[sprkyco]

Would agree with above, but given the evidence of chauvinism in the workplace I would say regardless of the facts this will be seen as sexism. Personally, I think it would be cool to have either a male or a female that was genuinely interested in some of my programming projects.

Motivational employees would help to significantly ease some of the social anxiety of programmers such as my self. Male or female the interaction of genuine interest is at the core of what seems to be lacking here. Typically any "collaborative" or "interest" showed by coworkers or superiors falls into two buckets.

- coworker: "oh that's cool reminds me of the time that I did x" with subtle connotations of why x is better than what you are doing.

- superior: "hmm really interesting, make sure you get this other stuff done before next week" with less subtle connotations of I have no idea what or why you are doing nor do I care as long as you get all your work done.

[mcv]

Agreed. I think the core of the idea is a good one. I also think there are sexist and non-sexist ways to implement this, and I think sexist approaches might undermine the goal by introducing sexual tension in the office. But if you do this right, I think it could be great.