I just have to ask - What the hell kind of place are these people working at?

So over the weekend a female developer at a tech startup in San Francisco (Julie Ann Horvarth - Github) quit and posted about what she describes as an ongoing culture of sexism and intimidation in the workplace. The tech press is sympathetic, commenters are not.

This evening Instapundit linked to a followup article about Github removing a "meritocracy" rug because female developers found it offensive.  Again the article is relatively sympathetic, the comments are not.

Meanwhile, here in my little corner of existence I am sitting here wondering, "What the F**k people?" Seriously, What the hell kind of companies are these that this kind of trash is going on?

 I mean I am in no position to judge whether or not there was rampant sexism at Github.  I have never worked there and never known anyone who worked there.  It wouldn't surprise me if there was some, it also wouldn't surprise me if Horvarth was just impossible to work with and on the verge of being fired she quit and threw her accusations out there in order as a preemptive first strike.

It doesn't really matter.

What does matter to me is what kind of douchebag boss let's his office get this dysfunctional?  I am far from Mr. Office Decorum and I'll tell you I would have fired every person imvolved (or better, done like the Romans and have them draw beads then crucify every tenth one in the parking lot as a warning to others).

This is just f**king ridiculous.

I have worked at a number of tech companies and the only place you ever hear about this kind of thing is from Silicon Valley startups.  People need to start learning what the words work and office mean and CEOs need to start realizing that there is no reason to keep disruptions like this around.

Developers are a commodity item anymore.  India and China are pumping them out by the millions, cut your losses and move on.

It's a sad state of affairs when you can count on a teenager working at McDonalds acting better than these so called professionals.

(Does IBM still have a dress code?  I was just thinking about the studies on school uniforms where they found an improvement in berhavior when students had to wear uniforms.  I wonder if that carries over to the adult workspace?)