I don’t think it’s unreasonable to infer that she resigned because of the driving trollies. In fact, I would be seriously surprised if it wasn’t a factor. But personally, I suspect that issues within the company to which neither of us is actually privy weighed much more heavily in the decision.
I disagree that the piece was meant to put a positive spin on the situation (assuming that’s what you’re asking me about regarding disagreement). Did you read it? Essentially none of it is about her decision to leave Reddit. She uses Reddit as an example to talk about what she sees as a larger issue across the entire internet.
As I mentioned before, I’m not particularly interested in combing through the minutiae of Pao’s private life or her relationship with former employers. I think that’s kind of weird and voyeuristic. I also mentioned before that I think she’s been adequately punished for any wrongdoing she may or may not have been involved in regarding that situation, and that strangers picking through the details and ranting about what an awful person she is would be quite superfluous.
Very kind of you to say so and noted as such. I’m terrible at civility, and my recent foray into the hatemachine that is Twitter has only made me less so despite straining to prevent it, hence my weak attempt to retain a little empathy here and there.
I don’t work there and I haven’t yet read any such comments to that effect from Reddit remnants/insiders, but I may have missed said comments, or they aren’t saying so, or they’re being nice about the situation and have refrained from kicking the woman while she is down (so to speak). With time, I think we’ll get a more robust story about why she was asked to leave, so I’m hesitant to assign value or lack thereof to her talents.
But again, “whining” implies a distastefulness, weakness on her part, and that’s not nice or fair or civil. To your point about Musk, he’s in an entirely different sector of the economy, and quite frankly, he’s a white guy. Pao has had to endure a literal tidal wave of shitflinging and utterly personal attacks the likes of which Musk has never, and likely never will have to experience–you’re conflating different economic sectors, different strategies, different management structures/boards, different people.
Lastly, her op-ed was not used as a vehicle to talk about why Reddit fired her or how she felt she was mistreated by the company. Feel free to point me to her statements on such as I haven’t seen them yet.
Pao was calling out the shithead trollies who make everyone’s online lives a little more difficult because they fail to understand what an amazing tool the internet is and how it can be used for so much good, and instead choose to use it as a tool for demeaning and harassing others, especially on the basis of looks, gender, sexual preference, etc. This op-ed did not speak of her lawsuit or her firing.
I’m just frustrated though. I’ve been in board/exec/teaching positions (and as a guy), and I occasionally mentor women entrepreneurs and execs.
IMHO, the Kleiner lawsuit did not help the case for promoting women. At that level, people get fired for all kinds of reasons, and not always fair ones. If a woman gets fired unfairly and then can find an attorney to make a gender case, the result will be that boards think twice before promoting women.
You made the point that Pao got her slap on the wrist, you’re right.
But if we want to get women in exec roles, she could have been more helpful keeping her mouth shut. Being fired from Kleiner is not a problem here, it is a minor setback. She could have gotten 5 offers from other firms. I can list you a hundred people who would line to up be “fired from Kleiner” (implying they had the skills to get in the door in the first place).
Also just my opinion, but she was not ready for the Reddit role. People don’t randomly get CEO roles, she had to put her hat in the ring and say “I can do it”. I hold her responsible for getting into that role in the first place.
I’m meeting next week with a former student who now runs a small early stage investment fund. A woman. She is amazing. I’ve very proud she even asked me to be a mentor. If Pao comes up, which I’m sure it will, it’s hard to think of a positive example that came from Kleiner/Reddit. If I understand your point, it’s don’t call her a “professional victim”. What you call it then? Honestly, no snark intended, how do you teach from this example??
I would argue that subreddits are the best moderation mechanism around. They mean I can enjoy /r/photoshopbattles without having to read /r/shitredditsays
You just described MetaFilter, which is a bright shiny beacon in a currently rather gloomy web (not even counting Darkweb).
Unlike Reddit, there have always been standards there, and while they haven’t always been evenly enforced, they’ve at least been making an effort for over a decade. And it shows.
Not really, Metafilter has always been heavily and officially moderated (by paid employees even) and it costs $5 to create an account not to start a discussion, or a sub-community. Starting a sub-community is not possible at MetaFilter afaik.
Seriously? W. Da. Fuq. It’s no wonder you are surprised that any woman would engage you as a mentor. You are seriously the worst fucking mentor a woman could have. Denier, apologist and self-righteous snot, you need to check yourself.
His advice could be interpreted easily as “when you find yourself in a hole, stop digging”.
Not even female CEOs are immune from sorely needing this kind of help here and there.
Oh ffs. I am not going to lend my credentials. And I won’t link my CV or linked in, cause we should probably agree to stay anonymous-ish from each other.
Because fuck you. The best execs don’t keep their mouth shut. There is a 1/3 relationship between investors/shareholders, employees, and customers. Anyone that keeps their mouth shut for benefit of #1 at the expense of the other two is a psychopath.
Men don’t get told to keep their mouths shut. Even Reed Hastings, after quixter, wore a flippan Bojack Horseman ugly sweater to a meeting.
You are applying a standard and a set of rules to a gender. You are part of the problem.
Eh, sometimes you do need to keep your mouth shut about secret stuff going on behind the scenes at a company. And the higher up you are in the leadership the more important that is.
But that usually applies to “business stuff” like sales numbers, the fact that you are on the verge of going of of business, major strategic shifts, not injustice or stuff that is flat out illegal. People should be speaking out about that!
shaddack I know you are approaching this rationally. As an example I mentioned Reed Hastings of Netflix lost 800,000 paying subscribers of Netflix in a month due to his hole digging, and is still CEO. Ellen lost a few thousand trollies that abused the platform and resigned.
Stop digging? Sure. Orders of magnitude different? I would argue yes.
