Industry Heartbreak

So a couple of posts have come to my attention in recent history and I feel like I need to comment, because they are heartbreaking in a lot of ways. Beware long, ranty, and maybe not completely coherent thoughts.

First : 
 http://therealkatie.net/blog/2012/mar/21/lighten-up/
It's disheartening to hear that she's walking away from programming due to the workplaces that she's worked in - but there are many, many other women in similar situations. No one should have to deal with subtle discrimination and it's a field that is full of potential for subtle discrimination - in many cases you do end up representing the entire gender rather than your individual personality because there aren't enough women in the classroom/workplace. It sucks. And she shouldn't have to put up with it, and if this has happened in multiple workplaces, that makes it harder - but I do feel like there are other options, rather than turning away from the industry, especially if she loves it.

There are places out there where there are either more women in the workplace, or simply men that value having women in the workplace. There are women's networking groups that can help give insight on how to deal with the issues (or ins to jobs that are friendly to diversity).  At GHC one of the more interesting panels was on "The Business Case for Diversity" - having people that think differently from you can help avoid a LOT of potential business pitfalls when you're designing products for everyone. (On that note, maybe there aren't more women in Tech because of all the men in tech... )

This has not been my experience in the workplace, however. I've always been "one of the guys" in a lot of ways - even at a very early age it was me and a group of guys - so honestly, it's an environment that I'm comfortable in. (And another link on how the environment alone can steer women away from the industry... http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091214143728.htm). I've never really had problems being able to represent my ideas and what I bring to the table - but I've also been very lucky to be in environments where maybe "planning an event" was something I WANTED to do and not something that was asked of me because I was the chick in the room. I was valued for having the skills/interest in making an effective team - not for being "the social one".


Second:
http://womanintech.tumblr.com/post/19549272757/why-i-stopped-telling-young-girls-to-go-into

This post also makes me sad, but rings a little closer to home, and fits with some other discussions I've had.  Again, with the "I've been valued for having interests outside of tech" and being able to bring other people in to those interests. It's important. It sucks that everyone doesn't end up in environments where that is valued. But those places exist. Maybe the solution is just talking about it more, and encouraging women to move to those jobs where the BS isn't tolerated (awareness that those jobs are out there). Or maybe it's encouraging more women to start startups where we can build that positive culture from scratch.

Where this does hit home is that feeling of "not wanting to be boxed in". I struggled some with the job search because I didn't want to be "the Usability/User Experience Person" or "the Rich Internet Application Programmer" or... whatever. I have so many interests that there are a lot of jobs and roles that I could do and would be interested in. The trick though? I think is finding PEOPLE that you can work with. If your team and your colleagues suck, your job is going to suck even if the job description matches you perfectly. I've been blessed to find good colleagues - once you find that good team, even if the team splits, new opportunities come along through knowing awesome people. Or maybe it's finding a tech job in a non-tech industry - the ability to communicate to non technical people is clutch, and is highly valued. It's just a matter of finding it.

Maybe we just need to change the discussions. You don't need to put up with coworkers (or a job) that don't value you and your talents. It's ok to switch jobs to find a place where you are valued (regardless of your gender). Maybe it's why I find myself loving working in Chicago and think moving to the Valley for the start up culture I'd be walking away from a lot of awesomeness. Who knows.

On people's comments on your own happiness
On that note, I've had a couple of people that hadn't seen me since the job switch recently. They both commented that I seemed a lot happier. It's probably not fair to say I didn't realize how unhappy the job was making me - I knew (hell, I was so stressed out I got shingles. I knew it mentally AND physically). I just didn't realize how much it actually affected my outward presence/composure). So I'm in a good place. It's cool to know that other people notice the difference, and that aside from my own personal knowledge that I'm in a good place that it does reflect outwardly. Those times where you get a glimpse of how other people perceive you are pretty cool.

My boss ended a phone conversation the other day with "I appreciate you". Lessons to absorb in how to be a good manager here, people. I wouldn't say I didn't feel appreciated at the last job (they joked about getting a body guard for me because I was invaluable) - but so important to give that little bit of validation. Quick, simple, and surprising how many people don't do it. And it completely changes a questionable workplace into a place you'd defend, because you yourself feel valued.

Books

So I read a couple of books lately that I wanted to comment on because I think they are great and more people should read them.

Checklist Manifesto
Great book about checklists in Healthcare. And really, their usefulness in anything complex. The premise is that you can save yourself a WHOLE lot of complications by having a checklist so that your brain can focus on things that require specialized knowledge or creativity and not spend too many cycles thinking about mundane/routine (but Important) things. Fascinating to see the uses for checklists in Construction, Healthcare, and Aviation and how startling the statistics are for reduction of problems. I for one am HOOKED on to-do lists as a memory aid.  This had been on my reading list forever, so it was a nice re-connection to Human Factors.

Elsewhere USA
This book feels like a more accessible and up to date "Bowling Alone" (which, I never got through) - read at Bechtel's suggestion (after he suggested Diamond Age, which was ALSO fantastic and though it was a fiction novel seemed somewhat connected, based on "when food is no longer a limiting factor" and a few other things). 
A couple of major thoughts here: You hang out with people within a certain percentage above and below your wealth. As you make more money, the long tail effect comes in and those at the higher end of your "income hangouts" make substantially more money and you feel like you're falling behind. That, and you're only happy if you're in transit between two places (if you're at home, feel like you should be a work, and the flip of that... but in transit you're right where you should be). Definitely an interesting read!

Musings
How many times do my conversations end up as "Overheard" somewhere?

Having coworkers you can have fun with is pretty important. Feeling like you're part of a team is BIG.

I should have started an IT bracket pool for basketball. I didn't realize it until we were out for Happy Hour with the extended team and realized people are pretty into it. (Including me, because Kentucky is good this year).

I also find that it's good to be working with people that are spazzy like me. (Different supervisors throught my career have been people that dig holes in fruit on the bottom yogurt to get a "volcano" of sugar, or are willing to do a Napolean Dynamite run down the sidewalk in Chicago). Lovely.

The Great Boot Debacle, or how to get a free car rental

The Great Boot Debacle
So about a month ago, I rented a car to drive down to Springfield. Because I was going down to the Southside the next day, I kept the car for two days (on the rental agreement). Tuesday was awesome, but super long - I drove to Naperville, picked up the boss, drove down to Springfield and back in the same day. Only to get up the next morning and drive down to the south side for a 9am meeting.

At noon, someone pokes their head in the conference room I was holed up in. "Hey, you arrived just after me, right? They just put boots on 4 cars in the parking lot, and yours was one of them."

So Hertz rented me an illegal car. Basically I got the boot because of prior tickets on the car and parking in a CPS parking lot in a legal spot. Cool. This lead to about a week of hassle - calling Hertz Roadside assistance multiple times and trying to figure out what was going on, after they told me 1. they couldnt swap out the car for me (fine, I was returning it later that night anyhow) and 2. telling me I could return the keys to any Hertz location... and then not closing out the account. I think I had 3 separate reps tell me they were taking care of it before I finally got put in touch with the Manager at O'hare who ACTUALLY took care of it.

But the rental was  free, in the end. And I asked the manager for a free rental for my personal hassle of calling them repeatedly. I got a few $25 vouchers and a handwritten note (that arrived on Valentine's day) "Thanks for the smile in your voice while dealing with all the hassle we caused you". Awww. I'll accept that.

Things I don't miss:
The "Online Ethics Test" - basically, in a big corporation, there are online ethics tests. I don't miss them. People just expect you will be ethical when working for a medium sized non profit. I'm ok with that. The online ethics tests were always sort of a waste of time - important, but hokey.

Educare Learning Network and Kansas City

So the Wednesday- Friday I spent the week in Kansas City for the Educare Learning Network. I was mostly supporting the launch of their extranet, but it was a great experience to get to know some of my coworkers a bit better, learn what they do, and get to check out another Educare school. 


Kansas City - Not what I expected
I don't really know that I went in with expectations of KC, so it's hard to say that it's not what I expected but... maybe I didn't know what to expect. Plenty of good barbeque (Smokin' Guns, Arthur Bryants, and the Woodyard) - different at every place. Found fantastic cocktails at the hotel bar across the street from the hotel we were staying at (went twice, the bartender makes his own bitters and had a jar full of lavendar). KC was a lot bigger than I expected.


Being in a room with so  many inspiring women
Based on the nature of the first 3 months on the job, I haven't had much exposure to some of the top leadership of our non-profit - it was very very cool to get to hear many of them speak about the work and the growth of the network over several years. Aside from the tech consulting switch where it's just impressive to be in a room with that many women, it's very cool to be in a room these co-workers are incredibly driven and have done some amazing things with their time and dedication. The cocktail hour did weird me out a little bit - still not entirely used to seeing so many women in a room together. Definitely cool to talk with women across the country and to get to see more of the talent of the women I interact with on a regular basis!

Touring Educare Kansas City
KC was my first Educare outside of Chicago. Chicago is interesting because it was built specifically around having outdoor play spaces that were not on the exterior of the building due to gang violence in the area, but also is pretty tight on space. (On that note, one of the better stories was about one of the women that in the first days of Educare when it was in the Robert Taylor Homes, she'd go outside to smoke and the gang members would tell her about future violence and times that were bad to take the children outside. "Smoking saves, folks!").

It's amazing how strong the Educare Brand is - all of the schools have the schoolhouse logo out front. KC was amazing - the building is several stories with the Educare on the first floor, a health center, great outdoor play spaces, and lots of office space. The upper floors house other non profits that work closely with Educare as well as some of the researchers. Definitely cool to see. 





On Teaching Preschoolers Science and Engineering
I spent a while talking to Daryl Greenfield out of Miami about teaching engineering to preschoolers and preschool science curriculums. This probably can be a post in and of itself, but some of the highlights :

- Teacher Attitude - if teachers think they can't teach science, they will be nervous about teaching it. With engineering, there was no expectation they'd know engineering concepts so they were more comfortable with it.

- Fun : A huge part of teaching preschoolers.

- Tech: Using Touch screens to do assessments of understanding the concepts. Very cool. Very much up my ally!


And then I saw this, from good. http://www.good.is/post/should-3-year-olds-learn-computer-programming/ I'm also excited to hear how the Digital Media & Learning conference went from my two colleagues that attended.