Home GitHub Tries Again At Transparency

GitHub Tries Again At Transparency

“Last Monday I published the least open and least transparent blog post GitHub has ever written.”

See also: How GitHub Could Restore A Woman-Friendly Environment

It’s a powerful first line from GitHub CEO Chris Wanstrath in his latest official blog post.

Wanstrath elaborated on the internal issues that have plagued GitHub this past month, including the “least transparent” post in question, which vaguely addressed a third-party investigation into gender discrimination at the company. Developer Julie Ann Horvath alleged an environment so toxic that she quit, and former CEO Tom Preston-Werner resigned shortly afterward. 

Paired with GitHub’s statement that “no evidence was found of gender discrimination,” users reasonably found the turnover a little strange, and perhaps less than truthful. 

Monday’s followup delves into the details Wanstrath missed the first time around. On Monday, he named the independent investigator who examined the case, Rhoma Young, and noted that GitHub had never worked with her prior to this probe. Wanstrath noted that Young took full control of the investigation, interviewed 50 employees, and even reviewed internal repositories’ commit histories. 

See also: What Tom Preston-Werner’s Departure Means For GitHub

Wanstrath also defined exactly why Preston-Werner resigned from the company. While the earlier post simply stated that the investigation found “no legal wrongdoing,” this one makes it clear that Preston-Werner wasn’t exactly blameless:

“The investigation found Tom Preston-Werner in his capacity as GitHub’s CEO acted inappropriately, including confrontational conduct, disregard of workplace complaints, insensitivity to the impact of his spouse’s presence in the workplace, and failure to enforce an agreement that his spouse should not work in the office.”

Finally, Wanstrath said GitHub will be announcing new initiatives in May. We can only hope these actions are centered around bringing diversity to the company and the greater tech community.

Wanstrath noted how many GitHub “employees, fans, and critics” offered feedback for how GitHub could do better. It’s too soon to see the general mood, but Horvath already tweeted her opinion of the new post shortly after it went live:

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