If you think the ungodly hidden XML embedded in text copied from Word is its most hideous crime, try working with living, breathing 500-page "documents" (specifications, test plans, policies, manuals, procedures, what-have-you) which are simultaneously edited by multiple people all the time. Oh, and the document needs to be conformed to some "company standard formatting" which are meant to look good on paper but nobody really prints the whole thing out in real life.
THAT is probably a use case which happens more often in corporate America than the author's more specialized world of online publishing.
I don't think Word is the ideal tool for this case neither (I hear cursing directed at Word all the time), but it is the de facto standard.
As much as I want believe LaTeX is better suited for this task, nobody will use it. (Disclaimer: I last used LaTeX 12 years ago.)
I beg to differ on your point of math being inherently non-social.
In high school, I actively participated--and later led--my school's math league team. Every Friday, we were either home or away for a match with another school. My school wasn't particularly known as a math hothouse (unlike other schools with gifted programs), but we managed to get pretty far in the playoffs for the years I was there, finishing 3rd in the district once even.
Back then, I also actively participated in math and science contests, which eventually led me to be invited to a week-long math seminar. During that week, we had daily team competitions and other activities that were fun, social, and mind boggling at the same time.
And it doesn't hurt on that one faithful June morning too many years ago, I also met the person whom eventually became my husband. wink
I don't know about you, and your mathematics education background, but by the time I took my various math classes in university (I was in faculty of math), the higher level the classes, the less often I see numbers.
People seem to associate "mathematicians" with "wizardry in arithmetics," but even before I finish undergrad, I understand "1 + 1" doesn't necessarily have to be 2. That's how mathematicians think (at least those who are interested in rings, fields, etc).
That stupid 15% tip? It's child's play and has long since been delegated to calculators.
I learned my multiplication table in Chinese (mother tongue), which was way easier when every line has the exact number of syllables (4), almost like a poem. I believe I was taught at school in grade 1 or 2 back then, but I (and most other people) had it memorized at an earlier age. It's easy enough to "teach" my 3-year-old just by reciting it in front of him.
Memorizing multiplication table in English is a lot less intuitive, which I attribute to many people's disdain (or pure hatred, depending on whom you ask) of it.
I'm all for teaching a man to fish, but if he's starving at this moment, save him now by giving him the fish fish first before teaching. A dead man doesn't do much learning.
As for my son, he hasn't learned the multiplication table yet, but he's always interested to have us repeat it to him. (Ah, the curious minds of 3-year-olds.) In a few years, once he has learned the concept of multiplication, it'll be easier for him to apply it for the rest of his life if he has the table memorized. Before that time comes, the table is nothing but nursery rhyme to him. And that's fine with me.
The question is, do people at large even want to do casual programming?
Stepping back, what does "casual programming" mean anyway? Automate certain repetitive tasks? Do some complicated calculation? Write a two-player tic-tac-toe? Make a Sudoku solver?
For the most part, "casual programming" for people who are not into the abstraction layer have been mostly done in Excel/VBA. Most people just don't realize that IS a valid form of "programming" (albeit a very limited subset of it). It's like people who play Angry Birds/Farmville (or Minesweeper in the '90s) obsessively don't consider themselves as gamers, even though they might have spent more time "gaming" than most Counter Strike "gamers".
On the other hand, if you want to dig more into programming, tools like Lego Mindstorm or Scratch teach the concepts rather beautifully. It makes moving onto an actual general purpose programming language much easier.
I'm equally annoyed by people (in a non-personal setting) who asks me my birthday (down to the year) and then asks my age. The person asking is almost always some sort of government/healthcare agent (because most other people are not legally allowed to ask birthday in the first place) filling out some administrative form (paper or online).
Any data entry system which cannot eff-ing figure out my age from my yyyy-mm-dd birthday is an idiot, and deserves to have me "oops-I-calculated-it-wrong" my age.
Net worth of $1m is hardly "rich" in my definition, since it's not sufficient for most of first-world population to retire on. Heck, that 2500 sq ft down the road was listed for $700k and had multiple offers, and my neighbourhood isn't even considered "rich" (perhaps middle- to upper-middle class).
Net worth of $1m quite easily achievable by 50 with two middle class income, not being a spendrift, and not being a bonehead in investing. (For the record, trading stocks too actively is usually a bonehead move, so is putting all savings in CD's.)
As someone who became mother due to the lack of active prevention of pregnancy (call it a pleasant surprise), I am of course of a different opinion than yours.
There is nothing stopping either Alice or Barbara from lying about their procreation plans. Outside of abstinence, which cannot be proved or disproved by anyone other than the female in question (and it is not even something she has 100% control on -- unwanted sex do happen in this world), there is no foolproof birth control method. As such, and without trampling on employees' privacy, there's no point for an employer to inquiring about procreation plan.
I don't believe the clauses contingent on pregnancy is appropriate on employment contracts neither. If maternity leave is such a big loss on productivity that a company needs compensation for, one can argue either the market should already have a product for it (e.g. some form of "maternity insurance" provided to employers), or the government should subsidize the employer.
In Canada, where @raganwald and I currently reside, employers are not legally required to provide compensation for persons on maternity or parental leave. (Maternity leave is for mothers giving birth only; parental leave can be split between parents of either birth or adoption.) Instead, the government provides partial compensation. It's up to the employer to decide whether to provide additional compensation on top of government benefits. I don't know where you are located nor your local laws regarding maternity leave. In your opinion, would a policy similar to Canada's be suffice, or do you still want more protection for the employers?
I suppose you are opposed to Arizona's new birth control pill bill HB2625 then? [tongue in cheek]
What if Alice didn't know she was pregnant -- or wasn't even pregnant -- at the time of the interview? The process of hiring can drag on for weeks and months for many industries and companies.
The employer made what you've described as a coin flip choice and have to stand by that decision. Life is never "fair" in the way you're defining fairness in this case.
Yes, it is the company's fault. The law regarding parental/maternity leave varies by jurisdiction, but raganwald is in Canada, and parental leave, complete with job protection, is a legal right. It's not madness nor parasitic -- it just shows your moral compass is not entirely compatible with employment laws in Canada. ;)
Extended paid vacation is a different story -- employers are not obligated to approve your vacation request. Also, many companies have policies on how (paid) vacation days are incurred, especially during the first year. Having said that, most people I know would disclose any previously planned extended travel plans with the potential employer, both out of courtesy to the employer and as a condition of accepting the job.
Happened (happening) to me -- I'm 7 months pregnant, out of work for months.
I haven't looked for new employment because it didn't feel "right" to apply to a new job knowing I'll be on maternity leave for a full year.
Legally I know I'm protected -- if any employer refuses to hire me, I have certain grounds to sue for discrimination. But it doesn't stop making me feeling like an a$$hole if I do so.
When I was in my early 20's, I (the lone female developer) was once asked by my manager to put together a gift for the only other female team member, a tester, who had just given birth. I don't know why I was picked, because I was
(1) very new to the team,
(2) didn't knew the other person well, and
(3) generally ill-equipped at that stage of my life (really, just entering the "adult world") to anticipate what was an appropriate gift for a new mother.
There were other team members who were already parents (of multiple children, even), thus probably knew better. But I was picked.
I think I just got a Toys'R'Us gift card as cop out.
Thank you for pointing out the nuances of female tops commonly available today and how they look on different body shapes.
With regard to button-up shirts, tailoring is a much bigger problem for women's shirt than men's shirt. Ready-made men's shirts are measured in collar size in 1/2" increments and sleeve length in 2" increments. This allow for much better fit, as men's shoulder and chest measurements tend to correlate with these two numbers.
For women's shirts, you're at the whim of the mythical "sizes" running usually in increments of 2 from 0 to 14 (larger if you're at the "plus" section). Each size up is usually scaled up at all measurements: chest, shoulder, waist, collar, shirt length and sleeve length.
In other words, even though there's a much wider variety in women's body shapes than in men's, men's shirts' come in much finer increments in terms of sizing.
In addition to the problems you've describe, I have a few more gripes regarding button-up shirts:
There's the problem of large gaps opening up in between buttons for the well-endowed, thus offering others glimpses of your undergarment (read: bra). Opting for a larger size would make the shirt too loose ("not fit") at the shoulders.
Another common problem with button-up shirts for women is, they tend to run much shorter than men's shirts, as they are intended to be worn not tugged in. Depending on body shape and the cut of the bottom garment, certain movements (such as raising the entire arm) may expose skin along and possible above the waistline.
Unfortunately, button-up shirts are part of the de facto business casual attire. Depending on the physical environment, adding a vest, cardigan, or jacket for cover-up may not be suitable or desirable. (Female jackets tend to hang above the hip bones anyway, so they're not offering much help in the regard of protecting skin from being exposed.)
In other words, no, I don't want to expose my skin or cleavage in the office, but sometimes it's unavoidable.
This is almost along the lines of the "if you don't want to get raped, don't dress like a whore" argument.
Low cut dress can be functional (as described by Katie). Or maybe she's out for a date after work (in which case there's feminism is appropriate, encouraged, and even sometimes needed for the benefit of the relationship). Or she just like that dress or the way the dress looks on her (in much the same way some really rip guys love to wear tight tops).
Most women do realize when they wear low cut dresses, she will attract attention, both positive and negative. At the same time, it doesn't give her coworkers free rein to make comments like that -- the comment was made to other male in the room but was directed at and objectified her.
Yes, your comment may get Sarah off the hook, but I'd probably feel even more offended by that comment than by the boss' request.
If she has the courage to display any disdain over your overtly sexism comment though, perhaps the boss would take (mental) note.
At the same time, the boss may not even be aware of the sexism in the initial request--he/she may rationalize the request/decision after-the-fact, even if it were made in a sexist light at a subconscious level. In that case, that comment may end up offending both the boss and Sarah.
(And yes, women in management sometimes are more sexist against female subordinates than male counterparts.)
If you follow up your comment with an apology and an offer to take notes, however, everyone will feel better.
The notetaking situation as you describe it (not necessarily the way Katie was treated) can probably be averted by politely declining, such as, "Can someone else take notes this time? I like to put more focus on this particular discussion." If it's happening even more frequently than, say, 50%, then perhaps something along the line of suggesting everyone taking turns (if it's a regular meeting).
At my previous workplace, it's usually the host who sends out meeting notes or action items if needed. Otherwise, the task falls into the hands of the project manager, if one is present in the meeting.