The Pipeline Problem
When people talk about diversity in tech, they love to talk about the "pipeline problem." "Pipeline problem" is usually shorthand for the beginning of the pipeline. Where people enter. They forget the pipeline is like the internet. IT IS A SERIES OF TUBES! Pushing people in doesn’t mean they stay. The pipeline is leaky and full of acid. It ends in a sewage plant or a meat grinder. Or maybe it ends in burnout. Just more fuel to feed "the meritocracy."
When people talk about diversity in tech, they love to talk about the "pipeline problem."
"Pipeline problem" is usually shorthand for the beginning of the pipeline. Where people enter.
They forget the pipeline is like the internet.
IT IS A SERIES OF TUBES!
Pushing people in doesn’t mean they stay. The pipeline is leaky and full of acid. It ends in a sewage plant or a meat grinder.
Or maybe it ends in burnout. Just more fuel to feed "the meritocracy."
The Pipeline Problem
- 2014-07-31
The topic of the "pipeline problem" is regularly thrown around as more and more tech organizations say they want to help address diversity issues. What is less often mentioned and rarely addressed are the negative workplace experiences and high attrition rates* for the very groups being pushed into the pipeline. Even if we push more people in, only about half of them are likely to stay.
* I am annoyed that it is only easy to find stats for attrition rates for women. I suspect the numbers are similarly bad for other underrepresented groups based on the studies about negative experiences in the technology workplace.