A decade ago, a couple of British professors coined a term that I think about frequently: the “glass cliff.” It refers to what they described as a situation, common in business, when a woman breaks through the glass ceiling and is finally handed a position of power…exactly when a company is about to implode. The company fails. The woman is blamed and sometimes is set up as the scapegoat from the start. The takeaway: See? This is why women can’t have nice things.
Reddit was not in great shape when I took over. Following Yishan’s disappearance and the proposed move to Daly City, morale was low. People were confused about where we were going—literally and strategically—and were unwilling to commit to moving. Recruiting was a challenge, especially when it came to efforts to bring more diversity to a team that lacked it. The strongest VP-of-engineering candidate we interviewed during Yishan’s time said he was comfortable hiring for diversity because he thought “lowering the bar to bring in different voices” made sense. It was hard to turn him down; we desperately needed experienced leadership, but we were also committed to turning the team around and making sure we would be able to build a diverse and inclusive staff. I felt panicky at the thought of the mobile engineering team I had hired—including a gay man, two women, and a Black man—falling under his biased leadership. A VP of engineering who thought hiring a diverse team meant “lowering the bar” was not going to work out.