HACKER Q&A
📣 dolni

Navigating activist tech organizations during a job hunt


Hi HN,

I've got a job now that's been pretty good to me so far, but a recent change in circumstances has put a bad taste in my mouth. As such, I'm considering other options. I do site reliability engineering work, though I could transition into full software if I wanted. I've got about 15 years of experience so it would be for a senior role.

One concern I have is accidentally stumbling into a company with a twisted, woke culture that will see me ostracized if I don't self-flagellate (being a white man) and engage in performative social justice. I could probably bring the odds of that down to about 0 if I avoid anything in say, urban California and NYC but that really cuts down on the available job opportunities in tech.

A few questions for you all:

1. How pervasive is this sort of work culture, actually? I get the impression that it's common in some areas, like Silicon Valley, but that could easily be a misconception.

2. Do you have any tips for detecting this kind of culture before signing on at a new company?

3. Any specific companies you can recommend looking into? I have roots where I am and not willing to move, so remote work flexibility is a must.

Thanks!

  👤 exolymph Accepted Answer ✓
It's a long game but networking on antiwoke / "based" Tech Twitter is the play. (Note for the peanut gallery: this is distinct from whatever alt-right caricature you have in your head.) @balajis is a Schelling point to start with. More recommendations, varying scales of prominence: @micsolana, @tszzl, @orthonormalist

In the more immediate term, the startup I work for is looking for Rust engineers.

👤 edhowzerblack
You will be exposed to a certain amount of social justice material at any company. At many companies this is just part of HR / compliance training. You sit through a day's worth of bullshit and then go back to your normal work. If the company wants more than that, if they require employees to be true believers there will likely be a social justice component to the interview / application process. If you experience this then you know not to take the job. Generally speaking, I would say that startups are more likely to push this stuff. The reason is that startups tend to hire younger people and offer them "culture perks" instead of market rate salaries. (we can't pay you market rate but we have a foosball table and we're woke af!)
👤 tacostakohashi
Performative social justice is required by society and the market - investors, clients, prospective employees.

For this reason, you won't really find a way to escape it in the long run, and you may as well just drink the kool-aid and get good at it. It is, as you say, performative, so you don't need to agree with it nor expend substantial effort, and it's totally ok, expected even, that you find some causes you happen to agree with, or treat it primarily as a social event.

Any company/management who is not currently playing along will eventually have new owners/management installed that play this game.

👤 giantg2
1. All companies have some sort of culture, even if it varies from team to team. I think the bulk of the woke culture is likely at smaller companies. It seems like larger companies have some sort of diversity training, but it's mostly talk. No matter where you are or what the topic is, most places expect you to tow the company line.

2. Hard to say. The company policies, mission statement, and even industry can play a role. Are you more likely to do performative social justice working for an outdoor store website (like Bass Pro) or for a social worker company website? The policies and mission statement could just be fluff, but Glassdoor or other reviews could have some useful info.

3. I would say most big companies are going to talk big, but be mostly fluff. Finance, most large retail, defense, and any manufacturing that's still left would be my guess.

👤 lovich
What level of behavior counts as “performative social justice” to you?

I ask as my workplace would probably be stereotyped at first glance as a place like that but the only extra effort I had to put in was listing my pronouns in my company profile which isn’t really a burden. I had more performative social justice work thrown at me at stodgy old corporations where they’d file you in for day long seminars a few times a year talking about the regular social justice points while the entire leadership team was white guys who got to skip the seminars

👤 benlivengood
I think you should just ask them this directly when being interviewed/recruited.