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Maybe I'm no servant
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I have expertise in a field that doesn't have loads of women – estimates range between 3% and 7% of contributors to open source are women (don't even ask for an estimate on non-binary folks). I'm not sure if this is a Laura thing or a minority thing, but I've spent a fair amount of time gaslighting myself in response to work situations. Was that statement/situation really so egregious? Am I overreacting?
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The words we use, the way we phrase things, can rub people the wrong way and we might not even realise it. I remember the first time someone* challenged me intellectually on the use of the word "meritocracy" in open source. She was right, I dropped the word. A year or two later, so did Github and other open tech companies.
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We use entirely too many words on a regular basis to be able to check ourselves every single moment, and, frankly, we shouldn't have to. Our awareness grows as we're confronted with other perspectives. So this week, I became aware of the gendered nuance of the term "Servant Leadership". To be honest, I don't use it often, but "servant leadership" is wielded in leadership development, so I'll do my best to stop using it.
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Maybe I'm technical
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November has been a real shit month for tech workers according to the Tech Layoff Tracker. 2022 has been hard on the tech industry. In 2020 and 2021 there was a hiring boon, but also a Great Resignation. Is this normal? Course correction? There are layoffs in real estate and banking too. I'd make a pithy statement about witnessing the death rattle of Capitalism, but I started reading Chokepoint Capitalism this week. Perhaps I've been a slightly over-confident of my grasp of economics and politics.
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Then, of course, there's the continued tom foolery of Elon Musk and his seemingly honest attempt to bring Twitter to its knees. Before you say "I don't care about Twitter" remember that Twitter has been used to find missing persons, alert communities of natural disasters, start revolutions and otherwise provided protection for vulnerable persons. It served as a lifeline for a multitude of marginalised communities – from disabled groups to LGBT+ groups to pregnant teens looking for accessible abortion advice.
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It is not not important what's happening there. We're talking about a rich fuck exercising his capitalistic ownership "rights" while ignoring labour laws and the social reality of what he is doing to both employees, users and society.
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People before profits. Humanity first because even though we're flawed and horrible, we are inherently worthy of a little bit of dignity, and the people in power need to be reminded of it.
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Maybe I need help?
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The darkness has been stifling, and I've felt busy at work. In the evenings, I've been playing a LOT of Assassin's Creed: Odyssey, which is my first experience with the AC world. My brain is tired. It's just winter, right?
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