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unclebucknastyHNSource author
Lessons learnedExperience excerpt · English

If "totally inept" people are being promoted with any frequency, then that's a problem for any …

… If "totally inept" people are being promoted with any frequency, then that's a problem for any company. I think we have all seen this occasionally but, in my experience, it has very little to do with race (or other identity) and more to do with the Peter Principle and the fact that hiring and HR management is notoriously hard to get right. I'm not suggesting anything about the earnestness of your observations, but you should be aware that assuming every non-white person you see at a company is the beneficiary of preferential treatment is a bit of a canard. And the idea that a disproportionate number of those are inept is yet another. As such, whimsical people might draw rather nasty conclusions from your statements, that are other than what you intended.

Original discussionGoogle to pay $28M to settle claims it favoured white and Asian employees137 source comments · at import
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FO
footlose_3815HN

The people who are running the diversity stuff at Google when I was there were very "Eye-for-an-eye". Some dumb stuff that happened while I was at Google: * There was a ERG for literally every single race except White people. "Just join one of the others" was what they told me. * During an onboarding learning exercise because I was merely showing initiative before the rest of the group. "Ok everyone here's my idea". I was tapped on the shoulder by the contractor-teacher-person and asked to move aside and let the group do the very same thing without me. * Nonwhite employees in my org also got a special mentor who helped them get a leg-up in the company. Some employees were whisked-away from their work responsibilities to go on little field trips with other teams. A few of these people were totally inept technically at their job and I saw them convert into better jobs. It must have been ni…

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MI
mitthrowaway2HN

If Swiss and white were the same thing, that would make a lot of sense. On the other hand if you were a Ukrainian refugee or something, learning Swiss-German as a second language and struggling to integrate into the company's Swiss culture, then it might feel extra-alienating if the company suggests you could join the Asian or Indian employee support groups to help you bridge the culture gap. OTOH, for the same reason, skin-color-based groups don't really make sense to begin with.

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RQ
rqtwteyeHN

ERG groups provide mentorship and support. The assumption that all white people, males or in this case Swiss don’t need support or get it automatically is plain wrong.

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BU
BurningFrogHN

Straight white men, or even just white people, is in no way the "default" at Google, and very far from the 90% in your allegory.

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JU
JumpCrisscrossHN

> Of course, there is no Swiss ERG, as it's the "default" Switzerland is a country of three dominant languages. When I worked for a Swiss bank, they had internal groups for, essentially, domestic expats.

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JL
jlawsonHN

Google is like 45% white, 45% Asian. Asians have an ERG. If Whites want to make an ERG, why can't they? What is special about Whites that they must be prevented from doing the thing that literally all others have done?

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