[AlexandrB]

The framing here is priceless.

> Jurvetson is the highest-profile venture capitalist to be forced from his job amid an industrywide evaluation of how Silicon Valley treats women.

And then later.

> The departure comes as Jurvetson was being investigated by his own firm for harassment. An entrepreneur had alleged predatory behavior was “rampant” at DFJ. The woman, Keri Kukral, did not name Jurvetson in her Facebook post.

So the "industrywide evaluation" is individual victims coming forward and reporting past abuse. That's a very charitable take that implies the industry is taking some sort of proactive action.

[hkmurakami]

The firm itself is leading the investigation, rather than an outside individual bringing a lawsuit.

This is a much more proactive scenario than the KPCB-Pao situation several years ago.

[AlexandrB]

Even so, that's not an "industrywide evaluation" but a single firm acting responsibly. If there is a concerted push in tech to deal with sexual harassment and/or sexism I'd love to know about it.

[saas_sam]

How would you determine whether or not there is a "concerted push to deal with sexual harassment and/or sexism in tech"? Perhaps if many tech companies announced such a push? Or maybe if all major tech publications were consistently reporting on the subject? If top tech companies were hiring expensive executives to specifically handle sexism/sexual harassment, would that be enough?

Because all of that has clearly been happening this year. What else can be done?

[gt_]

Maybe there are different difinitions of “deal with” beig used here? Either way, sexual harrassment is an incredibly difficult problem to “deal with.” Acknowledging it is very easy, but if the ends don’t justify the means, it’s unlikely to happen. The public pressure creates an environment where the ends are more likely to justify the means, but the original issues of how to actually deal with it in an effective manner remain, and they are significant.

[Danihan]

Is every company having a HR department not enough?

[ben_jones]

I had this conversation the other day. HR exists to protect the firm, if that involves sweeping things under the rug, disparaging victims, or enabling illegal behavior by high performers, they will, and historically have, done it.

[Danihan]

HR departments are intended to protect the company from liability. Generally speaking, they do that by taking standardized actions regarding harassment claims because otherwise they open the company up to lawsuits and negative PR.

Basically, it's irrational to try to cover up or ignore harassment in the vast majority of cases. Which is why HR is a perfectly decent solution for most of these issues, and we only hear about a few outliers in the media / law suits.

[vkou]

HR does what their bosses tell them to. If the company culture is more conductive to sweeping the transgressions of a director under the rug, then to firing them, then HR will do just that. After all, the director/c-level/partner is making them millions of dollars, and well, most people won't file a lawsuit over a few dozen inappropriate comments or invitations to a hotel room. (Good luck getting a reference after you do.)

Engineers are also supposed to build bug-free software, but when your boss tells you to ship the product, you're going to ship it. If the company gets sued because your product has bugs, you're not going to be personally liable.

[abiox]

> Basically, it's irrational to try to cover up or ignore harassment in the vast majority of cases.

how did you reach that assessment? this would seem to only apply to behavior that was openly visible and recurring.

[jacalata]

Apparently not. Was that a serious question?

[Danihan]

Yep, and the answer isn't apparent to me at all.

I believe HR departments handle this sort of thing very well in the vast majority of cases.

[kelukelugames]

What do you mean "believe?" At Uber, HR covered up bad behavior. At my last company the HR rep quit due to discrimination.

[jacalata]

So your argument is that there is no existing problem that needs dealing with.