When I was in my 20s, I thought I would someday become a lawyer. A career in law seemed possible for him, as he interned with U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell and then worked as a public policy analyst in the Nevada State Legislature. Everything changed when I met Jennifer, a friend of her husband's family.
Jennifer was a highly successful executive at Microsoft. Meeting her was a revelation and encouraged me to pursue a career path in technology like hers. The fact that Jennifer is a woman and she looks like me helped me visualize being there. If Jennifer can do it, she can do it for me. This idea motivated me to pursue a Master of Science in Human-Centered Design and Engineering at the University of Washington.
Eventually, I found a job in the Bay Area. It was the perfect place for an ambitious young tech worker. Red flags started showing up almost immediately, but I ignored them, distracted by the lavish perks and big paychecks that come with working for Big Tech. I also believed, as was often said, that my employer was primarily driven by a desire to change the world for the better. How could such an altruistic organization commit such heinous acts?
Scars in the tech industry
More than a decade has passed quickly, and as time passes, it becomes harder to ignore this issue. Gender wage and level disparities, sexual harassment, pregnancy discrimination, and parental discrimination all added up to severely impact the trajectory of my career. As a woman in the technology industry, I also felt exhausted from constantly trying to walk what felt like a tightrope. I was somehow always too assertive but not assertive enough, too casual or not presentable enough in appearance, too emotional but somehow not in tune with the emotions of my coworkers enough. The list goes on.
I thought for a while that no other woman had ever experienced so many challenges in the workplace. After my story was published, countless people contacted me after I was kicked out of Google and ultimately sued the company for pregnancy discrimination, feeling underrepresented and marginalized in the tech industry. I learned that many of the workers at the hospital were hurting in the same way as me. It often unfolds as a pile of pieces of paper caused by misconduct in the workplace. I wasn't the only one with mixed experiences.
It has also become clear that after the age of 40, age discrimination is likely to become a new challenge in the coming years. Although many consider it an open secret in the tech world, ageism was an especially scary risk when you were raising two young children at home.
The ultimate factor in my decision to retire from my tech career was that Google spent what was probably millions of dollars fighting my pregnancy discrimination lawsuit. Despite pledging in recent years to change its broken system for handling reports of sexual harassment and discrimination, the company has refused to do what many companies do by spending millions to cover up wrongdoing. I think I chose it.
About two years ago, Google reached a settlement in my case. With the conclusion of my lawsuit against the tech giants, my days of drinking the corporate Kool-Aid are over. Problems that were once easy to ignore can no longer be ignored. I've always been fed up with the contrast between what many tech companies talk about diversity and inclusion and how they act internally.
It has also been disturbing to watch over the past two years as tech companies pursue mass layoffs despite record profits, in part because of the growing mobilization of tech workers. I believe it is about silencing the trend. This includes cuts to the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) department, which is key responsible for ensuring a diverse workforce within the industry.
move on
Of course, the tech industry isn't all bad, and many former and current tech workers around the world are leading important efforts to drive greater inclusivity within tech and other industries. There is. This includes the likes of Sara Johar and Vivian Castillo. Inspired by her experience as a mother working in Big Tech, Dzhokhar founded CareSprint, which advocates for inclusive workplaces for her parents and caregivers. Motivated by her experiences with microaggressions and gaslighting as a Black woman in the tech industry, Castillo founded HmntyCntrd, a company that provides resources to foster trauma-informed, care-centered teams and organizational structures. did.
To me, Dzhokhar and Castillo are role models that highlight how future generations of tech workers can drive meaningful change within the tech industry and other industries. I hope that through the important work of people like them, we will continue to see the reforms we need.
That being said, I personally, especially as a mother and woman approaching middle age, can no longer work in an industry that I feel is too slow to innovate in terms of promoting an inclusive work environment. It's too risky, both financially and emotionally, to stay in the tech industry because I know it will continue to be difficult.
So I'll join the 50% of women in technology who leave the industry by age 35. This fall, I will return to my original career goal of attending law school to help fill the gap in the number of employment lawyers fighting for employee rights. I sometimes feel guilty for removing myself from other people's Jennifers within the walls of technology, but as someone once pointed out to me, Jennifers come from all career paths and roles. I look forward to combining my past work experience and future learning as a law school freshman to advocate for an inclusive work environment from outside the walls of technology.
Chelsea Glasson is a Seattle mother of two and author of Black Box: A Registration Discrimination Memoir.
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