The latest episode of Distributed interviews Sid Sijbrandij, Co-founder and CEO of GitLab. The episode prompted me to revisit the comprehensive GitLab Values page. There’s lots of good stuff in here.
Diversity, inclusion and belonging are fundamental to the success of GitLab. We aim to make a significant impact in our efforts to foster an environment where everyone can thrive. We are designing a multidimensional approach to ensure that GitLab is a place where people from every background and circumstance feel like they belong and can contribute. We actively chose to build and institutionalize a culture that is inclusive and supports all team members equally in the process of achieving their professional goals. We hire globally and encourage hiring in a diverse set of countries. We work to make everyone feel welcome and to increase the participation of underrepresented minorities and nationalities in our community and company.
We demonstrate diversity, inclusion and belongings when we foster an environment where everyone can thrive and ensuring that GitLab is a place where people from every background and circumstance feel like they belong and can contribute.
GitLab Values | GitLab
I like the addition of belonging to DEI. That’s an important part of Employee Resource Groups: fostering belonging. Belonging helps address the leaky pipeline, and hiring for values fit instead of culture fit helps address getting in the pipeline in the first place.
We don’t hire based on culture or select candidates because we’d like to have a drink with them. We hire and reward team members based on our shared values as detailed on this page. We want a values fit, not a culture fit. We want cultural diversity instead of cultural conformity, such as a brogrammer atmosphere. Said differently: “culture add” > “culture fit” or “hire for culture contribution” since our mission is that everyone can contribute.
GitLab Values | GitLab
I love the rule-of-thumb: culture add > culture fit. I might add it to my old, neglected list of rules of thumb for human systems. Changing the framing from fit to add better includes neurodivergent people.
Speaking of neurodivergent people, the page has a section on neurodiversity.
Neurodiversity is a type of diversity that includes: autism, ADHD, dyslexia, dyscalculia, dyspraxia, cognitive impairment, and other styles of neurodivergent functioning. While neurodivergent individuals often bring unique skills and abilitieswhich can be harnessed for competitive advantage in many fields including cybersecurity, neurodivergent individuals are often discriminated against, and sometimes have trouble making it through traditional hiring processes. These individuals should be able to contribute as GitLab team members. The handbook, values, strategy, and interviewing process should never discriminate against the neurodivergent.
Source: GitLab Values | GitLab
“The handbook, values, strategy, and interviewing process should never discriminate against the neurodivergent.”
Wow, it sure feels good to read that so plainly written. Here’s some previous writing of mine to help avoid discriminating against neurominorities at work and, instead, create belonging.
- Neurominorities, Spiky Profiles, and the Biopsychosocial Model at Work
- Remote Work, Leadership, and Neurodiversity
- “Autistic people have significant barriers to accessing safety.”
- Neurodiversity Employee Resource Group at Automattic
- Disclosing You’re Neurodivergent at Work
- Power, Justice, and Professionalism in the Tech Workplace
- Strategic Essentialism and Employee Resource Groups
- Google, Autism Speaks, and NAUWU
- Neurodiversity, the social model of disability, intersectionality, and equity literacy are necessary professional development.
- Lost In Translation: Ways in Which Neurodivergent and Neurotypical Social Languages Differ
- Interrogating Normal: Autism Social Skills Training at the Margins of a Social Fiction
- Opportunity but Not Pressure
- Design for Neurological Pluralism with Caves, Campfires, and Watering Holes
- Equity Literacy in Diversity and Inclusion Statements
- Neurodiversity and Cognition Representation
- Anxiety, Ambiguity, and Autistic Perception
- DEI at Work: The Familiar Life Cycle
- Accommodations: Individualized Responses to Structural Design Problems
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