from Hacker News

Not a Black Chair

by mikeevans on 2/21/17, 8:09 PM with 10 comments

• by steve_adams_86 on 2/21/17, 10:16 PM

  It sounds like a very dramatic series of events on all accounts. The Guy, Amélie, Kelly, they were all up to weird and bad behaviour. I would say the way she handled things wasn't anywhere near ideal, but that doesn't justify her improper treatment at all. The chair incident is just bizarre.

  I would say what went wrong here is that the others weren't fired as well - not that she shouldn't have been. That sounds shitty, but I think the most egregious inequality here is that the others got to stay employed. No one did anything right.

  Unfortunately I think this is just tech for you. I've witnessed so much sexism in this industry, I just don't know what to do anymore (besides ask people to stop it).

• by kafkaesq on 2/21/17, 8:29 PM

  She stared at me for a few seconds and remarked, “Oh. I didn’t see you. You blended in. You’re so black, you blend into the chair.” I didn’t believe what I was hearing and I didn’t know what to do. I looked at my arm, compared it to the chair in front of her.

  “Nope, my arm is brown and the chair is black,” I quipped awkwardly.

  She replied, “No. They’re the same color.”

  The room was silent.

  Yowzers. So is "Kelly" still working at Squarespace? I'm not sure I could take someone seriously as a co-worker - and certainly not as a manger - after saying something like that in a meeting.