Suicide of a Black Uber engineer: Widow blames job stress and racism

[Hard Times Nakamura]

@Asantehene ask your brehs in Fintech you seem to not understand the difference between Tech and Finance culture.

Finance/Accounting is highly structured in comparison and leaves little to subjective interpretation.Tech is not which results in a lot more intangibles inserting themselves into the work culture which leaves openings for Racism and other elements of ignorance.

 

[NaijaProdigy Redux]

all i know is suicide was the last option that was necessary. All he had to do was quit. Even if he had to leave Sillicon Valley and work in another industry or in another state he could've done that. I'm sure he had the skills and mobility. There is no excuse

you've worked with them?

I work at a fund that invests in that space.

Place is a white frat boy's wet dream. Just look google "uber culture" to get a preview.

 

[mamba]

all i know is suicide was the last option that was necessary. All he had to do was quit. Even if he had to leave Sillicon Valley and work in another industry or in another state he could've done that. I'm sure he had the skills and mobility. There is no excuse. Only people I feel sorry for are his family.

Breh, we all agree that he should have just quit.

But, he was already too far gone at that point.

One month in, quitting probably crossed his mind. By month five, the damage to his mental health had been done.

He mentioned he didn't even have the will or energy to pursue something else.

That's a classic sign of burnout.

A lot of companies are dealing with burnout among their top performers. When the economy went south, companies laid off a lot ot people and loaded up their top performers with additional responsibilities. Once the economy rebounded, a lot of companies continued to run with the leaner, overloaded workforce.

A lot of those workers started or are starting to burnout. It's a real problem.

 

[CobaltBlue]

Because these jobs and titles mean the difference between living and merely surviving.

Sounds like the white man has permeated your whole entire being

 

[mamba]

@Asantehene ask your brehs in Fintech you seem to not understand the difference between Tech and Finance culture.

Finance/Accounting is highly structured in comparison and leaves little to subjective interpretation.Tech is not which results in a lot more intangibles inserting themselves into the work culture which leaves openings for Racism and other elements of ignorance.

Not to mention the fact that more foreigners are in hiring manager positions in Tech than in Finance/Accounting.

Their perceptions of Black people are already skewed.

And like I mentioned earlier, diversity programs have been in place in Finance for years.

Jesse Jackson just started making noise in Silicon Valley about the lack of diversity in the last 2-3 years, whereas he was on Wall Street's ass about it 20 years ago.

 

[WheatThins]

Sounds like the white man has permeated your whole entire being

white people have created and promoted a capitalist and racist system that has basically said "if I don't like you, you will be broke, homeless, in jail or dead".

if a deal like that ain't permeating your emotional wavefield just off gp you are probably a brain dead vegetable or a benefactor of white supremacy

"to be black and conscious is to be in constant rage" james baldwin. yall e-nikkas somehow think y'all are even above our finest minds tho

 

[WheatThins]

Not to mention the fact that more foreigners are in hiring manager positions in Tech than in Finance/Accounting.

Their perceptions of Black people are already skewed.

And like I mentioned earlier, diversity programs have been in place in Finance for years.

Jesse Jackson just started making noise in Silicon Valley about the lack of diversity in the last 2-3 years, whereas he was on Wall Street's ass about it 20 years ago.

coupled with the fact that most of these people think they are liberal/anti-racist just because they are people of color. Silicon Valley is seen as liberal as fukk when it's really anything but. it's become a highly racialized social club for coders

working in tech has made me fully understand why many trump supporters are adamantly against even H1B immigration (don't be confused I hate trump and his supporters as much as the rest). it's soul crushing when you can't understand a word of what your peers are saying or when you see job postings in completely different languages so you are discarded off bat in your own country

 

[Ohene]

@Asantehene ask your brehs in Fintech you seem to not understand the difference between Tech and Finance culture.

Finance/Accounting is highly structured in comparison and leaves little to subjective interpretation.Tech is not which results in a lot more intangibles inserting themselves into the work culture which leaves openings for Racism and other elements of ignorance.

 

[thatrapsfan]

Not to mention the fact that more foreigners are in hiring manager positions in Tech than in Finance/Accounting.

Their perceptions of Black people are already skewed.

And like I mentioned earlier, diversity programs have been in place in Finance for years.

Jesse Jackson just started making noise in Silicon Valley about the lack of diversity in the last 2-3 years, whereas he was on Wall Street's ass about it 20 years ago.

Jackson deserves more credit.

 

[Ohene]

Not to mention the fact that more foreigners are in hiring manager positions in Tech than in Finance/Accounting.

Their perceptions of Black people are already skewed.

And like I mentioned earlier, diversity programs have been in place in Finance for years.

Jesse Jackson just started making noise in Silicon Valley about the lack of diversity in the last 2-3 years, whereas he was on Wall Street's ass about it 20 years ago.

Fam. Where I work...in a 50 floor office building shared with banks, law firms and accounting firms I have probably seen 10-15 black people. How many of them do you reckon are hiring managers?
There are 700 partners where I work and I believe only 3-5 are black. On my floor I'm the only black person, male or female.

Finance and Professional Services are just as WASP/Asian dominated. In fact they might even be more. And on top of that, leadership at these companies consists of baby boomers unlike some of these younger tech companies. Yall need to stop. Nobody is denying breh faced adversity but he had no excuse to commit suicide. He should have sought help and/or quit. But he didnt listen to his family and made them pay the price

 

[WheatThins]

Fam. Where I work...in a 50 floor office building shared with banks, law firms and accounting firms I have probably seen 10-15 black people. How many of them do you reckon are hiring managers?
There are 700 partners where I work and I believe only 3-5 are black. On my floor I'm the only black person, male or female.

Finance and Professional Services are just as WASP/Asian dominated. In fact they might even be more. And on top of that, leadership at these companies consists of baby boomers unlike some of these younger tech companies. Yall need to stop. Nobody is denying breh faced adversity but he had no excuse to commit suicide. He should have sought help and/or quit. But he didnt listen to his family and made them pay the price

yes, but there are systems in place that support bringing black people in.

you will never see google or uber recruiting at a school like famu even though they have an engineering dept program with fsu. but all the big finance companies recruit from major hbcus and there are hbcu alumni in place to help with that. a black coder/engineer is on their own.

howard is at the beginning of establishing a relationship with google, that's almost 20 years after the tech bubble started. its like a wild wild west and many companies are making the rules as they go bc the way you run a tech company is completely different from finance. the way a tech company is started (networking amongst coders in their own social circles) is problematic in itself.

 

[mamba]

yes, but there are systems in place that support bringing black people in.

you will never see google or uber recruiting at a school like famu even though they have an engineering dept program with fsu. but all the big finance companies recruit from major hbcus and there are hbcu alumni in place to help with that. a black coder/engineer is on their own.

howard is at the beginning of establishing a relationship with google, that's almost 20 years after the tech bubble started. its like a wild wild west and many companies are making the rules as they go bc the way you run a tech company is completely different from finance. the way a tech company is started (networking amongst coders in their own social circles) is problematic in itself.

True.

JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, etc. all stop by Morehouse to recruit. There's a good HBCU network on Wall Street.

Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Apple, etc. aren't stopping by and grabbing people from Morehouse's CompSci department!

In 10 years, they likely will, but that's not where Tech is right now in terms of its diversity focus.

Finance has been making strides for years. Not perfect. But, much better than Tech.

 

[TRUEST]

got damn this is true as fukk.

my grad program is basically a feeder for a lot of these tech companies. im one of the "smartest" in my class as a black woman in a room of asians and a few whites.

the asians never speak english unless they want help with something or unless your a super cool black person (aka me for the moment) that they can get some street cred or somethin from. but even they have a hierarchy, like the non chinese speaking asians get shafted or if you dont c++, even if youre asian, they aint hangin out with you on some deep shyt.

to the point where i spend most time to myself/not with them mfs bc you can literally feel the jealously when you accomplish something good. ive had so many things stolen from me or people shyt on my ideas clearly hating on a good as idea, bc im a black woman, while being cool af with their friend's mediocre ass idea.

i also know that i will never wok at a google or apple or any kind of super huge tech company, bc they def control everything you do once you sign that contract. and the work environment at these places is so hostile and competitive. they encouraging shytting on your co-workers in hopes that it makes you a better worker. thats why you had amazon breh jumping off a 22 foot building irrational af lol aint no freelancing if you want to take time from work. they literally own you and anything you do our make or code becomes property of that company

silicon valley aint for black people especially black people who are interested in changing the status quo for black people..

to beat the devil, you goto be the devil yourself. there are ways around everything. they say war is bad, but it is through wars that countries are created, boundaries are made and resources are acquired. dont walk around in life on some "aaah the odds are stacked against me" type sh1t. that may be true. but dont wait for life to give u sh1t. take it.

if u goto be sneaky, be sneaky.

if ur hanging out with these socalled work friends and they ask u what ur working on, instead of telling them precisely what ur working on, tell them you're reading a bible verses. they'll leave u alone fast.

 

[mamba]

to beat the devil, you goto be the devil yourself. there are ways around everything. they say war is bad, but it is through wars that countries are created, boundaries are made and resources are acquired. dont walk around in life on some "aaah the odds are stacked against me" type sh1t. that may be true. but dont wait for life to give u sh1t. take it.

if u goto be sneaky, be sneaky.

if ur hanging out with these socalled work friends and they ask u what ur working on, instead of telling them precisely what ur working on, tell them you're reading a bible verses. they'll leave u alone fast.

Truth. There are no friends at work.

 

[Koba St]

He certainly could have quit and he wouldn't have landed another job in his field again.

As a highly qualified black engineer he would've gotten a job. Might not have been as glamorous as Uber but at least enough to feed his family while working on something bigger.