Some heavy handed "duck and cover" from the "leadership" a Business Insider today.
For once. Just for fucking once. I'd like to see a company stand up and say, "We didn't have clear guidelines in place, but frankly, guidelines don't change culture. Guidelines don't make responsible leadership. Guidelines don't change the fact that programmers take the flak when HR and management fuck up. Every. Time. That some issues aren't about discrimination or sexism. Some issues are about poor judgement and poor leadership. Plain and simple. That was the case here and we're going to make an effort to not just put policy on the books but improve our culture. Not through seminars or mind numbing training courses, but by hiring people with good judgement and encouraging diverse perspectives and open door policies. We're not going to use HR or PR to cover our asses. We're going to be a better company.
I'll agree that harassment and discrimination ... in the workplace ... is a problem. Most of all in the boys club that is IT. This guy is a bro. His boss is a douche. Business Insider is fucking horrible forum for this to play out. And twitter is free speech unless they put it in writing and compensate you for ownership of your twitter account.
Like a meditative mantra... repeat after me... "Equality is for everyone, even shallow assholes."
It's not illegal for me to go out with my boss who's job I want, get him trashed, and when he tries to drive home, call the cops on his ass. You might call that entrapment or just fucking scummy behavior by everyone involved. This is basically the same thing in my view.
A) "This guy is a lawsuit waiting to happen." Yep. As in... Either assign an intern to make my twitter updates for me or expect to get sued for wrongful termination and for me to finally set precedent about the limits of corporate policy with a goddamn federal lawsuit.
B) "There's plenty of other respectable talent out there." No there isn't. There are plenty of people who read hacker news and know what's trending today, but very few who can pinpoint what's going to be trending tomorrow or what a company can do to position themselves to be on the front page tomorrow.