The subject of gender bias in job interviews is a topic that’s often discussed and reported on. From workplace sexual harassment to outright sexism, women in the workplace can face notable bias.
There are instances where interviewers will flat-out ask female applicants sexist and potentially discriminatory questions, like whether or not a woman has children. In America it’s illegal for a company not to hire someone based on whether or not they have kids, are pregnant, or are planning on starting a family.
A TikTok from user @and_says_ went viral for showcasing one such example. In it, she highlights a now-deleted tweet from @techleadhd which reads: “So when I used to conduct interviews for Google, I rejected all women on-the-spot and trashed their resumes in front of them.”
@and_says_ ‘It was just a joke’ #productdesign #womenindesign #womenintech #womeninstem #tech #stem #developer #devcrew #hiringmanager #discrimination ♬ original sound – Brandon Keith Rogers
The tweet continued, “I told them, ‘Go have some kids. Don’t worry I’m smarter than you, I know.’ Then I gave them an NP-hard problem and went home.”
The caption for the video reads, “It was just a joke.” In it, the TikToker lip syncs to someone saying, “Every day. Not all day, every day. But, every day.”
While @TechLeadHD claims the tweet was a joke, this attitude has real-life implications. According to a 2020 write-up from Western Governors University, the tech industry is male-dominated, with men representing 75% of the industry. In November of 2021, PC Mag also wrote that gender bias in tech is still “stubbornly persist[ing]” although there are more women working in tech than ever before.
Forbes also reported that there was little forward progress when it came to the percentage of female employees at Google as of 2020. In 2017, questions of discrimination pertaining to the gender wage gap at Google were raised, with women missing out on thousands of dollars a year in their salaries when compared to their male counterparts.
In the same year, Google fired a software engineer who disseminated a company-wide memo asking why there were so many efforts put into diversity hiring and stated that clear-cut biological differences were the reason why there weren’t more women applying to and thriving in tech jobs.
Viewers of @and_says_ post were shocked by the brazen nature of the tweet, and denied the idea that it was simply “just a joke.” Others share that they’ve come across similar quips and “humor” from other men who work in the tech industry.
One commenter said, “I have a feeling this won’t end well for him. It shouldn’t. There’s always some truth in ‘humor’ like that.”
Another shared, “Lol, once a google interviewer just told me that I ask too many questions and that’s why I don’t belong [at] google.”
A third shared, “Our ex head recruiter saw women applicants CV and literally said ‘Oh great, we don’t have to pay this one as much’ as a running ‘joke’.”
The @techleadhd Twitter account responded to the backlash his joke faced online, stating that he “never trashed a single woman’s resume” and that people who failed “Google interviews…were just plain incompetent.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to @and_says_ on TikTok and @techleadhd on Instagram for comment on this story.
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