three things happened (not including the nasty man’s behavior in the Presidential debate), all of which compelled me to write, all against the backdrop of having two daughters and many friends who are female founders, corporate execs and VCs.

The first incident is now known by many of us. A white male VC advised women to hide their gender online and in business communication in an OpEd in the WSJ. Sure what he is suggesting is repulsive, demeaning and would roll back women’s rights but that’s not the worst of it. This man actually thought he was helping women and he was so certain he chose not to get feedback before he posted. As expected he was excoriated and ultimately apologized.

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Are Smiles Compulsory at Trader Joe’s?

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Joe Wolf | Flickr

Trader Joe’s, the cut-price gourmet grocer, is known for paying and treating its workers better than a lot of other retailers. We always assumed that explained the good spirits the staff there usually displays. A New York Times story suggests that the smiles and friendly chatter are more of a job requirement — and at least one worker is complaining to the National Labor Relations Board that he was fired for being too negative.

Company enforcement of an upbeat vibe is nothing new, of course. Sociologist Arlie Hochschild long ago dubbed the practice “emotional labor,” and it takes a toll on employees, not only because it’s exhausting but also because it erodes workers’ sense of personal integrity.

It’s hard to tell how widespread the problem is at Trader Joe’s, or whether the issue the Times airs is simply a problem with a single poorly managed outlet. One salient point: Trader Joe’s started in sunny Southern California, but the labor problems it’s beginning to face are emerging in the scrappier Northeast.

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Diversity Happens One Hire at a Time

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Neetal Parekh | Flickr

Companies that realize they’re too homogeneous often complain that the pipeline is empty or the talent pool is depleted — or they find some other metaphor to excuse their inaction. In the end, if you want to diversify your team, you just have to start hiring people who are different from you, whoever you are.

Meetup’s founder Scott Heiferman realized this a few years ago and started taking steps to bring more women into the company’s top ranks. As Jessi Hempel lays out the story (Backchannel), there’s no magic formula or shortcut to achieving such a goal, though there are specific measures that seem to help — like promoting from within and reaching out to candidates who aren’t actively job-hunting.

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If Trump Worked Here, He’d Be Fired

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David | Flickr

Of course you can’t say that and keep your job. Sure, Donald Trump’s recorded comments boasting about sexual predation in crude, callous language are politically toxic. They’re also kryptonite to employment. It’s “hard to believe he could get past the human resources department of a Fortune 500 company,” writes Andrew Ross Sorkin (The New York Times). This issue is no footnote — it’s at the heart of the bitter rancor that marks this election season. Trump’s appeal to his supporters is in part a backlash against socially and legally enforced limits on bad behavior, inadequately and inaccurately lumped together under the label of “political correctness.” It seems that a lot of people still dream of being Lord of Trump Castle and hitting on the powerless wenches. (Sad!) Many Trump fans yearn to turn back the clock to an era when mad men could stalk and abuse their female colleagues, while making tons more money than them, without ever facing consequences. But clocks move in only one direction — away from the indefensible practices of our elders. Trumpism will be swallowed by a tide of younger workers for whom sexual harassment and assault are as plainly over-the-line as other crimes. It’s already happening. This election’s noisy eruptions are the desperate final spasms of a dying belief system.

Science tastes better with Coke. According to a new study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 96 national health organizations — names like the American Diabetes Association and the National Institutes of Health — took funding from Coke and Pepsi between 2011 and 2015 (Time). The soda makers, increasingly under attack for promoting obesity, are struggling to avoid the fate of the tobacco industry by plowing a chunk of their profits toward good relations with the medical establishment. They’re also lobbying hard to resist regulations and taxes on their product. This isn’t a simple story of quid-pro-quo corruption; the health organizations maintain they’re independent and unswayed by the source of their funds. Perhaps they’re turning bad money to a good cause. But when issues are as hotly contested as this one, researchers can’t just assert their integrity; their credibility demands a clean audit trail.

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Throwing Down the Gauntlet: the Diversity Crisis & the Startup Community

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Lawrence Brown, an alumni of Resilient Coders, leads a discussion about user personas at an RC hackathon.

It’s been two years now since Google published the infamous breakdown of its workforce that launched a national conversation around diversity in tech. Two years, in the innovation ecosystem. Fifty two sprints. The entire lifespan of your roommate’s weird startup. Forty two thousand LinkedIn requests from recruiters. Two years worth of white guys in jeans, t-shirts and hoodies, pitching their apps to the white guys in jeans, t-shirts and blazers. Two years spent fastidiously crushing minor inconveniences; of redefining work culture for those of us lucky enough to participate in it; of management fads; of bold advances in our never-ending quest towards a utopian future of sparse user-friendliness.

Oh, also, two years of deeply racially segregated neighborhoods, and the highest income disparities in the country. You’d be forgiven for wondering whether we’ve advanced at all in opening the doors to the people most drastically underrepresented in the innovation community — both in Boston, where we are based, and in cities around the world. I think about this every time I write a Slack note in Spanish. Less than 1% of Slack’s workforce was Hispanic, last I checked. /giphy fail

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A More Inclusive Workplace

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Photo: Getty Images

A More Inclusive Workplace. At a time when many Muslims are feeling increasingly unwelcome in the U.S., more businesses are seeking to maintain Muslim-friendly workplaces. As Bloomberg reports, “The motivations may be principled, but the moves are practical. Managers want to keep talented workers and avoid conflict, and litigation.” The practices companies are implementing are modest (such as making sure major events don’t conflict with Muslim holidays and eliminating pork and alcohol from events), yet they add up to a much more welcome environment. And companies battling for talent are smart to make these changes: by 2035, Muslims will be the second largest non-Christian group in the U.S.

Unilever Buys Dollar Shave Club. Unilever is getting into the razor business, having paid $1 billion for upstart Dollar Shave Club (Fortune). It’s a big win for investors–and strong evidence that inspired disruptors continue to make an impact. In particular, as Ben Thompson notes, it’s evidence of the eventual disruption of everything. Why was Unilever an ideal buyer? Because it doesn’t have an existing shaving business to protect. The shift to new sorts of businesses continues. And, here on NewCo Shift, read VC David Pakman’s take, Dollar Shave Club: How Michael Dubin Created A Massively Successful Company and Re-Defined CPG.

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