Vox Mansplain its Code of Conduct
While I am all for professionalism in the workforce, I question the logic with Vox new code of conduct.
Using a non-existing word, called mansplaining. It appears a combination of “man” and the loose word “splaining”, mean to explain. In essence a feminist made up word to describe a man explaining to a women, while being derogatory. This possible derogatory explanation can also be termed mansplaining to others deemed as a minority.
You can’t make this up.
Below is a snippet of the code of conduct. The full code of conduct is found here
There are a host of behaviors and language common on tech teams which are worth noting as specifically unwelcome: Avoid “well, actuallys”—pedantic corrections that are often insulting and unproductive; make an effort not to interrupt your colleagues while they are speaking; never respond with surprise when someone asks for help; and take care neither to patronize your colleagues nor assume complete knowledge of a topic.
This last point is especially important when talking about technical topics: Many women and people of color in the tech industry have many tales of being either mansplained about a field in which they are experts, or else excluded from learning opportunities because a colleague wouldn’t make an effort to answer questions—don’t be that person. Remember that your colleagues may have expertise you are unaware of, and listen at least as much as you speak.
In the tech industry, there is always room to learn, regardless of your work experience. Technology continues to evolve and change as companies adopt systems with growth.
However, one must question why this type of low-brow description within a perceived needed code-of-conduct.
The code appears passive aggressive, and technically, isn’t it also displaying “mansplaining” by its own terminology?
The article found on Breitbart provides a resemblance of this real word company’s new code to a fictional satire tech company. Does a real world company really wish to be known as one following a satire fake media show?
It appears Vox may be one.
Working in a tech environment, I have never heard someone comment with “well actuallys”. However, many times corrections are made, or at a minimum during the genesis of a project questions and answers are heard.
There are better ways to correct or lead someone down a better path of thinking. However, this type of code could present a dangerous path.
Aside of the contortion of determining if you been mansplained, what happens when a male analyst feels slighted by another male analyst, because he was felt embarrassed?
Rather than an analyst speaking up to correct someone technically, they could fear repercussions from the insecure, incorrect analyst. The same code created for the sake of pseudo-progress, has just created an environment hindering progress.
Thoughts on this?
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