Wanna expand on this a bit. When I worked in my first ever inclusive, non-microaggressive tech job, my professional growth TOOK OFF. I'd been a pretty solid senior engineer before that place, but it turned me into a Technical Leader.
Gonna thread on why/how.
Gonna thread on why/how.
1. Trustworthy feedback. In non-inclusive workplaces, receiving feedback means sorting through reality vs stereotype. Even well-intentioned feedback is filtered through iffy language ("abrasive," "under-confident," etc) - figuring out where you need to grow becomes a lot of work!
2. Ability to ask questions. When I need to project "super magic code witch" every second of every day, there's no room to admit confusion and learn from my teammates.
3. Less cognitive load. Dealing with microaggressive or aggressive behavior politely takes a lot of brainpower! Brainpower I use on that is brainpower I'm not using on levelling up.
4. Ability to screw up. There are some things you can only learn through acknowledging a failure. If a failure means "I failed this once," that's easy. If a failure means "all queer female engineers are shit," that's... not easy.
Learning and growing at ANY discipline is a difficult and uncomfortable process. It's an uncomfortable process that non-inclusive workplaces make way more difficult.
I'm sometimes scared of talking about this stuff: what if folks turn "it's more difficult for queer female engineers to grow in non-inclusive environments" into "queer female engineers suck?" But. It's still *true* that a lot of folks are held back by their environments.
