We are the most popular package manager for Node.js and we're completely rebuilding and redesigning our website. We want somebody who cares a lot about CSS and HTML to join our team as our second full-time front-end developer, working with a world-class design firm to make our site more useful for the millions of JavaScript developers who visit it.
We are not a typical early stage startup. We believe that working sensible hours and taking care of ourselves and our loved ones is the best way to ensure long-term productivity. We care deeply about making tech a more inclusive and diverse place.
npm is an open-source project, including our website.
"We care deeply about making tech a more inclusive and diverse place."
If we assume that other companies listed here will abide by employment law i.e. non-discrimination in hiring, what is your selling point? That you care more than other companies do? That you engage in diversity outreach programs?
Or are you sending a subtle message that white heterosexual male programmers who like watching sports need not apply?
Given that the Gnome foundation ran out of money because they diverted donations to women's outreach, rather than focusing on the core mission of programming, I think it's fair to ask especially as your founder was embroiled in a controversy over gender neutral pronouns, if you intend npm to be a pure technology company or some kind of activist organization?
"Given that the Gnome foundation ran out of money because they diverted donations to women's outreach, rather than focusing on the core mission of programming"
This is, shockingly, incorrect:
1) The GNOME Foundation did not run out of money.
2) The reason for the financial issues was not that money from donations was diverted to women's outreach - instead, corporate donations that were intended specifically for OPW were not received before outgoings to students were due. Money from existing reserves was used to cover the shortfall, most of which has now been made up as the original donations have been received.
3) The GNOME Foundation's charter does not define a core mission of programming. One of its roles is to promote development of the GNOME platform, and recruiting developers from a pool that's been largely ignored by the free software community is an excellent way to do that.
That's three fundamental factual errors in 25 words.
"The GNOME Foundation had a temporary lack of reserves due to processing the funds for the Outreach Program for Women (OPW). Due to a very fast and generous response from the Free software community, the foundation now has over three months of operating costs, which is more than enough time for the pending invoices to be paid."
In plain English: They ran out of money because they used money which people had donated for software development to pay for the women's outreach program. Instead of waiting for the corporate downations to arrive, they prioritised the women's outreach program over everything else.
As for the GNOME charter, "The GNOME Foundation will work to further the goal of the GNOME project: to create a computing platform for use by the general public that is completely free software."
Nowhere does it say that the GNOME foundation is going into the business of diversity outreach. So why should people donating to the GNOME foundation, who expect the money to be spent on building the GNOME platform/desktop, instead see it goto an outreach program?
Running out of money would imply that there was, well, no money. Which was never the case. The Foundation has significant cash reserves, as you can easily verify from looking at its public accounts.
The outreach program has resulted in a significant increase in the number of developers working on the GNOME project, which improves their ability to build the GNOME platform. The charter doesn't say that they'll sponsor developer travel to conferences either, or the purchase of hardware in order to improve integration. Why are you hung up on a specific example of spending money in a way that improves the project, but not any others?
Employment law only covers so much. For one, people are still discriminated against on the basis of their belonging to a protected class - it just can't be done overtly. For another the laws don't cover everything.
I appreciate that you feel the phrasing is antagonistic; but I hope you can appreciate that to me it is deeply reassuring and gives me much needed hope.
Searching for employment for me is very stressful (as it is for most people I imagine). I'm non-typical in a few ways, and some of them are rather visible. I have to worry about and have experienced judgment/reluctance to hire me based on those differences. It is nice for me to know ahead of time that an employer is not just looking for people who fit a certain mold.
It's not just about women, LGBTQ, people of color, etc either. One of the ways I am somewhat non-typical as a developer is I'm a high school dropout. It's relatively common for developers not to have a college/university education, but overall it's still not the norm and there are places that will discount you on that basis (especially outside the major tech hubs). Sure, a lot of postings will add that nice qualifier "or equivalent experience"; and that's great. This goes a little farther though, and lets me know that not only will they not hold my lack of a piece of paper against me, they won't hold my alternate path in life against me either.
I can appreciate that it might seem like it goes without saying to you, or might ring hollow... but honestly I've found there are places that don't care about diversity/inclusiveness, or are even hostile to it. Also, I do actually appreciate just the effort of hanging that little sign that says "this is a welcoming place".
I think its appropriate for somebody to figure out if a potential employer is likely to fire them because of personal donations or political beliefs.
Given what happened with Brendab Eich its clear some organisations are more activist and polticial than tech. The recent history of npm's founder (and those at Joyent) suggests he will discriminate if he doesn't like your politics.
So why bother wasting time and effort trying to interview and get a job at such a politically charged environment?
Since when was "we want our employees to respect one another and not harass each other" considered "political beliefs"? Fuck off with your childish manbaby bullshit nonsense shitgarbage. Get the fuck out of our industry if that's how you're going to act. You have the emotional maturity of a walnut.
You know what? Don't even bother responding. You're gonna think you're clever, but you'll actually be responding with trite garbage that we've all heard, literally, hundreds of times before. People like you are climate change deniers, or creationists. You have tons of information and resources right in front of you, but you never bother to pay attention. Then suddenly you're the idiot asking why monkeys still existed if humans evolved from them.
If the dudebro frat brogrammer scene is the "software industry" you're trying to keep from being "ruined", then I say we ruin it as fast as possible.
And yes, Brandon Eich got run out of town because of his political beliefs. They ran contrary to the stated beliefs of the organization he was going to run. When you're the CEO of something as public as the Mozilla Foundation those sort of things will be scrutinized. If he was just running Brandon Eich Consulting, LLC no one would have thought twice about it.
Thanks for your support for us white cis men. I don't know where we would be without your bravery and courage. /s
As a gay guy, I congratulate you in your inclusiveness, npm. I'm not interested in working on front-end at the moment, but if I were you would have gotten my attention. Thank you.
We are the most popular package manager for Node.js and we're completely rebuilding and redesigning our website. We want somebody who cares a lot about CSS and HTML to join our team as our second full-time front-end developer, working with a world-class design firm to make our site more useful for the millions of JavaScript developers who visit it.
We are not a typical early stage startup. We believe that working sensible hours and taking care of ourselves and our loved ones is the best way to ensure long-term productivity. We care deeply about making tech a more inclusive and diverse place.
npm is an open-source project, including our website.
For more details, http://npmjs.com/jobs/