Mastodawn

Apr 5, 2024

Writing a thread on onboarding here, because I don't want to write it in the other place.

Context:
Good engineer onboarding *is* DEI. Teams that have great onboarding, tend to be more diverse and inclusive. Teams that have poor onboarding, tend to be more homogeneous and less diverse.

That's because poor onboarding makes life harder for junior employees and remote employees. Underrepresented groups benefit disproportionately from remote work options. Junior employees are a more diverse group.

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mekka okereke

Apr 5, 2024

Poor onboarding leads to more "beginner questions" for longer. Underrepresented groups experience higher social threat. So if 3 employees start working at Tech Corp on the same day, and they are:

* A white man
* A white woman
* A Black man

And they all have the same beginner questions 6 months after their start date, then the Black man and white woman are more likely to be perceived as "slow ramp up" people, and face career consequences as a result.

https://xkcd.com/385/

How it Works

xkcd

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Ben Aveling Apr 5, 2024

@mekkaokereke Speaking as a senior white male, I can vouch that I can ask dumb questions and everyone will say, "oh, that's a good point".
To the extent that I see it as part of my job role.

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Ben Aveling

@mekkaokereke The danger is I ask a dumb question and I get an equally dumb answer and then whoever answered with the dumb answer locks themselves in to the dumb answer .
As far as I can tell, this happens because people are too afraid to :
a) admit they don't know the answer to my dumb question or
b) point out that the question I asked is a dumb question because ...
And I'd be OK with either of those things. But people don't feel comfortable admitting to ignorance - in part because they don't know what they should know => they don't know what it's OK to not know.