So bottom-line: the company is not a haven for male brogrammer types, the founders fucked up and please engineers don't let this scandal affect you.
Still, there's a bitter taste left here. The whole situation remains somehow murky and nobody has benefited from this "clarification".
My personal opinion is that if you have a disagreement and there's grounds for legal proceedings, you should start the legal proceedings. It might be an uphill battle, it might eventually prove useless, but at least it's a final answer to a question.
My guess is that this public storm did not help anybody: neither Julie, nor Github, nor the movement against sex discrimination in the workplace. Everybody still thinks they were right and no "final" solution was shown. And most importantly, with regard to the real issue (the discrimating treatment), nobody DID nothing. The founder just quit (without being accused of much and without "paying" for anything), Github is still the best place in the world to work in (as it was before this thing happened) and somehow Julie seems to be a little more paranoid than before (hey what can we do, an independent expert did not confirm her story).
I don't think so. Maybe that's the sentiment here among some HNers, but the industry at large reacted differently. Most importantly, it raised awareness to the fact that some women may feel unsafe or uncomfortable in a work environment even if their mail coworkers and bosses don't feel they're doing anything wrong.
Not exactly. I am saying that public opinion does not benefit unless the law's involved. If discrimination is not condemned clearly and if the perpetrators can hide behind press releases and teary eyed blog posts, nobody benefits.
Still, there's a bitter taste left here. The whole situation remains somehow murky and nobody has benefited from this "clarification". My personal opinion is that if you have a disagreement and there's grounds for legal proceedings, you should start the legal proceedings. It might be an uphill battle, it might eventually prove useless, but at least it's a final answer to a question.
My guess is that this public storm did not help anybody: neither Julie, nor Github, nor the movement against sex discrimination in the workplace. Everybody still thinks they were right and no "final" solution was shown. And most importantly, with regard to the real issue (the discrimating treatment), nobody DID nothing. The founder just quit (without being accused of much and without "paying" for anything), Github is still the best place in the world to work in (as it was before this thing happened) and somehow Julie seems to be a little more paranoid than before (hey what can we do, an independent expert did not confirm her story).
Back to square one on this one.