We've already covered that ethical problems are never black and white. Questions of whistleblowing and information leaks are similarly grey- particularly in Boeing's computer security situation. In my opinion, neither Boeing nor Nicholas Tides and Matthew Neumann- employees of Boeing's IT Sarbanes-Oxley Audit Group (apps.americanbar.org/buslaw/blt/content/2012/01/article-4-haaf-platt.shtml)- were completely right in their actions.
According to the Seattle Pi article, “Computer Security Faults put Boeing at Risk” by Andrea James and Daniel Lathrop, Boeing listened to reports for years that “company’s inability to patch database and software development security holes” poses a “’significant deficiency’ within the computer infrastructure.” Despite an auditor raising ethical concerns, Boeing continued to fail to demonstrate a “robust control environment” in accordance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act according to the Wired article (https://www.wired.com/2007/10/boeing-employee/). I believe if Boeing had made a meaningful effort to address the concerns of its employees, the employees would not have felt it necessary to go public with the computer security faults. That being said, Nicholas Tides and Matthew Neumann should have taken further action to disclose the Boeing shortcomings to the proper channels before going to the press. I do not think that Boeing was out of line in dismissing Tides and Neumann for disclosing private information to the press. According to the Seattle Pi article, although there were fears that the problem would rise to the level of “material weakness,” Deloitte- an external audit firm- gave the company’s control a clean bill of health. If the auditors disagreed with this decision, they should have focused on disclosing that to the federal authorities rather than gunning for public attention right away. It is understandable that most of the attention in this situation is being focused on the auditors' disclosure to the media. This detail enabled Boeing to legally terminate the auditors. That being said, the full details of their disclosures paint a picture that favors the auditors more. One detail in particular that I think was glossed over by most media sources is that the auditors not only went to the media but also the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC). The Wired article "Boeing Employee Fired for Discussing Computer Security" was the only article for class that I saw this mentioned in, and, even there, it was less than a sentence- "He then spoke with a reporter as well as the SEC about his concerns." Disclosure to the proper channels was definitely called for and appropriate in this situation. In fact, it's an auditor's job to inspect and ensure transparency and honesty. It would be shady if the auditors detected such a large scale problem and took no action to report it to the Securities and Exchange Commission. I do not believe that the workers should have been protected under the Whistleblower protection laws because they made the decision to go public with information that could have been dealt with in other channels without trying the other channels first. If they had first approached the SEC then gone public if no action was taken, I might have a different opinion.
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The title today is a nod to another poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay. I didn't include the poem because the words are not as relevant to today's readings as "First Fig" was to the readings last week; however, I still thought the theme was relevant. The theme of this "Sonnet XLI" by Millay is effectively not to reduce a woman down to the hardships she faces because she is a woman. Although I don't think the gender gap is necessarily overblown, I do believe that well intentioned attention is sometimes given to the wrong part of the issue. I am certainly not alone in my view- which Stuart Reges echoes in his Quillette article "Why Women Don't Code," he writes about "The Equality Agenda Versus the Equity Agenda." Reges says "While the equality agenda focuses on the equality of opportunity, the equity agenda is concerned with outcomes."
If the focus is consistently placed on closing the gender gap/diversity issue rather than recognizing and encouraging and developing talent regardless of gender or race, then companies could be encouraged to hire less qualified candidates to meet a quota. These less qualified candidates could reinforce negative stereotypes about the abilities of women and minority candidates on the whole, and that would foster resentment by the majority. On the other hand, if we swing too hard in the opposite direction- not considering circumstance at all- then we would fail to account for implicit biases when evaluating talent. For instance, if an individual has to work three jobs to support his or her family and put themselves through school, that individual may not have time to devote to personal projects or extracurricular activities. That individual should be evaluated differently than an individual that- without any other commitments- chose not to be involved with anything outside of classes. In conclusion, lack of diversity is a problem in the technology industry that needs to be addressed in a measured and balanced way. One obstacle faced by women early on is the suggestion that math is masculine. I remember playing ClueFinders games when I was in grade school- Leslie, the girl, was always associated with the reading challenges, while Santiago, the guy, was more mathematically inclined. Little details like that seem harmless, but when they're repeated again and again in representation everywhere, it feels reinforced that women don't belong in STEM fields. This is one area that I feel has definitely experienced progress in the past few years- at least in media representation. I can turn on a TV show or a movie and see women in CS or Math or Science at every turn. That being said, representation is still sometimes lacking in the workplace. 13/15 interview calls I've had this semester were with males. Even at Notre Dame, it looks like I will graduate without having taken a single STEM class with a female professor. In the Bloomberg article, "Why Doesn't Silicon Valley Hire Black Coders?," a senior at Howard, Sarah Jones, noted that "There are not a lot of people of color in the Valley- and that, by itself, makes it kind of unwelcoming." I echo Sarah and strongly believe that it can be difficult to go down a path where you see no role models who look like you- to have the pressure of being a trailblazer of sorts. That in and of itself can detour people of color and women from pursuing careers in the technology industry. I believe that the events at Uber were completely unacceptable. Aimee Lucido puts it more eloquently than I could when she writes in her Medium article, "Reflecting on Susan Fowler's Reflections" that "This is disgusting and appalling and horrifying and yet [she] is not surprised at all... This incident is not isolated to Susan Fowler, SREs, or even Uber. This is everyone's problem." My reaction to the event is not just based on the actual incident of sexual harassment but also to the lack of response from HR/management. There is a possibility that the harasser did not know what he was doing was wrong. I doubt it based on the number of his offenses and the outcome- women transferring teams as a result. However, unfortunately, this is still a possibility since he had management reinforcing his own judgement. By their lack of discipline, management made him believe that his behavior was acceptable. By saying it was a "first offense," management blamed the victim in each situation. By noting that the harasser was a "high performer," management effectively said that talent gives you a free pass- if you are good enough at your job, you don't need to face consequences for your actions. These events say that work has to be done not just on the gender gap but also on teaching individuals how to respect one another regardless of gender or race. One of my favorite poets in the world is Edna St. Vincent Millay. Above, I included her "First Fig" -- a poem that I definitely identify with, and one that I think is relevant to a conversation about "having it all."
Something that I'm starting to learn, even before I have a family of my own, is that you may be able to do everything you want short-term, but long-term exhaustion and burnout will catch up with you. In my time at Notre Dame, I've been an officer or sat on the executive board of over 10 different organizations/entities. I've worked 5 jobs- sometimes 3 at the same time. I've overloaded credits because I don't want to miss out on classes I could be passionate about. I've made myself sick from the stress of the number of things on my plate. Last year, I was managing a consulting engagement, leading the front-end development for my research project, chairing a division of the CCC, and overloading on classes when the stress started getting to me. I was sleeping about four hours a night- on nights that I was lucky. I started to realize that every week I had between 10 and 12 of my 14 meal swipes unused by the end of the week. I came down with a cold and a cough that kept me up for part of those 4 hours. I was working on assignments that I didn't understand because I only managed to stay half-awake during class when I broke out into a sweat. At first, I thought I might be having a panic attack. I never had one before, but I've seen my sister deal with them and I waited for the feeling of not being able to breathe. It didn't come, but I kept sweating. I started to see an aura- black splotchy circles littered across my vision- and I knew I was about to get a migraine. I hadn't gotten migraines since my senior year of high school. I started crying because I didn't have the time to put on a sleep mask and lay in silence and pain while I waited for it to pass. I started thinking about all the things I should be doing, and I got hit by a wave of nausea. I threw up, and I called my parents. I didn't know what to do. They told me to take my temperature- 101.4 if memory serves. They told me to go to St. Liam's. I told them I didn't have time. I finally caved and emailed my professors. My dad flew halfway across the country to take care of me until I started feeling better. I can't put into words how fortunate I am and how lucky I feel that he was able to do that. For me, burnout is more than just a feeling- it's my body saying you need to stop. After this episode, I took a step back from some of my roles. It helped immensely to have my family as a solid support system. That being said, burnout is still something I struggle with. Over the summer, I worked a ~40 hour a week full-time internship, managed a ~20 hour a week consulting engagement, and, even though I still had time to sleep, the stress of all the requirements started getting to me. I couldn't keep down most foods. I would wake up with excruciating pain that I later found out were intestinal spasms and the overproduction of acid in my stomach. On the worst day, I- a person who hates public bathrooms and will generally wait through the entire drive from NY to South Bend to use the bathroom so I don't need to use a rest stop- was in such excruciating pain that I laid on the bathroom floor with the garbage can on its side throwing up for over two hours. I legitimately thought that that's how I would die. I sound dramatic, but I have a relatively high pain tolerance. I have all my dental procedures done without Novocain and it took my mother's intervention to get me to the doctor after sports injuries growing up. This stomach pain was an entirely different animal. Following that episode, I saw four different doctors trying to figure out what was wrong. I had every blood test under the sun, an endoscopy with a biopsy of my esophagus, a biopsy of my stomach, I tracked all my meals, and I was confined to a "low FODMAP" diet (no fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides, and polyols). The gastroenterologist told me I had gastritis and diagnosed some of my other symptoms but identified the source as primarily stress rather than a physical factor or digestive intolerance. He prescribed three medications, but even taking them in conjunction with over the counter medicine doesn't help sometimes. The night of the club fair- which my beloved CCC plays a role in running- I spent two hours throwing up in the bathroom of the Duncan Student Center until one of my friends picked me up and brought me home. Finding a balance is extremely important to me, and I guess I don't intend to maintain a lifestyle of doing everything. It’s like Edna St. Vincent Millay says in the poem at the top of this page, even if you can’t maintain everything forever, it’s nice while you still can. In terms of the role employers can and ought to play in finding a balance, I think it would be extremely easy for me to say from a place of privilege that individuals who want to spend more time with their family should choose a career that allows them to do so. It was certainly a consideration in choosing my career. One of the offers I considered offered 20 weeks of fully paid maternity leave. That’s 4-5 months with my baby, and, although I don’t anticipate starting a family in the near future, it was a detail that made me stop and think. In the real world, most people don’t get the opportunity to spend that much time with their family. Because minimum wage is barely livable in most urban areas, families- especially single parent families- are torn apart by the sheer number of hours a parent must work to provide for his or her family. In her article in The Atlantic, Anne-Marie Slaughter wrote “I believe that we can ‘have it all at the same time.’ But not today, not with the way America’s economy and society are currently structured.” In order to allow for more of a balance, wages and benefits would need to be reevaluated across the board- particularly for those who depend on hourly wages to support themselves and their families. |
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